Media Release 7th Nov 2017
Amnesty is campaigning to have the 8th amendment to the Irish Constitution removed in a national referendum in May 2018. The amendment was introduced in 1983 to prevent the violation of the right to life of the unborn. It protects equally the lives of mothers and the unborn.
Right to Life contends that Amnesty International has lost its way and has forfeited its right to be called a human rights organisation. In 2006 it was infiltrated and taken over by those with a pro-abortion agenda.
The 8th amendment states, “The State acknowledges the right to life of the unborn and, with due regard to the equal right to life of the mother, guarantees in its laws to respect, and, as far as practicable, by its laws to defend and vindicate that right.”
In 2016 Amnesty spent €275,463 in Ireland promoting the destruction of the human rights of Ireland’s unborn. In contrast, the human rights group spent worldwide €89,370 on stopping torture, €55,537 on anti-discrimination, €34,983 on the abolition of the death penalty and €59,074 on individuals at risk including prisoners of conscience. Amnesty launched a national a national campaign titled, “My Body My Rights” in March 2014 to repeal the Constitutional amendment. In summary Amnesty spent more money in Ireland on promoting the right to kill unborn children than it did on all its core functions combined.
Amnesty International is now at the forefront of pressurising nations to remove legal protection for the lives of the defenceless unborn. Amnesty also supports China’s violation of human rights with forced abortions and sterilizations. Amnesty is also supporting the decriminalisation of abortion in New Zealand.
Abortion is only permitted in Ireland when the life of the mother is at real and substantial risk. This amendment was inserted into the constitution following a referendum in 1983 which passed by a two-to-one margin.
Right to life calls on Amnesty International to abandon it’s hypocritical stance. While it purports to support the repressed, it itself is leading the charge for the killing of the defenceless unborn.
Ken Orr
Spokesperson,
Right to Life.
It’s deeply sad that this should have befallen Amnesty, especially given concerns about other human life issues that that organisation does address. I am talking about the death penalty and the fact that it is being actively used as a form of disability cleansing against criminals with intellectual, behavioural, developmental and psychiatric disabilities in the United States and elsewhere. Unfortunately, Amnesty’s Death Penalty Action Network seems to be the only organisation addressing issues related to disability and the death penalty in the United States. I believe in Cardinal Bernardin’s seamless garment of life approach to such issues and I honestly feel torn between the grave question of disability discrimination against the unborn and the equally grave question of disability discrimination against criminals with disabilities that is all too blatant in the United States and elsewhere.
It is tragic that Ireland is going down this route as well. It is also significant that it will occur through the referendum route once again, akin to the threats that elderly people, the poor and disabled face from the proposed New Zealand First euthanasia referendum here. I have said it once and I will say it again- New Zealand pro-lifers need to make our objection to the populist and opportunist tactical use of referenda clear to organisations that work alongside us. As the impending New Zealand euthanasia referendum and Ireland’s pro-life amendment repeal referendum show, merely because something is expedient does not mean that it serves the interests of the sanctity of life.