---

Human Rights Watch Twists Ireland’s Arm to Legalize Abortion

By James Tillman

NEW YORK, January 26, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) -- In a document to be released this Thursday, the pro-abortion group Human Rights Watch scolds Ireland for its restrictive abortion laws, which it advises Ireland to change because of what it says are obligations imposed by international law.

The Irish constitution was amended in 1983 to assert that the unborn child has a right to life from conception, although this amendment was weakened somewhat by subsequent court interpretations that made abortion legal in cases when there is a real and substantial risk to the life of the mother.  The government has also established a Crisis Pregnancy Agency; one of this organization's self-proclaimed goals is to "reduce the number of woman choosing abortion as an outcome of crisis pregnancy."

Although the agency-run "Positive Options" website includes abortion among suggested possibilities, nothing less than the complete legalization of abortion and the widespread dissemination of information on how to get an abortion will satisfy Human Rights Watch.

Human Rights Watch is well known for pushing a pro-abortion agenda in various countries.  It also attempts to pressure countries towards adopting homosexualist policies.

The new document, provocatively titled  "A State of Isolation: Access to Abortion for Women in Ireland," says the actions of the Irish government in the face of the "need for abortion" have been "erratic and divisive" and violated a long list of human rights: those to "health, information, privacy, freedom from cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, life, equal protection under the law, and nondiscrimination."

The document calls on the Irish government to take "immediate steps toward decriminalizing all abortion for women living in Ireland."

In promoting the “right” to abortion, the document advises the elimination of other civil rights: it urges that doctors be legally obliged to refer their patients to an abortionist, that publicly-funded health institutions be required to have an abortionist on staff, and even that conscientious objection be limited "to individual medical staff, excluding institutions and administrative staff."

The document even hints at the obligation of the Irish government to shift the opinions of its own citizens in favor of abortion, accusing it of doing "little to mitigate the effects of a condemnatory public discourse on abortion."

The document calls for all these things on grounds that "authoritative interpretations of international law recognize that obtaining a safe and legal abortion is crucial to women’s effective enjoyment and exercise of their human rights."

But according to Austin Ruse of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute (C-FAM), which specializes in issues related to the U.N., such a claim is simply false.  "Not a single international human rights treaty calls for a right to abortion," he told LifeSiteNews.com.  "Not a single international human rights treaty even mentions abortion."

The new document invokes the interpretation of the U.N. treaty bodies, which monitor the implementation of various international agreements. According to Ruse, however, "human rights treaty bodies at the U.N. do not have the authority to rewrite treaties or to tell governments what to do on this crucial issue."

"Ireland has repeatedly put the abortion question before its citizens and the right to life has repeatedly won,” he said. “This hectoring of a sovereign state by abortion radicals has got to stop. Ireland has decided."

See related stories at LifeSiteNews.com:

Challenge to Ireland's Pro-Life Laws Goes to European Court of Human Rights
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/dec/09120308.html

Swedish MP Seeks to Force Ireland, EU to Accept Abortion as "Right" with 1,000,000 Signature Campaign
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/jul/09071701.html

 Back to Top

---

MORE NEWS: LifeSiteNews.com Home Page  Last 10 Days   Archives   Special Reports

Copyright © LifeSiteNews.com. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License. You may republish this article or portions of it without request provided the content is not altered and it is clearly attributed to "LifeSiteNews.com". Any website publishing of complete or large portions of original LifeSiteNews articles MUST additionally include a live link to www.LifeSiteNews.com. The link is not required for excerpts. Republishing of articles on LifeSiteNews.com from other sources as noted is subject to the conditions of those sources.