Raise the Hammer

Human Rights for All – No Exceptions: a cause for which many have fought and even died. No doubt Amnesty International has been an important part of this struggle. Its annual report for 2017/2018 shows the high price paid by those who supported it: “Hundreds of activists were killed last year as authorities sought to silence campaigners and muzzle the media”. Yet I have to ask whether there isn’t a glaring exception among those groups for whom Amnesty is fighting. It is arguably the most vulnerable and most marginalized group of all. It consists of the unborn children living in some of the most dangerous places on earth: their mothers’ wombs. These mothers (and other women) are raising their voices and saying these are our bodies and governments have no rights to force women to continue their pregnancies.
But the children cannot speak out, so who speaks on their behalf? Apparently not Amnesty International. In a report on the work of a Citizen’s Assembly which called for legalization of abortion in Ireland, Amnesty International Ireland’s Executive Director said that one of the Assembly’s key documents “ unhelpfully includes wording on ‘rights of the unborn’ “ Sure, many women have died or been injured through “unsafe” abortions and it is impossible to imagine the anguish and revulsion experienced by a woman who is pregnant as the result of rape. But do we not need to weigh these terrible hardships against, for instance, the tens of millions of deaths resulting from just the Roe v Wade decision? Yes, human rights belong to every person regardless of ethnicity, etc., including status. Let’s add one more status to protect, that of being alive but not yet born. Some people would refer to this status as a blob of tissue, but some quick research will demonstrate the rapid progress in even the first trimester towards a fully-viable human being able to live on his or her own. Feminists will recall that women were not considered persons in Canada until 1929. I look forward to the day when our unborn children will also be recognized as persons, deemed worthy of protection by virtue of their rights as human beings. No more stolen sisters and no more stolen brothers either!