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Abortion Fallout: Scottish Cardinal is 2nd Bishop to Quit Amnesty International EDINBURGH, August 28, 2007 - (CWNews.com/LifeSiteNews.com) - Cardinal Keith O'Brien of Edinburgh, Scotland, has become the latest Catholic leader to drop his membership in Amnesty International to protest the group's support for legal abortion. The Scottish cardinal wrote to Amnesty International leaders explaining that after 40 years of involvement he felt obliged to sever his links with the human-rights group. "As a matter of conscience and great sadness," he wrote, he could no longer support what he had long considered "this noble organization."

Bishops to Amnesty International: We work with orgs who "do not oppose the fundamental right to life" By John-Henry Westen WASHINGTON, D.C., August 27, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The US Conference of Catholic Bishops has decried Amnesty International's recent decision to - as the bishops put it - "promote worldwide access to abortion," telling the organization that the Bishops' Conference will work with other organizations rather than with Amnesty International (AI) to carry out the good ends which AI was traditionally associated with. Bishop William S. Skylstad, the President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops released a statement to...

 Amnesty International, which formally announced two weeks ago a new worldwide policy backing women's right to abortion in some cases, is being charged with having "duped" pro-life pop stars who contributed their time and talents to a CD released to raise money by the anti-torture group for victims of violence in Darfur. "The human suffering going on right now in Darfur is horrific," said Erik Whittington, American Life League's youth outreach director and director of Rock for Life, an organization of anti-abortion musicians. "To add insult to injury, however, using this tragic abuse of human rights to raise money for...

In 1999 the CEDAW Committee, which regulates the operation of CEDAW in countries that ratify and domesticate it, told Columbia that the provision of its law outlawing abortion was a violation of the rights of women to health enshrined in article 12 of CEDAW. On July 1, 1999 the CEDAW lambasted Nepal for criminalizing abortion. On July 9, 1999, CEDAW Committee told Chile that the Chilean laws punishing abortion were violating the rights of Chilean women. In 2000, CEDAW told Burkina Faso to review its laws on abortion and provide for coverage by social security. In 2000 also, CEDAW...

Amnesty International Ireland Says It Has Not Opted Out of Organization's Abortion Advocacy Contrary to Reports By Elizabeth O'Brien DUBLIN, Ireland, August 21, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Despite some misleading media headlines, the Ireland branch of Amnesty International has not opted out of the organization's recent position of abortion advocacy. Funding International Ireland will mean funding the pro-abortion Amnesty International as a whole. LifeSiteNews.com contacted Noeleen Hartigan, program director for Amnesty International's Irish Section, to confirm the branch's official standing on the abortion policy. LifeSiteNews.com asked whether Amnesty International Ireland is opting out of the abortion policy and whether, "the Ireland...

It's Official - Amnesty International is Now An Abortion Lobby Group - Catholics Boycott Bishop Resigns from Board By Elizabeth O'Brien UNITED KINGDOM, August 20, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Since Amnesty International officially reaffirmed its pro-abortion policy last weekend, an English bishop has withdrawn his support, thereby signaling that Catholics should begin a boycott of the organization. Amnesty International, the world's largest human rights organization, definitively threw away its last chance to rescind its recent abortion advocacy policy at the International Council meeting in Mexico City last weekend. At the end of the meeting on Friday, the organization said that it...

Bishop: Tomorrow is Last Chance for AI on Abortion or Catholics Will Boycott By Elizabeth O'BrienUNITED KINGDOM, August 10, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A British Bishop has given Amnesty International (AI) a final warning, saying that tomorrow the organization faces its last chance reject its pro-abortion stance, or else face a boycott from individual Catholics and the Catholic Church.East Anglia Bishop Michael Evens, a long-time member of AI, clearly stated that tomorrow's meeting of the AI International Council in Mexico City is the last opportunity for AI to revoke its position on abortion, the Guardian Unlimited reports. Evans stated, "Catholics and...

Amnesty International defiant on abortion Despite objections from Catholic leaders, human rights group won’t back down (CNA) -- Amnesty International remains defiant about its new pro-abortion stance despite receiving worldwide criticism for its decision to abandon the group’s long standing neutrality on the issue, and has decided instead to embrace abortion as a human right. Amnesty was founded in 1961 by a Catholic convert, the late Peter Benenson, and has enjoyed the support of Catholic organizations and individuals in its campaigns against torture and capital punishment. It has also received praise in the past for staying clear of the abortion...

New York, NY (LifeNews.com) -- Amnesty International upset millions of pro-life supporters months ago when it decided to take a pro-abortion position after decades of neutrality. Any decision on abortion was supposed to come at an AI leadership conference in August in Mexico City -- but with the meeting on the horizon, a change of heart isn't expected. The biennial meeting of the world's foremost human rights group begins August 11 but one of its leaders says its unlikely AI will backtrack on the abortion decision. "I think it's improbable," Kate Gilmore, AI's deputy secretary general, told the Associated Press....

