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NRL News
Pro-Life
News in Brief Council of Europe Urges Abortion “Right” in Member States The Council of Europe passed a resolution April 16 insisting that every one of its 47 member states should legalize abortion. Passed on a 102–69 vote by the Parliamentary Assembly, the resolution calls on the countries to “decriminalise abortion within reasonable gestational limits” and “guarantee women’s effective exercise of their right to access to a safe and legal abortion.” European pro-lifers, especially in countries that have laws protecting the rights of unborn babies, condemned the assembly’s action. Catholic bishops in Poland quickly issued a statement against the resolution. “The bishops express their firm opposition to this attempt to impose administratively principles opposed to the basic sensitivities of the human conscience,” the bishops said, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP). “The resolution represents an attack on the sovereignty of member states, by attempting to impose a policy on abortion, something for which the Assembly has no legal or legitimate justification,” Pat Buckley of Britain’s Society for the Protection of Unborn Children said in a press release. “That a committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe even proposed this resolution damages the Council of Europe’s credibility.” European countries that restrict abortion include Andorra, Ireland, Malta, Monaco, and Poland, according to AFP. Although the resolution is nonbinding, it gives pro-abortionists a weapon they can use to lobby for a change in those countries’ laws, the Daily Mail reported. Indian Practice of Aborting Female Babies Is a “National Shame” For the first time, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh gave a speech about the alarming disparity in the ratio of girls to boys that is the result of widespread abortion and infanticide. Singh spoke April 28 at a national conference dedicated to “saving the girl child,” according to the New York Times. Aborting female unborn babies is “inhuman, uncivilized and reprehensible,” said Singh, the Times reported. Calling the practice a “national shame,” he said that laws banning ultrasounds for sex selection purposes need to be strongly enforced. “No nation, no society, no community can hold its head high and claim to be part of the civilized world if it condones the practice of discriminating against one half of humanity represented by women,” Singh said, according to the Times. India’s population is now tilted precariously toward males, with a ratio of 927 girls for every 1,000 boys measured in 2001. Girls are often viewed as burdens on families, who have to pay large dowries when their daughters get married. Boys are usually relied on to provide for their parents in their old age, the Associated Press reported. Doctors often violate laws against sex-selection ultrasounds by subtly indicating to parents the baby’s gender. “Studies suggest that doctors often give coded hints, by remarking for example, ‘Your child will be a fighter,’ or by offering pink or blue sweets, as appropriate, on the way out,” according to the Times. Officials in all parts of the country need “to deal with this terrible onslaught on our civilization,” said Singh, the Times reported. Italian Doctors Increasingly Object to Abortion Italy’s health ministry reported April 22 that more doctors are refusing to participate in abortions for moral reasons, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP). Allowed by law to opt out of performing abortions if it violates their conscience, 69.2% of Italy’s gynecologists refused to participate in the practice in 2007, AFP reported. This figure rose significantly from 2003, when the number was 58.7%. The percentage of conscientious objectors is “proof of a deep unease which could not be ignored,” Isabella Bertolini, a senior member of Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party, told ANSA news agency. “Abortion is not just a tragedy for the woman who voluntarily decides to undergo the operation but also for those who are technically required to suppress a human life.” In addition to doctors’ aversion to abortion, Italian women are also getting fewer abortions. In 2007, 127,038 abortions occurred in the country, down 3% from 2006 and 45.9% from 1982, which saw a peak of 234,801, according to ANSA. Australian Euthanasia Group Given Millions Exit International, the Australian pro-euthanasia group headed by Philip Nitschke, received $5 million in the will of former Brisbane lord mayor Clem Jones, according to The Australian. Euthanasia is currently illegal in Australia. “We are heartened by the donation,” Nitschke told The Australian. “Not only the large amount of money, but because it was [given] by someone who commanded a great deal of respect ... it will give this issue a degree of legitimacy.” Jones, who died in December, wrote in his will that the illness of his wife Sylvia inspired his bequest. Mrs. Jones died in 1999. Nitschke has long been a controversial figure in Australia and New Zealand. Authorities in Australia have attempted to stop his actions by passing several laws and regulations, including a ban on discussion of suicide over telephone or the Internet, the AAP reported. He recently shifted his focus to New Zealand, which does not have strong laws in place. Nitschke held several seminars to teach people how to kill themselves in New Zealand in early February, according to the New Zealand Press Association (NZPA). The large bequest is “disturbing,” Right to Life Queensland co-ordinator Graham Preston told the Courier Mail. “There are some lines that must never be crossed, and killing the innocent under any circumstances is one of those lines.” |