In a letter to William S. Skylstad, Bishop of Spokane, Washington and sitting president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, Amnesty International has "corrected" the statement put out by the Conference earlier this month criticizing the human rights group for their recently adopted support for abortion as an international human right.
Until recently, Amnesty's position on abortion was official neutrality. In April, however, Amnesty joined the ranks of the world's abortion-promoting organizations by a series of decisions to consider abortion — in the cases of rape and incest and when the "life or the health" of the mother might be threatened — as a human right.
In his letter, Larry Cox, Executive Director of Amnesty International USA writes that the Bishops' Conference "incorrectly asserted that AI has adopted a 'pro-abortion stand'." He defends the policy saying it merely "seeks to ensure that women and men can exercise their sexual and reproductive rights free from coercion, discrimination and violence."
"In doing so," he says, Amnesty "responds to the human suffering caused by abuses of these rights." Cox declines to identify to what "abuses" in particular he refers or define "sexual and reproductive rights." In the commonly accepted language of international rights NGO's, however, the phrase "sexual and reproductive rights" are identified as including abortion, sterilization and contraception.
Cox's assertion that Amnesty is not "pro-abortion" is based on the promise that the group will not actively advocate "abortion on demand" or "counsel individuals as to what choice they should make on abortion." It is known, however that at their upcoming general meeting in Mexico in August, the organization will be asked to vote on a proposal by some national delegations that the group should begin to campaign to overturn legal protections for the unborn in such countries as Ireland and Poland.
"AI does not promote abortion as a universal right but recognizes instead the right of women to be free of fear, threat and coercion as they manage the consequences of rape and other grave human rights violations."
But in May, Widney Brown, senior policy and campaigns director for Amnesty, told Reuters that the Amnesty board had agreed on the policy change in April after two years of consultations.
Brown said in a telephone interview with Reuters, "Where women have unwanted pregnancies as a result of sexual violence, including incest, they should have access to abortions and those abortions should be safe."
"When a woman has a pregnancy that may be wanted but there's a threat to her life or a grave threat to her health then again she should have access to safe abortion," she said.
