News

New York, NY, June 22, 2001 (LSN.ca) – A lawsuit filed against the Bush administration in US District Court reveals the long-time strategy of pro-abortion organizations to circumvent democratic procedure in the United States and elsewhere, says observer Richard Wilkins, professor of law at Brigham Young University.

The suit, filed in US District Court by the pro-abortion Center for Reproductive Law and Policy, seeks to overturn the Bush administration’s reinstatement of the pro-life “Mexico City policy,” which forbids US taxpayer dollars from supporting overseas groups that either promote or perform abortion.

In court documents submitted by CRLP, the group describes its efforts to create “customary law” – law established through the repetition of phrases such as “reproductive health and rights” in international treaties. CRLP lawyers hope that if “reproductive health” is mentioned enough times and by enough countries, the US will be forced to recognize abortion as a human right, regardless of what US voters, politicians, or jurists may think.

As the CRLP suit asserts, “generally recognized international legal norms may, if endorsed and accepted by the vast majority of nations, become part of customary international law and thus binding on the US even if it does not ratify or endorse those norms.”

According to Wilkins, the CRLP’s brief underscores the importance of monitoring the often-arcane language used in international treaties and UN documents. Many pro-life and pro-family observers at the UN have warned of this customary law “creep,” of the gradual accumulation of abortion language in UN documents. Wilkins believes that it is now certain that such NGOs are attempting to thrust “revolutionary social changes” on unsuspecting nations through clever phraseology and repetition.

Not a single UN resolution or international treaty has ever called for legalized abortion. Recently, a Canadian delegate at a UN meeting shocked the assembly by defining reproductive health care “services” as including abortion.

Source: Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute Also see “Canada shocks UN Delegates” at:  https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2001/june/010614a.html