Vatican vs. Amnesty: Round 1

Calling on all Catholics to send their donations elsewhere, the Vatican lambasted Amnesty International Wednesday for the human rights organization’s stance on abortion. The Vatican’s beef is that in April, Amnesty shifted its official position from a neutral stance to one of urging governments to ensure access to abortion services in the case of rape, ...

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Calling on all Catholics to send their donations elsewhere, the Vatican lambasted Amnesty International Wednesday for the human rights organization's stance on abortion.

Calling on all Catholics to send their donations elsewhere, the Vatican lambasted Amnesty International Wednesday for the human rights organization’s stance on abortion.

The Vatican’s beef is that in April, Amnesty shifted its official position from a neutral stance to one of urging governments to ensure access to abortion services in the case of rape, incest, or when pregnancy represents a risk to the mother’s life. But Cardinal Renato Martino’s accusation that Amnesty is “promoting abortion” is a misrepresentation, the human rights organization says:

Amnesty International’s actual policy, however, standing alongside its long-standing opposition to forced abortion, is to support the decriminalisation 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.

While Amnesty doesn’t take a dime from the Vatican itself, provoking the Holy See’s condemnation will certainly hurt the organization with devout Catholics.

The Roman Catholic Church and Amnesty International have historically found a great deal of common ground. Both believe their mission is to protect victims of persecution, particularly when it comes to armed conflict, the death penalty, and world poverty. It would be a shame if abortion caused the Church to lose sight of these shared goals.

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