ABORTION AND HUMAN RIGHTS

Declaration of the Rights of the Child
Proclaimed by General Assembly resolution 1386 (XIV) of 20 November 1959

Preamble
Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have, in the Charter, reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights and in the dignity and worth of the human person, and have determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,

Whereas the United Nations has, in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, proclaimed that everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth therein, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status,

Whereas the child, by reason of his physical and mental immaturity, needs special safeguards and care, including appropriate legal protection, before as well as after birth,

Whereas the need for such special safeguards has been stated in the Geneva Declaration of the Rights of the Child of 1924, and recognised in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in the statutes of specialised agencies and international organisations concerned with the welfare of children. Whereas mankind owes to the child the best it has to give,

Now therefore, ...

Recognition of the right to family planning is contained in the UN
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).

Australia is a signatory to the CEDAW, adopted by the UN in 1979.

Article 12 states:

States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in the field of health care in order to ensure, on a basis of equality of men and women, access to health care services, including those related to family planning.

Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraph 1 of this article, State Parties shall ensure to women appropriate services in connection with pregnancy, confinement and the post-natal period, granting free service where necessary, as well as adequate nutrition during pregnancy and lactation.

The Convention goes on to say in Article 16 that:

States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women, in all matters relating to marriage and family relations and in particular shall ensure, on a basis of equality of men and women:

(e)The same rights to decide freely and responsibly on the number and spacing of their children and to have access to information, education and means to enable them to exercise these rights;…
[End of this Document]

Comment
The Queensland Right to Life position supports a woman's rights in regard to the planning of her family. A woman is able to exercise her right to decide whether to, or when, she will conceive a child. Some women may choose to use contraceptives, natural family planning or abstinence to help her control her fertility. However, once conception has occurred, a new, separate and unique human being is created, a human being who has the same right to life as that of the woman.

Therefore abortion should not be amongst the 'rights' extended to women as part of their fertility control. A woman's fertility control is to be exercised before a new life has been created within her.

A distinction needs to be made regarding the rights of women to prevent conception occurring and the rights which govern a newly conceived human being.

If 'Human Rights' is to be considered, abortion can not be regarded as acceptable fertility control.

Violation of Human Rights
The unborn child is the bearer of rights which are violated by abortion. In the common law world there is a complex mass of decisions relating to unborn children which are often difficult to reconcile. Their incoherence derives from the obvious fact that the unborn child is an individual organism of the human species, and the objective in certain respects is to ensure that he or she does not have the same rights as other human beings. The common law has not treated the unborn child as a legal person for all purposes. However it cannot be right that the most basic question - who is the subject of human rights - who is a member of our community under the rule of law - should be left piecemeal or incoherent either by the legislature or by the courts; and that it cannot be reasonably treated as a matter to be decided by arbitrary line drawing by the accidents of precedent.

This is an issue which, as a matter of basic principle, must be decided by informed reasoning. The thing that all those recognised as (natural) persons have in common is that they are living individuals of the human species. In law there was added a further thing in common: that they were already born. But that addition was made at a time when it could not be known, with any precision, what was growing within the womb and whether it was alive or dead. Modern knowledge entitles and strongly suggests that the courts recognise, at least for the purposes of the most basic protection, that the unborn fully share the one thing common in reality: being living individuals of the human species.

CHOOSE LIFE
by: Genny Edmonds (former QRTL State Secretary)

Basic Human Rights
Each person has the right to "life, liberty and security". These rights are inalienable and are expressed in many national constitutions and international charters. The right to life of all people is undisputed and indisputable. It is a 'core' right without which all other rights are meaningless.

If society accepts that unborn babies are human beings then it follows that they are entitled to the protection afforded by this right. The fact that the human foetus is weak, vulnerable and inconspicuous, is no reason to ignore or override her right to life. A failure to try to protect a person in these circumstances would demonstrate that rights for individuals are only acknowledged for those who exercise power or who are visible.

