Amnesty International Demands Legal Abortion in Latin America

The once abortion-neutral Amnesty International-founded by a Catholic convert in 1961-has emerged as a vocal proponent for abortion. The human rights group received a $1,000,000 grant in 2009 from the Ford Foundation, a long-time proponent of population control that funds organizations that promote abortion and contraception in developing countries. In its release last week, Amnesty reserved its harshest critique for Nicaragua.  Amnesty said Nicaragua has "gone backwards" because the country recently criminalized abortion in all circumstances. 

P>NEW YORK, NY (C-FAM) - A leading human rights group last week stepped up its promotion of abortion, targeting Latin America and particularly Nicaragua.

Amnesty International demanded that governments decriminalize abortion immediately in a statement released to coincide with the Sept. 28 "Day for the Decriminalization of Abortion in Latin America and the Caribbean." 

Amnesty specifically targeted Chile, El Salvador, and Nicaragua, saying it is "disgraceful" these countries have laws criminalizing abortion in all circumstances.

The once abortion-neutral Amnesty International-founded by a Catholic convert in 1961-has emerged as a vocal proponent for abortion. The human rights group received a $1,000,000 grant in 2009 from the Ford Foundation, a long-time proponent of population control that funds organizations that promote abortion and contraception in developing countries. 

In its release last week, Amnesty reserved its harshest critique for Nicaragua.  Amnesty said Nicaragua has "gone backwards" because the country recently criminalized abortion in all circumstances.  Amnesty and its Nicaraguan partners sent 37,000 signatures to President Daniel Ortega to demand the repeal of his country's abortion laws.

Amnesty's release appears calculated to cause alarm, saying that prohibitions on abortion encourage both suicide and self-abortion.  Amnesty said that in those countries where abortion is criminalized, "if a woman or girl is raped by a relative, the State obliges them to give birth to their own sibling or cousin." 

The statement praised Cuba, which decriminalized abortion several decades ago, as well as Mexico City, which decriminalized abortion in 2007.

Amnesty's release said international and regional human rights agreements demand the decriminalization of abortion in all Latin American and Caribbean countries.  However, no right to abortion exists in any UN human rights treaty.  The American Convention on Human Rights, which is ratified by Nicaragua, instead specifically enshrines the right to life from the moment of conception.

Amnesty has a history of targeting Nicaragua's pro-life laws.   Amnesty claimed last year  that Nicaragua's laws give rise to torture or at least cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, and therefore violate the UN Convention Against Torture.

The Ford Foundation last year designated its million-dollar grant to Amnesty's Global Dignity campaign.  That campaign strives to consider the "the impact of the denial of human dignity on people's health and home." 

Amnesty's promotional brochure for the Global Dignity campaign put the focus on maternal mortality, HIV/AIDS and human rights.  The brochure claimed that maternal mortality is caused by unsafe abortions, and that those living in poverty do not have sufficient access to sex education and other "essential health services," which "denies them the right to control their reproductive lives."

The campaign aims to promote a "global agenda of advocacy and activism."  Yet, Amnesty claims independence from any "government, political ideology, economic interest or religion."

As recently as 2005, Amnesty publicly stated, "There is no generally accepted right to abortion in international human rights law."  Its switch in 2007 to pro-abortion advocacy caused many Catholic leaders and institutions to withdraw their support.

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'This author writes for C-FAM. This article first appeared in the Friday Fax, an internet report published weekly by C-FAM (Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute), a New York and Washington DC-based research institute (www.c-fam.org). This article appears with permission."