Australian bishops express dismay at Amnesty's pro-abortion policy

Published: 2007-09-12

SYDNEY, Australia (CNS) -- The Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference has expressed dismay at the failure of the human rights group Amnesty International to reverse its new pro-abortion policy, describing the move away from neutrality on abortion as "deeply regrettable." Archbishop Philip Wilson of Adelaide, president of the bishops' conference, said the new policy put at jeopardy Catholics' long association with Amnesty in "fighting injustice, ending human rights abuses and standing in solidarity with the imprisoned and the oppressed." The Amnesty policy was changed in mid-August by the group's International Council -- made up of more than 400 delegates from 75 countries -- which approved proposals to abandon the group's neutral policy on abortion as part of its Stop Violence Against Women campaign. The council voted to "support the decriminalization of abortion, to ensure women have access to health care when complications arise from abortion, and to defend women's access to abortion, within reasonable gestational limits, when their health or human rights are in danger."

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