South Dakota, Amnesty International and the consistent defense of life

South Dakota is Ground Zero on the issue of abortion, and if you don’t know that by now, scroll down to the coverage, or go here, here, here and here because you’re not going to find a lot of it in the mainstream media.

And now, unlikely as it seems, the state is at the center of another battle for life.

Fresh off Gov. Mike Rounds’ last-minute execution reprieve for Elijah Page Tuesday night, Amnesty International USA says it plans to help groups in the state lobby the Legislature to overturn South Dakota’s execution law, which is unused in the modern era, said Sue Gunawardena-Vaughn, director of Amnesty International’s Program to Abolish the Death Penalty.

Is this the same Amnesty International that is moving toward advocating abortion?

Yes. The Vatican and some of Europe’s bishops are concerned about that change of course for an organization founded on the ideal of protecting all human rights, especially for the most vulnerable. LifeSiteNews had this recently:

The Catholic Bishops of England and Wales have asked the human rights group, Amnesty International, to refrain from changing its officially neutral position on abortion, and to recognize the unborn as worthy of attention in their “Protect the Human” campaign.

In a statement the bishops released in August, they praised past efforts of the group, and appealed to Amnesty’s sense of justice.

The Bishops said they were aware that Amnesty planned to embrace abortion advocacy “first by moving to advocate a woman’s right to access to abortion in the case of rape, sexual assault, incest and risk to her life, and next by moving to advocate a woman’s right to access to abortion in general.”

The bishops statement continued, “the former may seem to be a compassionate act towards a woman who has suffered violence and a deeply traumatic experience” however “to take the life of the child in her womb, through another act of violence, can never be justified” adding that evidence indicates “women can suffer severe emotional distress following an abortion.”

They have only to look at the South Dakota abortion task force report to learn that, so comprehensive is this study.

Why would a group so devoted to defending the vulnerable make a move to support abortion?

The Bishops refused to believe that “removing the rights of the unborn child is consistent with Amnesty’s core values” and warned Amnesty that “such a policy change would, in the eyes of many, compromise Amnesty as a trusted advocate for human rights” and “almost certainly divide its membership and undermine the vital work for which it was founded.”

So, Amnesty is working in South Dakota to remove the death penalty.

Deb McIntyre, director of the South Dakota Peace and Justice Center, said the Amnesty International support is welcome news as the center is planning to launch a new statewide campaign to abolish the death penalty.

But Amnesty is planning to make the abortion procedure accessible? They need to think this through better.

Bishop Evans of East Anglia, a longtime supporter of Amnesty International and author of last year’s Amnesty prayer warned, “[M]any Roman Catholics, including myself, would feel obliged—very reluctantly—to withdraw our membership of an organisation which has done great work since Peter Benenson, a Roman Catholic, founded it in 1961.”

Amnesty International will decide its position concerning abortion on demand at its general meeting in August 2007.

The move toward abortion advocacy has caused concern from the Vatican, which has said that Amnesty no longer will be considered a defender of human rights if it makes this move.