Melbourne, Australia, Sep 21, 2007 / 07:05 am
Amnesty International’s abortion reversal is causing a reaction that is larger than the group may have believed possible. The head of the Catholic Education Office in Melbourne, Australia, Mr. Stephen Elder, has urged all 328 of the archdiocese’s schools to sever their connections to the human rights group.
Elder’s letter called on schools to "convey their disappointment" to AI, because they decided earlier this year to abandon their long-standing neutral position on abortion and to begin lobbying governments that ban abortion to decriminalize it.
The move was reaffirmed at the organization's International Council Meeting in Mexico City last month, which was attended by more than 400 international delegates.
Elder said that his office made repeated attempts to contact Amnesty over the issue to raise its "serious concerns about the policy". However, despite their efforts to discuss the new stance the talks proved fruitless.