Abortion and the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

I have just received an email complaint from somebody who I still regard as a good friend with whom I once worked at an international charity. Together, based on a principle espoused by the organisation which is enshrined in the UN International Convenant of Human Rights, we campaigned against poverty. Poverty, we agreed, is a denial of fundamental human rights.

Now, leaving aside the fact that the law of God (Do not kill) is above the law of Man, regardless of the political thought of the day, the only other reasonable, legally-based argument against current abortion law is one that is entrenched in human rights law.

Here are three very poignant articles of the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights on which we can all agree.

Part III Article 6
1. "Every human being has the inherent right to life. This right shall be protected by law. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his life."

Part III Article 6
3. "No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. In particular, no one shall be subjected without his free consent to medical or scientific experimentation."

Part III Article 7
"When deprivation of life constitutes the crime of genocide, it is understood that nothing in this article shall authorize any State Party to the present Covenant to derogate in any way from any obligation assumed under the provisions of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. "

We all agree with this. Right? Well, clearly not. For when it comes to the unborn child in the womb these rights no longer apply. The right to terminate or kill human life has never been one espoused by the UN and not one overtly espoused by the UK Government. But that all depends on when you believe life starts. Does life start after 3 months? 4 months? 8 months? Just before the child is born? Just after the child is born? Well, the problem is that any week or month one man suggests is certainly open to debate from the next man who can say it is earlier or later, by weeks or months. It is arbitrary for man to decide when life starts. Human life, most assuredly starts in the womb. That's why people tell other people not to smoke when they are pregnant. When is the only real and universal time to say that human life begins? Well, it is the moment of conception, of course.

Therefore, if there were in England and Wales 193,700 abortions last year, and there were, that amounts to 193,700 human beings who were denied the fundamental right to human life. All three of the articles mentioned above, which we all agree with with regard to ourselves and others, have been broken to the degree that yes, all of these human beings were denied the inherent right to life, all of them were subject to torture, to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and all of them, year upon year, amount to genocide.

Current UK law on abortion, and the threat to extend this to Northern Ireland, a country still dead set against it because of its vibrant Christian faith, makes an ass of the UN Convention of Human Rights. As the friend in question will know, the charity we worked with campaigned against poverty because we all saw it as the denial of the human right to live as a family. Many of the families with whom we were in contact together were unable to live as a family, because, often due to the poverty in which they lived, many children were removed from parents by social services.

Now, the fact that poverty still exists (and one can only assume it is getting worse in the current financial crisis, with the cost of living going up so much, and wages and benefits staying pretty low) never deterred us from campaigning to help raise awareness of it and to ensure that it remained a hot political issue, while showing love to those we met who were forced to endure the scourge of poverty.

Likewise, as a Catholic, just because the number of abortions are still going through the roof, that does not deter me, or my brothers and sisters who are pro-life from still campaigning against it, raising awareness of it and making it a hot political issue, while still showing love to those we know who have had an abortion because many of those women we know who have, still unto this very day, regret their choice more than we can ever know. Not only do abortions lead obviously to the end of a human life, but from what I know of people who have had them, lead to immense suffering for the individual, immense pain, regret and of course, guilt.

As Catholics we believe that God is Compassion and Love and no human sin, however grave can separate a human being from God's love and mercy, if we would but go to Him and seek His forgiveness. We do not judge, and we do not condemn, for we know we have sinned.

However, we must be allowed to campaign for the protection of human life, from conception until death, even were the whole World to be offended.