ENDEAVOUR FORUM LETTERS - BABETTE FRANCIS
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CONFLICT OVER ABORTION BABETTE FRANCIS
THE ARTICLE, "Abortion: rights of the mother" by Jenny Earle (CT, 7 November) is an example of how various UN Conventions are in conflict with one another. Jenny Earle claims that the International Covenant on Civil & Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women require governments to ensure women’s right to abortions. However, the ICCPR requires that the sentence of death shall not be imposed for crimes committed by persons under 18 and shall not be carried out on pregnant women. This is a clear recognition that the innocent (unborn child) should not be executed along with the guilty. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child states: "Bearing in mind that as indicated in the [UN] Declaration of the Rights of the Child ‘the child by reason of physical and mental immaturity needs special safeguards and care, including appropriate legal protection before as well as after birth’." (emphases added). Unfortunately, feminists such as Jenny Earle appear to care little that the so-called "right" to abortion they promote frequently results in the selective abortion of female foetuses in China and India, and even in selective female infanticide. The right to life predates all UN treaties and belongs to all those who are born and those still in utero. BABETTE FRANCIS National & Overseas Coordinator, Endeavour Forum Inc Toorak, Victoria
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Member Organisation, World Council for Life and Family NGO in Special Consultative Status with ECOSOC of the UN
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