Maria Horan: Amnesty's latest desperate attempt to change Northern Ireland's abortion law
Amnesty has just got more and more desperate with its latest publicity stunt of 67 names of “high profile” women in an open letter to Theresa May to change the abortion law in Northern Ireland. Quite frankly, I had never even heard of 39 of these women beforehand and only recognised another seven with the aid of a photo. And why established actors such as Kristin Scott Thomas and ”political activist” Vanessa Redgrave agreed to join this list with an FHM “Sexiest Woman” finalist and a Victoria’s Secret lingerie model is anyone’s guess.
This group of “celebrities” have collectively shown their political ignorance, in siding with Amnesty’s latest tedious attempt to push abortion on Northern Ireland. With what can only be described as post-colonial arrogance, and with no authority other than their own, these “celebrities”, 57 of whom are British, have decided they speak for all Northern Irish men and women but like Amnesty, choose to ignore the recent ComRes survey where 66% of Northern Irish women stated that they don't want Westminster ruling on abortion imposed on them. And only two of the list are from Northern Ireland (and should have known better), amounting to a grand total of 2.9% of the entire 67. How utterly patronising.
With breathtaking arrogance, these “entertainers” want to impose a UK abortion regime on Northern Ireland that has demonstrated itself to be dysfunctional and downright dangerous. It is simply extraordinary that all of these women have chosen to ignore the many deeply troubling facts about the UK abortion industry, including but not limited to Marie Stopes’ particularly desperate record, almost 400 botched abortions in two months, staff reporting a cattle market atmosphere and receiving bonuses for reaching abortion targets, as well as Irish resident Aisha Chithira who bled to death outside the Marie Stopes clinic in Ealing in 2012.
And what is even more tragic is that the eighteen women of colour on the list have chosen to side with an industry that is deeply racist and has demonstrated itself to disproportionately target women of colour, both in the Western world (for example, more African American babies aborted than born in New York) as well as its thinly disguised eugenics masquerading as population control in developing countries, all aided by wealthy white Westerners, eager to impose their worldview on those with brown and black skin. For example, in recent years, funding to Africa for education, health and water has dropped, while contraception and abortion have risen. As Uju Ekeocha has stated, it's cheaper to buy a bag of condoms than a bottle of water. But this should come as no surprise, as Hitler fan, Marie Stopes and Planned Parenthood’s Ku Klux Klan speaker Margaret Sanger were both rabid eugenicists. And clearly, no-one on the list is even remotely questioning of these origins of the well-oiled Money Machine AKA The Modern Abortion Industry.
What is also concerning is that seventeen of the names on the list are comedians and comic writers. And this was the best that Amnesty could cobble together? Amnesty expects us to listen to female comedians who make a living from their derogatory remarks about women's bodies, yet we should take them seriously as campaigners for women's rights. And why must we listen to their prattling on about “reproductive justice” (as C-Fam’s Susan Yoshihara explains, has become a UN and WHO slogan for sneaking in abortion on demand to various global laws), when to fit in amongst a patriarchal world of male comedians, these “comedians” ridicule and refer to women's reproductive organs as a source of entertainment?
Since when did entertainers become experts in such serious topics as abortion? What science, stats and facts have these 67 women studied to demonstrate their credibility to the public? And when did it become acceptable for such individuals to foist their [all too frequently unsolicited] opinions on the rest of us? It is patronising and demeaning that groups such as Amnesty think that the general public will be swayed by some opinion of an actress they've seen on TV, not to mention attempting to persuade a political head of state to change a law because a group of “popular entertainers” wrote a letter to her. Just who does Amnesty think it is? `
In this day and age, there is no excuse for these 67 women to be ignorant on the credentials of a supposed “charity” with a very shady side. For example:
- Amnesty changed its stance of neutrality on abortion in 2007, thus losing thousands of members, many of whom had supported the group for decades, and therefore abandoning the founder’s mission for prisoners of conscience
- Despite the endless human rights violations throughout the world, for the last few years, Amnesty Ireland has been completely obsessed with legalising abortion throughout the Emerald Isle, including through erroneously claiming that Irish women are criminals for seeking abortions, thus putting real human rights issues on the backburner
- Amnesty fully supports legalised prostitution and refuses to back the Nordic Model, which prosecutes the “buyer” but not the prostitute, despite appeals from women such as Mia de Faoite whose own life was decimated by prostitution and Julie Bindel in her analyses on how its legalisation benefits men and victimises women
- Despite claiming to be “pro-women’s rights”, Amnesty doesn't mind taking money from “old white men” and has refused to return illegal funds of €137,000 from George Soros which they used to help repeal the Eighth Amendment in the Republic of Ireland
- Amnesty is currently supporting the case of a woman in Northern Ireland whose fifteen-year-old child appears to have been coerced by her mother into taking abortion pills, that with no medical expertise, the mother bought online; this is urgently in need of social services investigation but this violation of a child’s health and bodily integrity has been conveniently ignored by Amnesty, as her human rights don't suit their agenda
Amnesty Ireland (headed by a man) is still desperately trying to persuade the public that it is female-centred. However, just like the global abortion industry, in its increasingly more ridiculous attempts to force a change to Northern Irish law, all Amnesty manages to demonstrate is a deep-seated contempt and misogyny towards all women and girls.