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Email: "Constitutionality of Public Financing of Abortion Challenged in Estonia"

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BY LifeSiteNews.com TALLINN, Estonia, September 23, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Institute for the Culture of Life, a pro-life group based in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, has filed an application to the Chancellor of Justice of the Republic of Estonia, asking him to declare public financing of abortion unconstitutional.For years the Government of the Republic of Estonia has been paying 70 percent of the cost of every elective abortion, despite Article 16 of the constitution of Estonia, which states, "Everyone has the right to life. This right shall be protected by law. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his or her life."The Institute for the Culture of Life, along with a political organization, Young Conservatives, and the Estonian Parents’ Union has filed an application to the Chancellor of Justice, Indrek Teder. In the application the Institute argues that it is inconceivable that State financing of abortion could in any way be seen to harmonize with the State’s obligation to protect the right to life of the unborn - as defined in Article 16, and elaborated on in 2002 by the Chancellor of Justice.Then Chancellor of Justice, Allar Jõks, received a document from the Estonian Council of Churches challenging Estonia’s seeming disregard for its own constitution.  The group filed the application to Jõks, arguing that abortion on demand is not in harmony with Article 16.The official reply from Jõks affirmed that unborn human beings are also human beings and thus covered by the term "everyone." He wrote, "Since the right to life of the fetus is protected by the Constitution, termination of pregnancy is in principle forbidden - termination of pregnancy is in conflict with the constitutional right to life and the right to protection against bodily harm."The Chancellor added that this "duty to protect" is valid also with regard to the mother and thus, in principle, "lays upon her an obligation to give birth to a conceived child."The Chancellor, however, then made an abrupt turn and argued that although the State is under a constitutional obligation to protect the life of unborn children, it does not necessarily have to do so by means of making abortion a criminal offence. Instead, said the Chancellor, the State may choose to protect the life of unborn children by means of obliging all women who wish to abort their unborn children to go through mandatory counseling that should persuade them not to abort.Although technically there is a counseling system in place in Estonia, its practical effectiveness is in question. The Institute claims that the counseling is usually a mere formality, conducted by the doctor who is set to perform the abortion.Varro Vooglaid, a doctoral candidate at the Faculty of Law of the University of Helsinki and one of the founders of the Institute for the Culture of Life, says that the decision made by the Chancellor was incomprehensible. "The Chancellor completely ignored the fact that Article 12 of the Constitution of Estonia lays down one of the most important principles of human rights and democracy, namely that everyone is equal before the law," says Vooglaid. "Such statements on part of the State have implications far beyond the question of abortion and affect the whole legal system."He asked: "Where is the rule of law if the state can freely decide that certain groups of population shall not enjoy the right to have their most elementary rights including the right to life protected in front of courts of law? If this is not totally arbitrary use of public authority - the very thing that human rights should limit - then what is it? "It should be absolutely obvious that it is nonsensical to argue that the state is fulfilling its obligation to protect the life of unborn human beings while it continues to finance their mass killing." The newly submitted application argues that public financing of abortion should be declared unconstitutional and as such should be immediately terminated.To contact the Institute for the Culture of Life, email:  elukultuur@gmail.com http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/constitutionality-of-public-financing-of-abortion-challenged-in-estonia/

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