Is abortion the only ‘rights’ issue Amnesty cares about?

Is abortion the only ‘rights’ issue Amnesty cares about?
Is abortion the only ‘rights’ issue Amnesty cares about?

Dear Editor, Amnesty International was pushing an abortion agenda again last week with the release of their Red C poll findings. I don’t understand why a once-admirable human rights organisation is campaigning against the right to life of the most vulnerable human beings, babies in the womb. Is this really the only human rights issue of concern to them in Ireland? I have never heard Amnesty speaking out against the conditions of migrants and refugees living in terrible conditions in the direct provision system. Children are growing up in this supposedly temporary accommodation system for up to five or even seven years, often knowing no other way of family life.

Where does Amnesty stand on the homelessness crisis in this country? I have heard nothing from them on the rights of families forced to live in hotel rooms. For the first time more than 5,000 people are now without a place to call home and one in every three homeless people is a child, yet Amnesty is more concerned with the ‘right’ of a woman to terminate her child’s life.

The release of Amnesty’s poll was obviously timed to influence any negotiations on a programme for government, yet it was pro-life supporters who were raising the issue of abortion when canvassers arrived on their doorsteps, and as this paper reported last week there has been a surge of pro-life TDs elected to the new Dáil.

The only people who actually seem interested in repealing the Eighth Amendment, which protects both the life of the mother and child, are members of the media and ubiquitous commentators and pro-choice advocates like Colm O’Gorman.

Yours etc,

Maeve Carolan,

Bray,

Co. Wicklow.