Amnesty closer to supporting abortion ‘rights’

LONDON – Amnesty International U.K. has supported a motion advocating abortion as a human right that is scheduled to debated on at the prominent human rights international convention in 2007. The New Zealand branch of AI also voted in favour of a similar resolution. New Zealand Right to Life condemned Amnesty’s decision “to actively fight to deny the human rights of unborn children and their inalienable right to life.”

Puting addresses disappearing Russia

MOSCOW – In his recent annual address to the nation, Russian President Vladimir Putin highlighted the problem of rapidly declining birthrates and acknowledged the country’s falling fertility rates as one of three causes, along with increasingly mortality rates and migration. Putin announced a 10-year national program designed to encourage larger families, including an increase in child benefits for each child and doubling the benefit for subsequent children. “We must, at least, stimulate the birth of a second child,” Putin said. Abortion rates in Russia are among the highest in the world, with conservative estimates indicating that 60 per cent of all pregnancies end in abortion. Russia is the only non-wartorn country in the 21st century to experience population decline, from 145 million in 2003 to 143 million last year.

Actresses support Planned Parenthood

HOLLYWOOD – In a Mother’s Day promotion for Planned Parenthood, actress Blythe Danner and her daughter, actress Gwenneth Paltrow, issued a letter supporting the world’s largest abortion supplier. They state that as a “mother and daughter,” they cannot countenance abortion and birth control being “attacked” by pro-lifers and that “as Mother’s Day approaches, we join Planned Parenthood in their fight to protect” abortion. Noting that Paltrow recently had a second child, Moses, they say that “having a child changes your life forever” and that such decisions should not be made by governments.

Operation Rescue spokesperson Cheryl Sullenger said, “It is disappointing to see how Grandma and Mom could so radically support the brutal killing of innocent babies who would be just as loving and adorable as Paltrow’s children, Apple and new baby Moses, if they were given the same opportunity to live.” Sullenger added: “It is particularly insensitive and insulting that they have chosen Mother’s Day to make a statement in support of abortion, under the guise of ‘protecting women,’ when there is ample evidence that abortion has physical, emotional and psychological consequences that have adversely affected the lives of tens of thousands of women.”

U.S. abortion group peddles message in Canada

OTTAWA – The National Abortion Federation, a U.S.-based group of abortion providers, has announced the launch of a Canadian public policy and outreach program. Promoted at a parliamentary press conference by three pro-abortion MPs – Liberal Carolyn Bennett and NDPers Irene Mathyssen and Penny Priddy – the group said that it seeks “to improve abortion access for women in Canada.” Campaign Life Coalition national president Jim Hughes replied: “Almost three million babies have already been put to death in their mothers’ wombs in Canada since 1969 (and) they intend to increase the number of babies killed by abortion?” A week prior to the announcement, Mathyssen complained that pro-lifers were using a room in Parliament for a press conference.