News

By Hilary White

October 5, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A debate in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on a pro-abortion document scheduled for Friday has been postponed after lobbying by pro-life people all over Europe. The proposed resolution, “Fifteen Years Since the International Conference on Population and Development Programme of Action (Document 11992),” was not called to a vote on October 2 as planned, due to lack of support by the public and Assembly members.

The European Centre for Law Justice (ECLJ) said, “Mrs McCafferty, Rapporteur of a pro-abortion recommendation, has delayed in presenting her text to a vote of the Parliamentary Assembly of PACE. She asked for a delay, after being surprised by the sudden and growing opposition within the public and the members of the Assembly.”

The ECLJ said, “The vote was put off because it was believed the resolution would not have had a majority of support.”

Promoted by Christine McCafferty, the veteran pro-abortion British MP, the report proposed to bring legal abortion to all states by 2015. The Alliance of Romania's Families, in a letter to Maud de Boer-Buquicchio, Acting Secretary General of the Council of Europe, said that the report's wording – “sexual and reproductive rights” – is a code meaning the promotion of “abortion, immoral sexual practices, risky lifestyles, and promiscuity.”

“This interpretation has frequently been promoted by representatives of various countries of the European Union, some of which occasionally claimed to speak on behalf of the entire European Union on this subject,” the Alliance said.

The proposed document, they said, aimed to undemocratically create “new rights,” saying that international human rights law does not recognize the existence of “sexual rights.” They noted that even the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) explicitly rejected attempts to recognize a right to abortion under the European Convention on Human Rights.

The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) had called on supporters throughout Europe to lobby their delegates to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe to stop the vote. John Smeaton, SPUC director, said, “No doubt Mrs McCafferty will try again and we must all be ever-vigilant. But as I have said before: Pro-life lobbying works. Never give up!”

Read related LSN coverage:

Council of Europe to Vote on Pro-Abortion Report on the Same Day Ireland Votes on Lisbon
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/sep/09092911.html