You Won't Get a Penny Unless You Think of the Embryos

The head of the US Conference for Catholic Bishops has echoed the call by the head of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Cardinal Renato Martino, for Amnesty International to reverse its policy on abortion, or else. Cardinal Martino said that, if Amnesty continues to support the decriminalisation of abortion and support the right of access to treatment "within reasonable gestational limits, when ... health or human rights are in danger", then "individuals and Catholic organisations must withdraw their support because, in deciding to promote abortion rights, AI has betrayed its mission". Duncan Campbell, in the Guardian, reports this as a threat to withdraw "Vatican funding for Amnesty"; which appears to be a misrepresentation, since Amnesty says that it does not receive funding from the Vatican or any other state. What Cardinal Martino presumably means is that members of the Catholic church must stop donating to Amnesty, and organisations affiliated to the Catholic church must stop working with Amnesty, or else suffer the torments of hell and the wrath of Daddy Goodspeak.

Amnesty's general secretary, Irene Khan, states that Amnesty's policy is to "support women to be able to make the decision to terminate pregnancy without fear of violence in these limited cases of sexual violence or where the life of the mother or her health is very seriously threatened", but says that this "doesn't mean that we are in favour of abortion as a right", a claim so mealy-mouthed as to be worthy of the Church of England's general synod. If women have the right, under certain circumstances, to decide in favour of abortion, then presumably they have a right to abortion. If Amnesty's policy is to support them in exercising this right, then Amnesty is in favour of abortion as a right - a limited right perhaps, but still a right. The likes of Cardinal Martino and the Bishop of East Anglia, who believes that "the world needs Amnesty International" but promises that the support of Catholics will be "seriously threatened" if Amnesty persists in its error, are hardly likely to be swayed by any brand of hypocrisy which fails to match their own.