Pleading for Amnesty

Amnesty International is considering adopting a policy regarding reproductive freedom, which may include acceptance of abortion as such. In response, although I am not a member, but only an interested party, I sent the following letter. I urge my readers who are in accordance to do the same.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

As an ordinary citizen who has heard nothing but positive things about the admirable work of Amnesty International, I read with trepidation about your proposal to formulate a policy regarding a woman's right to have access to abortion.

Oddly enough, I heard of this in the same week that I read the article entitled, "Running Out of the Darkness" in the May 1, 2006, issue of Time Magazine, which describes the efforts of an underground railroad to rescue individuals from oppression, forced imprisonment and torture in North Korea. The article begins with the story of Kim Myong Suk, a twenty-year old woman who was imprisoned while five months pregnant. Kim was tortured by means of abortion:

"Hwang [Myong Dong, a North Korean prison guard] referred repeatedly to the baby as 'the Chink,' because the father was a peasant from northeastern China, where Kim had fled earlier that year. As she lay on the prison floor, Hwang demanded that she abort the fetus herself. She refused, so the guard began kicking her in the stomach. Then he beat her and, as her sister screamed, continued beating Kim until she blacked out. When she regained consciousness, she says, she 'was taken to a clinic in the camp, and in the most blunt manner, they removed {the fetus} from my body.'"

The potential for oppressive governments to use abortion as a means to torture women should be of great concern to Amnesty International; and this abuse must take precedence over taking any stand to promote abortion by allegedly-free choice. While women's civil rights remain oppressed, we will never be able to guarantee each woman the right to choose birth and be free from this form of torture.

May I also mention that it is not just in oppressive countries where abortion is abused? I, myself, was forced to abort when I was a sixteen-year old girl who made the mistake of getting pregnant. Those who should have supported me used the legality of abortion to solve their own problem, and used the threat of abandonment to force me to do what I did not want to do. This is not reproductive freedom, and my right to choose was not protected. No one beat me, but that does happen to girls and women who do not want to comply with the coercion of others to abort their unwanted children, as evidenced by the fact, offered to us by the National Organization of Women, that homicide is the leading cause of death among pregnant women. From this, we see that violence against women who are with child is a serious problem.

I respectfully ask you to refrain from supporting abortion, a violent act that succeeds only in further enslaving women. Even in cases of rape and incest, abortion is not a solution for abused women. All too often, it is the one who has initially victimized the woman who uses abortion to hide his crime; this will happen more often than not in nations where women's rights are already suppressed. The best possible stance for Amnesty International to take, and the position that is most consistent with its goal to protect human rights and human life, is one that opposes the violence of abortion.

Thank you very much for your time and your consideration of my letter. It is my hope that AI will take the high road, and choose to protect women, and to protect life from its very beginnings.