By Hilary White
May 20, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Amnesty International (AI), a group originally founded by Catholics to fight human rights abuses, but that has recently made its support for abortion as a “human right” official, has now called Nicaragua’s ban on abortion a form of “torture.” AI issued a media release on Friday backing a group of UN committees that are pressuring the government of Nicaragua to loosen its abortion laws to allow exceptions for pregnancy due to rape.
The United Nations committees on Human Rights, on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, and the Committee against Torture have all pressured Nicaragua to lift its total ban on procured abortion. AI submitted a briefing to the UN committees that called abortion an “essential medical service” and said, “Denial of an essential health service meets each of the elements of article 1 [of the Convention Against Torture] and is torture within the meaning of the convention.”
As long as Nicaragua retains its abortion prohibitions without exceptions, AI said, “you will be in breach of your international legal obligations to protect human rights.”
In the media release, AI’s Widney Brown, Senior Director, International Law and Policy said, “If this complete ban were to stay, women and girls would continue to be at risk of torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. Such inaction would show a cruel indifference to the physical pain, psychological anguish and lack of human dignity this law causes women and girls in Nicaragua to suffer by denying and thwarting their access to essential medical treatment during pregnancy.”
Since the passage of its 2006 abortion law granting full legal protections to unborn children, Nicaragua has been under constant pressure by abortion extremists operating through United Nations committees, the European Union and international abortion-promoting organisations such as Amnesty. Prior to the passage of the 2006 law, the country allowed “therapeutic” abortion with the consent of three doctors.
In 2007, Catholics and other traditional supporters of AI around the world were shocked when the organisation announced it would be promoting the “right to abortion” as part of its work. At their International Council meeting in Mexico City that year, AI said they would adopt a new policy of supporting the decriminalization of abortion in cases of rape or danger to the mother’s life as part of “prevention of violence against women.”
Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
EU Threatens to Withdraw Aid to Nicaragua if Pro-Life Law Remains
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/feb/07020902.html
It’s Official – Amnesty International is Now An Abortion Lobby Group – Catholics Boycott
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/aug/07082001.html
Vatican: Catholics and Catholic Organizations “Must” Withdraw Support of Amnesty International over Abortion Supporthttps://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/jun/07061401.html
“Development and Peace” Funding Sixth Pro-Abortion Organization in Mexico that says prohibiting abortion is form of “torture,” “cruel and unusual punishment” banned by human rights agreements
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/apr/09040611.html