Tozzi also pointed to the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights, which not only upholds a right to life but also singles out pregnant women as one of two groups – along with minor children – to whom the death penalty can never apply. In the case of pregnant women, he said, this is because the child is understood as a separate person whose life should be spared.
Similarly, he noted, the U.N.'s Convention on the Rights of the Child declares that children need “special safeguards and care, including appropriate legal protection, before as well as after birth.”
In terms of international law's second source—generally accepted customs—Tozzi said several countries' pro-life legislative efforts and achievements showed the lack of such an acceptance of abortion.
“A number of nations have tightened the laws on abortion, Russia most recently,” he said. “In 2009 the Dominican Republic’s government passed a constitutional amendment protecting life from conception; so too have more than half the Mexican states.” He noted that East Timor and Hungary have both adopted similar protections in recent years.
Even the outcome document of the 1995 Beijing Women's Conference, a non-binding source of guidance that caused controversy over the issue of abortion, did not speak of it as a right.
Instead, Tozzi noted, the document says that “where legal, it should be safe,” but that each country should be allowed to decide the matter for itself according to the idea of national sovereignty.
“But the pro-abortion strategy does not respect this principle,” observed Tozzi. “Instead, they bring lawsuits and count on activist judges to do their work.”
In an interview with CNA after his speech, Tozzi said pro-life advocates must be ready to correct those who speak of abortion as a right in international law.
“If, as often happens, groups claim that there's a right to abortion, it's important that people say 'No,' that there is not,” the international human rights lawyer advised.
“There is no such thing in international law as a 'right to abortion.' This is a concept that is completely fabricated by abortion advocates and their supporters in transnational organizations such as the United Nations.”
The assertion of such a right, he said, relies upon “the manipulation of language – to take something that is clear, such as protection 'from conception,' and twist it into its opposite.”
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“It's really the spirit of relativism,” he said, calling the strategy an “attack upon the truth as well as upon unborn life.”