There is no such thing as
a “right to abortion.” There is, however, such a thing as “reproductive
rights,” though the misuse of such a phrase on the national and international
level has tainted it with such immoral connotations that it is almost impossible
to use.
For example, who would not
acknowledge the right people have to be free of the type of coercion we
hear about in the “one-child policy” of China? The freedom to seek to raise
a family, with the number of children one desires, within the framework
of moral law, is a right that needs to be defended from efforts to coerce
one either to have or not to have children.
But there is a big difference
between the choice to have a child and the choice to kill a child. Because
abortion kills a child who already exists, it is in no way a “right.”
The language of the supporters
of legal abortion in our country includes many references to “rights.”
This is true also on an international level. At the present time, moreover,
abortion supporters are seeking to declare abortion to be an international
right and even a “human right.”
What is the purpose of an
attempt like that, and how is it being made?
The purpose is to circumvent
whatever progress may be made on national levels to maintain or restore
legal protection to the pre-born. Many countries still have such protection
on some level.
But many more are drawn into
the fierce battle over whether that should remain the case. Each side,
moreover, sees the right they are defending as an absolute. No matter what
the majority may say to the contrary, we will always maintain that the
right to life must be protected.
Abortion supporters have
also admitted that whatever the majority may say to the contrary, the “right”
to abortion must be protected. With a world made ever smaller by modern
communication, the battle is more and more about the international right
to life.
The effort to make abortion
an international “right” is being advanced by means of United Nations Conferences,
and by a particular combination of phrases and declarations. “Women’s rights
are human rights” is one of the code phrases now used in such circles.
When this is combined with
the assertion, “Women have reproductive rights” and the further assertion
that “the human rights of women are universal,” then despite the truths
that can be found in each of these statements, the door is also opened
to the conclusion that the right to obtain an abortion is a reproductive
right which is universal and, in fact, a human right.
A country, then, which
protects its unborn children by law, would be seen as offending human rights
which should be enforced internationally.
From the point of view of
the pro-life movement, then, our ultimate goal in regard to law is not
only an eventual amendment to the US Constitution and other national constitutions,
protecting the children in the womb. It is, rather, an international law
protecting pre-born children all over the world.
(Father Pavone is the
international director of Priests for Life).
