PO Box 20203, Washington, D.C. 20041
2008 June
Focus on Infanticide
Action Needed in Brazil to End Practice Among Indigenous Tribes
International emails and letters are needed in Brazil requesting action on legislation sponsored by Deputy Henrique Afonso, President of the Evangelical Parliamentary Pro-Life and Pro-Family Front to end infanticide among indigenous tribes living along the Amazon. This so-called “cultural practice” includes the suffocation, clubbing, or burying alive of newborns of an undesired sex, a twin or triplet, newborns with an unmarried mother or babies with disabilities and can extend to grown disabled children.
The bill, PL 1057/2007 is known as Muwaji’s Law and named for a brave indigenous woman, Muwaji, who refused to bury alive her newborn despite pressure from her tribe. Muwaji’s courage has alerted many to this violation of the basic right to life and the tremendous burden placed on women expected to kill their own children. The bill is stalled in the Human Rights Commission of the Chamber of Deputies and without international pressure is likely to expire. The government claims it will not intervene in matters regarding practices of the indigenous people.
Hakani.org provides excellent analysis of this global critical issue and provides extensive background on how the various treaties Brazil has signed, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child, protect the right to life of all children—including those born into indigenous tribes. The organization states: “The right to life is universal and does not depend on ethnic background.” Information on the contents of letters and the email addresses of key Brazilian officials can be found here . The documentary of a young girl named Hakani (whose name means Smile) entitled Hakani, Buried Alive—A Survivor’s Story has brought much needed attention to this horrific practice and the debate between cultural relativism and the basic right to life. PNCI congratulates Deputy Henrique Afonso for this essential legislation and urges immediate action to help move Muwaji’s Law out of committee.
International Pro-Life Actions
Ireland Defeats EU Treaty
Irish voters, by an overwhelming majority, voted to keep their sovereign constitution and rejected the Lisbon Treaty of the European Union which was designed to serve as a constitution for all member states. The vote disrupted advancement plans for an EU constitution but was welcomed by those who fear the Treaty would threaten existing constitutional protections protecting the life of the unborn child. The push for abortion by some countries at the EU prompted many pro-life individuals and organizations in the Republic of Ireland to mobilize against the treaty and urge a “No” vote.
Lawmakers in Poland upon voting for the Lisbon Treaty in April also feared the imposition of abortion and other issues contrary to the morals and values of Poland. Upon ratification of the Lisbon Treaty , both legislative chambers passed a clause that allows Poland to opt out of the EU’s Charter of Fundamental Rights. It is feared that the Charter will seek to impose legal abortion and gay marriage on all member states of the EU
International Pressure to Change Pro-Life Laws
European Donor Countries Fund Pro-Abortion Efforts Globally
Ipas, the international organization that trains health personnel in abortion using the hand held abortion device and abortion pills, has announced the receipt of new funds from the governments of Finland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. The new funds will allow Ipas to increase its efforts to advocate for legal abortion, to influence health ministers, and to distribute hundreds of thousands of reusable plastic manual vacuum aspirators through their affiliates in over 13 countries in Latin America, Africa, and Asia.
This funding will allow Ipas to promote the new abortion pill known as Medabon in Nepal, the first country to register the medication. Medabon is a registered trademark of Concept Foundation and is a specifically packaged combination of mifepristone and misoprostol for abortion in the first nine weeks of pregnancy. The drugs cause uterine contractions and induction of labor resulting in the abortion of the unborn child. Efforts to register the drug are underway in nine selected countries including: Ethiopia, Ghana, India, South Africa, and Vietnam.
Ipas is assisting the efforts of the government of Nepal to integrate the abortion pills with primary health care on the community level throughout the country. Abortions through the use of medications for so-called “medical abortion” are increasingly promoted for use in settings with minimal resources in lieu of surgical abortion. The combination of medications results in a chemical abortion that is far from sound medical practice. Thirteen internationally known cases of women dying from chemical abortion using medications similar to Medabon have so far been reported from the United States, the United Kingdom, Sweden, France and Canada. Complications from the drug are rarely reported.
Council of Europe Proposal Discourages Adoption, Encourages Abortion
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has passed a resolution promoting abortion over adoption as the preferred solution to newborn abandonment. The UK’s Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC), who lobbied against the resolution, fears it could lead to mandated unrestricted abortion for member states. While the Council of Europe cannot pass laws its resolutions greatly influence legislation from the European Union.
