The Vatican is urging Catholics not to donate to Amnesty International because, it says, the group selectively promotes abortion. The human rights organization says the church has misrepresented its policy and, in the process, imperiled human rights. The World Health Organization estimates that 70,000 women die every year from unsafe abortions.

Amnesty International Deputy Secretary Kate Gilmore says the group has been wrongfully targeted: “We are saying broadly that to criminalize women’s management of their sexual reproductive right is the wrong answer. … The Catholic Church, through a misrepresented account of our position on selective aspects of abortion, is placing in peril work on human rights.”

BBC:

Amnesty said it was not promoting abortion as a universal right.

But the group said that women had a right to choose, particularly in cases of rape or incest.

“No more financing of Amnesty International after the organisation’s pro-abortion about-turn,” said a statement from the Roman Catholic Church’s Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.

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#abortion#amnesty international#catholicism#charity#choice#health#human rights#pope#vatican