---

     

Vatican Condemns Amnesty International’s Move Towards Abortion Advocacy

By John Jalsevac

SINGAPORE, June 21, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Cardinal Renato Martino, head of the Pontifical Council for Peace and Justice and the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People, has warned Amnesty International (AI) against moving towards abortion advocacy.

Amnesty International (AI), one of the world’s best known human rights advocacy groups, has proposed actively fighting against the right to life for unborn children by using its resources to promote a so-called 'right to abortion'.

"I have great esteem for Amnesty but doing this, they cut off their hands. I hope they don't do this because if they do, they are disqualified as defenders of human rights," Cardinal Renato Martino told Reuters during a 3-day visit to Singapore.

"When they say 'reproductive rights', they mean abortion. Do they defend the rights of everybody? No! Not of the unborn because the unborn will be killed," he said.

The Cardinal also warned AI that they would lose Catholic support if they go ahead with their proposal to list abortion as a “human right.”

The Canadian, British, and New Zealand branches of AI have already voted to support abortion.  AI’s plan is to decide by the end of 2006 on adopting a position on three aspects of abortion:
- "decriminalization of abortion";
- "access to quality services for the management of complications arising from abortion";
- "legal, safe and accessible abortion in cases of rape, sexual assault, incest, and risk to a woman's life"

See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:

Editorial - To Amnesty International: As a Person of Colour I Oppose the Discrimination Against the Unborn
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/may/06052601.html

Amnesty International Considers Pushing Enforcement of Abortion as Human Right
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/apr/06042511.html

Amnesty International Abortion Agenda: Decriminalization in '06 and On Demand in '07
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/jun/06060208.html

 Back to Top

---

SHARE THIS STORY: E-mail  Print  Newsvine  Digg  Reddit  Del.icio.us  Facebook

---

---

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.