The right to life is for all not just for those who have some acknowledged tangible utility to society. Each of us may find ourselves excluded from the protection afforded by the right to life at some time if this right is regarded as optional or relative to the circumstances as they change from time to time.

Personhood
It is clear from the medical evidence at our fingertips that a pre-born person is a human being from the time of conception. To say otherwise is to make a convenient distinction such as has often been made throughout history with respect to the Jews, indigenous peoples including Aborigines in our own country and enemies in times of war.

To deny the humanity of a person because of that person's level of development or state of being (within or outside the womb) at a particular time is arbitrary and dangerous. The danger is not only for the person directly involved but also for each of us because we all have some genetic feature, political or religious belief, racial background, behavioural characteristic or be said to have done something undesirable in order that a similar arbitrary distinction can be made to make us non-persons if that was convenient.

The unborn child is not a part of his/her mother's body but is a unique human being, genetically, physiologically and organically distinct from both parents. The starting point for human life is the beginning, conception; deny that and we deny the evidence of modern genetics and embryologyy. When one accepts that the unborn child is a person the consequence is to provide that person with the same rights and protections as other people. The distinctions seeking to exclude a certain category of people from the definition of "person" are arbitrary and a rationalisation for certain actions which could not otherwise be reconciled with the basic tenet that all people have equal rights.

Some developmental facts which confirm the personhood of the unborn baby are:
18th to 24th day after conception - the little heart is beating.
28th day - muscles are developing along the future spine. Arms and legs are budding.
40 days - heart's energy output is 20 percent of adult's.
42nd day - skeleton is formed. Brain coordinates movements of muscles and organs.
8 weeks - every organ is present. Stomach produces gastric juices. Kidneys begin to function and liver makes blood cells.
12 weeks - Vigorous activity shows distinct individuality.

Rights of the Mother Verses Those of Her Unborn Child
Women have the same rights as other people but these are often seen to be in conflict with those of her unborn child. We cannot plead for justice and rights for ourselves and at the same time override the rights of those who are the most innocent anddependentt. In facing such painful problems as an unplanned or crisis pregnancy we should empathise with a woman and her unborn baby, supporting them through this time - so that they do not feel alienated or abandoned. A woman's rights begin when that woman begins. To make an arbitrary line in time to bestow rights upon an individual puts all of society at risk.
None of us has an absolute right to 'control our own body' as many abortion rights activists proclaim. Society forbids us to harm ourselves or to use our bodies to harm others. A woman ought not have the right to harm or kill the unborn child living within her. It is not acceptable, in any other context, for one person to trade off the life of another person against their own health or social or economic well being. The only case when one life can be taken legitimately is when another life is at stake.

Any law to protect the life of the unborn person is difficult to enforce. Some would say therefore that any such law would be a bad law. Because of the difficulty of preventing abortions, some argue that they ought to be freely available as an appropriate means of solving a problem. Unenforceability does not remove the duty of care nor lessen the moral or ethical consequences. Difficulty in enforcement is an inadequate excuse for not attempting to prevent an injustice. Further, if something is wrong, then to seek to implicate others as accomplices directly or indirectly, because they are health workers or providers of funds ( i.e. taxpayers) is untenable.

Conclusion
We were all tiny once, tiny but steadily developing. Journeying through each stage of life we are conceived, we are born, we grow through infancy, childhood and adolescence, eventually reach adulthood and then the final stages of life. It is our right to expect protection throughout each stage of our life. Just because we are small and unseen within our mothers' wombs does not mean those rights should be denied. The right to life is a 'core' right without which all other rights are meaningless. In seeking to protect the unborn there are some painful decisions to be made because many women are in situations of injustice. Creative non-violent solutions to such problems are far more desirable than abortion which is the ultimate social injustice. Even though the enforcement of laws to protect unborn babies is difficult, this does not remove the need to seek just solutions. Groups like Queensland Right to Life promote the rights of the unborn child in the struggle to reach just solutions for all.