The abandonment resolution calls for greater liberalization of abortion in all member states and discourages the use of life-affirming practices or procedures that allow a mother without resources or support to safely place her newborn baby in the care of hospitals, religious, or government agencies. These practices provide immediate care for a newborn child, anonymity for the woman, and an ultimate path for adoption. Pro-abortion parliamentarians opposed such procedures and criticized adoption claiming adoption “is closely tied up with abandonment, just as it is with child trafficking” and called life-saving solutions “controversial.”
MP Christine McCafferty from the UK chairs the Social, Health, and Family Affairs Committee which passed the resolution and is a global pro-abortion leader, heading the UK All Party Group on Population, Development and Reproductive Health. She is a frequent speaker at international conferences urging lawmakers to form working groups to promote abortion as a so-called solution to population, development, and as part of reproductive health. During the recent debate over the Abortion Act in the UK she stated : “In the 40 th anniversary year of the enactment of the 1967 Abortion Act, we cannot allow the tiny minority who oppose all abortion to chip away women’s fundamental rights. Women’s rights should be extended not restricted.”
Legislative News
Australia: Reconsidering Funding Abortion Overseas
Australian officials are considering overturning its current policy that prohibits foreign assistance from funding abortion in developing countries. The 12 year-old regulations, known as the “Harradine guidelines,” ban the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) from funding abortion counseling, training, and services overseas.
The push to remove the restrictions was initiated by the Australian parliamentary group on population and development, with the support of pro-abortion NGOs who promote “safe abortion” as a way to “treat” pregnancy. This push of abortion as a solution to maternal health robs women and their children of aid and solutions that are successful and save lives, such as prenatal care, trained birth attendants, and access to facilities for emergency obstetric care. Since 1994, over five million women have died due to a lack of basic health care during pregnancy. Assuming abortion is the answer to maternal death assumes children are the problem.
Leading the defense of the policy, Senator Ron Boswell asked, "Why is the [Prime Minister] Rudd government even considering funding abortion in its overseas aid programs when Australia has never done so in the past and has not been approached by other countries to do so?" The Administration can impose the abortion funding policy without parliament’s approval.
Australia: MPs Attempt to End Public Funding of Late-Term Abortions
Conservative Coalition MPs in Australia’s Parliament have launched an initiative to remove Medicare funding of second and third trimester abortions. The motion, which is expected to be debated in Parliament next spring, was brought forward by Senator Guy Barnett out of concern for the public funding of late term abortions. "We want to have compassion and care for the unborn, we want to show love and concern for them rather than killing them in many cases for psychosocial reasons, which is effectively abortion on request," he said.
El Salvador: Deputies Sign Book of Life and Pledge to Defend Life
Members of El Salvador’s Congress have committed themselves to defending life from conception to natural death. Adding their names to the Book of Life, the lawmakers pledge to promote policies that protect the unborn from the violence of abortion. This initiative, which began in Honduras, will travel next to Guatemala and Costa Rica, and possibly Panama and Mexico. PNCI commends Deputy Mariella Peña Pinto for leading this effort and all the El Salvadorian lawmakers for making such a strong and public commitment to protect life.
Mexico: Legislatures Act to Protect Life
Fearing a nation-wide push for legalized abortion should the Supreme Court uphold Mexico City’s new law legalizing abortion; lawmakers in two Mexican states have taken action. Pro-life legislators in Baja California recently proposed a law to affirm that the state constitution protects life from the moment of conception. Assemblyman José Alfredo Ferreiro, leading the pro-life initiative explains, “It is a preventive action,” expressing his “deep desire that Baja California rises as a model to be followed in the future by other states.”
Similarly, legislators in the Mexican state of Tamaulip as have blocked a proposal to legalize abortion from even getting on the legislature’s agenda. “It's a topic that has to do with the life of the human person and I think that life begins from the moment of conception,” said legislator Jorge Díaz Casillas.
Executive News
Egypt: President Hosni Mubarak Seeks Two Child Birth Limit
The Washington Post reports that Egypt has initiated a new population control campaign that seeks to limit family size to two children only. Egyptian Health Minister Hatem el-Gabali announced an $80 million campaign with the slogan “Two children per family—a chance for a better life.”
President Mubarak supports the campaign and has continuously urged smaller families since taking power in 1981. A recent two day National Population Conference was inaugurated by President Mubarak and was attended by more than 1,000 Arab and foreign representatives including international organizations, diplomats, and aid agencies that have financed Egypt’s development projects. El-Gagali announced that the plan expects to lower the fertility rate to 2.4 children by 2017 and two children by 2030. Details on how the plan would be implemented were scarce. The present fertility rate is 2.7 children.
