Amnesty International moves toward adopting pro-abortion policy

Published: 2006-06-01

LONDON (CNS) -- The human rights group Amnesty International has taken a step closer to adopting a formal policy in favor of abortion after its Canadian section voted to abandon its neutral position on the issue. Most delegates at the May 26-28 annual general meeting in Winnipeg, Manitoba, wanted to change Amnesty International's current neutral position on abortion, Alex Neve, the Canadian section's general secretary, told Catholic News Service in a telephone interview May 31. "There were a diversity of views, but the majority of participants were in favor of moving in that direction," he said. Neve said a Canadian delegation would present the section's views at an International Executive Committee meeting in July in Portugal. The committee has been authorized by Amnesty International's International Council Meeting, held in Mexico in 2005, to set policy by the end of 2006 on the questions of "decriminalization of abortion, access to quality services for the management of complications arising from abortion, and legal, safe and accessible abortion in the cases of rape, sexual assault, incest and risk to a woman's life." A decision on the further question of whether a woman's "right to physical and mental integrity includes her right to terminate her pregnancy" will be made at the next International Council Meeting in August 2007 in Mexico.

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