Online petition - please sign

The following is from a comment left by a poster on this blog, I think it is worth highlighting. Thanks to Bill Samuel of Consistent Life for this.

The movement of Amnesty International in the direction of recognizing a “right” to kill an unborn child is a matter of great distress to its consistent-life constituency. All those who report on having called AI’s national office in the United States received curt responses stating that AI is maintaining neutrality, in contradiction to the form letters the same people receive after writing to AI. We have found no indication that the phone calls or the letters are being tallied in order to give decision-makers an accurate assessment of the widespread dismay their decisions can cause. The “policy consultation process” the form letter claims to be underway must be problematic when those who call are not having their names and addresses taken down, while being told emphatically that this process is nothing but a rumor. Accordingly, Consistent Life, an international network for peace, justice and life, is organizing a drive to allow this constituency to be registered and counted (see text below). All those who have ever supported AI are invited to sign it at: www.petitionspot.com/petitions/consistentlife

AOL poll

AOL news used the piece from AP on the issue recently. There is a poll on their site (quite unofficial); far b eit from me to influence how you vote in it, but the link is here.

Associated Press article: Religious Groups Outraged by AI Proposal

AP has recently covered the issue - the article has been copied in several blogs, so the link is just in case you haven't seen it yet. It is all great publicity for those people (especially AI members) who were unaware of this proposal. ...keep spreading the word folks.

US Pro-Life blog claims the campaign is hitting the headlines

The US based Prolifeblogs.com is claiming that the campaign to stop AI changing its stance on abortion is beginning to hit the headlines. This is great news. In the UK the number of column inches and media reports have decreased since the AI UK Annual General Meeting. So it is important to keep the momentum going. If you have not written to AI yet, please contact them. If you have written to them I would be very grateful for a copy of their response....unfortunately I am not getting much out of them at the moment.

AI UK seems a little coy about all of this

In May I first phoned the Amnesty International offices in London to find out the official position of AI on the issue of abortion. I registered a complaint that as a member I had not been informed of the motions being put to the AI and was told that I should have received information in February 2006: I did not receive that, and I know that other members did not receive their packs, but the Royal Mail has its faults. Anyway the guys at AI were apologetic and told me they would post a pack out to me immediately. I asked them to post to me any other information that they had, as they were most insistent that the press and media reports on AI UK's abortion policy were wrong. I waited...and waited...and waited...a letter and a couple of gentle reminders by phone have still not been fruitful. The wait continues.

New Campaign to give amnesty to the unborn

The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children has launched an online Amnesty for Babies campaign. Patrick Buckley, a spokesman for SPUC, said preborn children are deserving of amnesty. "The word 'amnesty' comes from the Greek word 'amnestos' which means 'the forgotten ones,' " he said. "Who more than the unborn babies are nowadays the 'forgotten ones' -- particularly those which are aborted." Buckley is calling for people and legislators around the world to sign a petition that asks governments not to legalize abortion. Jeanne Head, the National Right to Life Committee's representative to the United Nations, said leaders need to hear from the people. "We need to get millions and millions of people signing on from all over the world," she said. "We need to have a positive campaign, because all of the treaty documents in the United Nations, up until this point, do provide protection for unborn children." Thomas Jacobson, Focus on the Family's representative to the U.N., pointed out the irony of preborn children needing protection from a group centered on amnesty. "We commend SPUC for this noble and essential campaign," he said, "to counter the terrible and misguided decision of some Amnesty International organizations to support abortion." FOR MORE INFORMATION:To learn more about the petition and to download copies, visit the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children website