Judicial News
Mexico: Supreme Court Continues to Consider Abortion Law
The Mexican Supreme Court continues to hear arguments in the case to overturn Mexico City’s new law legalizing abortion in the first trimester of pregnancy. During these hearings, pro-life advocates have presented the court with arguments illustrating the right to life from conception as evidenced in both the nation’s 1997 constitutional revisions and in a 2002 Supreme Court case. Further, the Court was presented with petitions from 1,600 women who, less than one year later, regret their abortions. The testimony of these women, who had abortions in medical facilities throughout Mexico City following its legalization, is powerful testament to the pain abortion causes women.
Colombia: Court Rules Morning-After Pill Not an Abortifacient
A Colombian court has sided with promoters of the morning-after pill in a ruling that denies the drug’s abortifacient component. The lawsuit was brought before a federal court against Colombia’s Food and Drug Administration for permitting the importation and distribution of the morning-after pill, based on the pill’s effect of ending a newly created human life. The court’s ruling labeled the morning-after pill a contraceptive, despite the fact the drug’s manufacturer admits its abortifacient effect.
New Zealand: Court Rules Too Many Abortions Done for “Mental Health”
A New Zealand Court has ruled that thousands of illegal abortions have been performed under the guise of “mental illness”. In a lawsuit brought last year, it was claimed the Abortion Supervisory Committee (ASC) was not accountable for the abortions it was authorizing and performing. The Court has agreed, with Justice Miller stating the ASC is implementing the law “more liberally than parliament intended.” An estimated 18,000 abortions are carried out annually in New Zealand, of which 98.9% are done so due to “mental health”.
Issues
Abortion Advanced Under Guise of Development
Nigeria: Bishops Say Abortion Should Not be Part of Development Conference
The Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria has asked the government that an international conference on development not be used to promote abortion, instead, human dignity and security for all should be advanced. Archbishop Felix Alaba-Job signed the bishops’ statement about the Tokyo meeting of the International Conference on African Development and stated, “Our concern derives from the fact that the Tokyo agenda for action foresees the provision for access to abortion and family planning services.”
He continued, "There is no doubt that this agenda represents a renewed attack on the dignity of human persons, human life and family values,” and called on elected leaders to publicly affirm the “inviolability” of human persons.
Philippines: Cost of Rice and Gasoline Cited to Advance Population Control Policies
Pressure to control the number of children in the Filipino family increases in response to global economic trends. As the cost of rice and gasoline continue to rise, some political leaders are using the situation to press for controls on family size including legislation to limit families to two children. Monsignor Pedro Quitorio, spokesman of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, argues that poverty is a problem not because of the people but because of corruption and sloppy economic planning. He states, “And poorer countries produce more children,” where having more children means more hands to till the soil and a better chance of family support in old age.
The Wall Street Journal reports that growing populations can help create markets, build industries and add to a country’s economic output, as long as the right policies are in place to allow that growth spurt to take place. Japan, for instance, supports about 130 million on a similar-sized land mass to the Philippines, which is home to 90 million people, most of whom are still supported by a fragile, agricultural economy.
Latin America: Deceptive Media Project Targets Pro-life Leaders and Bishops
A multimedia project on abortion in Latin America has been exposed for its pro-abortion agenda. Carlos Polo, Director of the Latin American office of the Population Research Institute, revealed the true colors of “The Decency Gap”, a project funded by International Planned Parenthood Federation, Marie Stopes International, and the Center for Reproductive Rights, when he agreed to an interview. The project has deceptively interviewed other pro-life leaders and bishops throughout Latin America, Southeast Asia, Africa, the UK and the US. While film maker Eve Reinhardt claims to portray an unbiased position on abortion, a look at the project’s website reveals its intention to use the film to overcome political and religious objections to abortion and advocate an end to the U.S. Mexico City policy which denies federal funding to international organizations that perform and promote abortion.
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The Parliamentary Network for Critical Issues (PNCI) is committed to networking members of democratically-elected legislatures in efforts to advance respect for the inherent value, worth, and inviolable dignity of every human being from the first moment of existence. PNCI issues the Parliamentary Network E-News to provide lawmakers, and those who work with them, news from various sources on the international threat to pro-life laws and current legislative and judicial actions on critical life issues challenging parliamentarians around the world. PNCI is a project of Life Issues Institute.
All news articles include links to original source. PNCI cannot verify that the information contained in the news articles is accurate. info@pncius.org