It is a tragedy when a force for good becomes a force for evil. But such is the case with Amnesty International. In April, the 1.8 million-member human-rights organization announced its support for abortion. Amnesty International (AI), in a press release, made it clear that it stood by “the rights of women and girls to be free from threat, force, or coercion as they exercise their sexual and reproductive rights.” I certainly don’t want women and girls to be sexually or reproductively forced or coerced into anything. But if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, would Amnesty International...

The authors of the war that nearly everybody thought was necessary at the time seem genuinely puzzled that so many Americans think all of Arabia isn't worth the life of a single American soldier. If they're curious about why, the folks at the White House should read the stories that occasionally make it only to the back pages of the newspapers. Item (London Daily Telegraph): "The imminent execution of a teenage maid in Saudi Arabia drew fierce criticism yesterday and provoked condemnation of the kingdom's prolific use of capital punishment. The case has brought fresh attention to the draconian Saudi...

WASHINGTON, July 10, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - 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 criticising 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...

WASHINGTON, DC, July 4, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has urged Amnesty International (AI) to return to its neutral position on abortion when the AI International Council meets in Mexico this August. The President of the USCCB, Bishop William S. Skylstad, urged AI to renounce its position on abortion in a July 2 statement. He wrote, "The action of the Executive Council undermines Amnesty's longstanding moral credibility, diverts its mission, divides its own members (many of whom are Catholic or defend the rights of unborn children), and jeopardizes Amnesty's support by people in many...

It is a tragedy when a force for good becomes a force for evil. But such is the case with Amnesty International. In April, the 1.8 million-member human-rights organization announced its support for abortion. Amnesty International (AI), in a press release, made it clear that it stood by "the rights of women and girls to be free from threat, force, or coercion as they exercise their sexual and reproductive rights." I certainly don't want women and girls to be sexually or reproductively forced or coerced into anything. But if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, would Amnesty International...

Islamisation of David Keene, American Conservative Union June 27, 2007 David Keene, chairman of the American Conservative Union (ACU), has been moving, along with several other paleo-conservatives like Dinesh D’Souza, towards a partnership with Saudi-funded, pro-Hamas institutions. A forewarning was the appointment of Grover Norquist to the ACU board. A second forewarning was the appointment of Suhail Khan to the ACU board. Then Tuesday, David Keene joined United for Peace and Justice, the ACLU, the Communist Party-USA, as a speaker in the “Day of Action to Restore Law and Justice” to “…call on Congress to restore habeas corpus, fix the...

Abortion – The First Human Rights Abuse Torture, political imprisonment, sexual slavery, genocide – these are a few of the examples one would think of when it comes to human rights abuses. These are heinous abuses that not only Catholics, but all people of good will should fight. But in this list of atrocities, many people can forget that abortion is the earliest and most fundamental attack on human rights. Until recently, Amnesty International documented and decried China’s policy of coercive abortion as a human rights abuse. But earlier this year, Amnesty International changed its generally neutral stance on abortion...

Vatican: Catholics and Catholic Organizations "Must" Withdraw Support of Amnesty International over Abortion ROME, June 14, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Cardinal Renato Martino, president of the Pontifical Council for justice and Peace, has called on all Catholics to stop funding Amnesty International because of its recent support of abortion. The nearly 50 year-old human rights organization gave its official stamp of approval to abortion in cases of "rape, incest and extreme risk to the health of the mother". However, the new policy, which AI had attempted without success to keep from the public, calls for the universal decriminalization of abortion, thereby...

London,England (LifeNews.com) -- Amnesty International responded Thursday to criticism from the Catholic Church, which said the human rights organization would lose money because of its recent decision to support abortion. This week, Cardinal Renato Martino, a top Vatican spokesman, said the Catholic Church would call on a boycott of Amnesty International and urge Catholic organizations to stop sending donations to the group. In a statement sent to LifeNews.com, AI doesn't appear to be concerned about the boycott and says it receives no direct funding from the Vatican. "We have not accepted funds from the Vatican and do not accept funds...

The Vatican has urged all Catholics to stop donating money to Amnesty International, accusing the human rights group of promoting abortion.The Vatican described abortion as "murder" The Vatican, which regards life as sacred from the moment of conception, said it was an "inevitable consequence" of the group's policy change.  Amnesty said it was not promoting abortion as a universal right.  But the group said that women had a right to choose, particularly in cases of rape or incest.   "No more financing of Amnesty International after the organisation's pro-abortion about-turn," said a statement from the Roman Catholic Church's Pontifical...

Telling Each Other What to Do Gateway Pundit notes the Vatican has urged Catholics not to donate to Amnesty International over AI's endorsement of abortion. Opinio Juris says "Whether the Vatican is right to do this is a question for another day, but what I'm interested in is the ability of one NGO (the Vatican) to pressure another (Amnesty International)."Although nongovernment organizations have existed for millenia, the modern NGO really burst onto the public scene in the last 30 years as it assumed a new role quite different than that implied by its name. Unlike old-time nongovernment organizations like...