UN pressure on abortion

Malta has come under intense pressure by the United Nations for maintaining its opposition to abortion, writes Gudrun Schultz in Canadian LifeSiteNews.com:

Most Maltese citizens would support a constitutional amendment enshrining the unborn child’s right to life, a new survey has found. Eighty-four percent of those questioned said they agreed with the survey question, which asked, “Do you agree with the proposed Constitutional amendment to provide the unborn child with the right to life and, therefore, protect Malta further from the possibility of abortion being legalized in the future?” Only eight percent of respondents voted against the proposal, and 7.7 percent said they were not sure.

While abortion is illegal in the tiny, strongly Catholic nation, there have been growing concerns that future efforts by abortion advocates could potentially undermine legal protection for the unborn without constitutional protection in place...Gift of Life claims it has collected 20,150 signatures in favour of the proposal, calling on the government to follow through on its declared support for greater protection for the unborn. According to Gift of Life, the amendment is backed by 34 of 65 MPs. The survey, which questioned 300 households, was conducted by Informa Consultants.

Malta has come under intense pressure by the United Nations for maintaining its opposition to abortion. In 2004 the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights released an official recommendation calling for the Maltese government to reconsider prohibiting abortions, particularly in cases of rape or incest. In response, the Bishops of Malta issued a press release saying, “The United Nations Committee’s pressure on the Maltese State to legalise abortion in certain circumstances is objectionable and unacceptable. We regret very much the United Nations Committee’s decision to make such unfortunate pressure on our country.”...