Assassinated Pakistan Leader Benazir Bhutto Was Strong Abortion Opponent

Life News ^ | 12/27/07 | Steven Ertelt

[wagglebee]

Islamabad, Pakistan (LifeNews.com) -- The world mourned the loss of assassinated Pakistani leader Benazir Bhutto on Thursday, but her death was more than a setback for those hoping for democracy in this war-torn nation. Bhutto was a member of an international pro-life women's movement that understood abortion causes medical, mental health and other problems for women.

When Bhutto was the prime minister of Pakistan, she helped lead a delegation to the 1994 Cairo population conference that confronted abortion advocates looking to make abortion an international right.

"I dream ...of a world where we can commit our social resources to the development of human life and not to its destruction," she told the United Nations panel at the time.

Bhutto was one of only two women to address the conference.

Instead of telling women in nations where population growth is an issue that they should kill their offspring, Bhutto told world leaders that the best solutions is "tackling infant mortality, by providing villages with electrification, by raising an army of women."

She hoped to "educate our mothers, sisters, daughters, in child welfare and population control, by setting up a bank run by women for women, to help women achieve economic independence, and to have the wherewithal to make independent choices.”

Bhutto warned conference participants that "this conference must not be viewed by the teeming masses of the world as a universal social charter seeking to impose adultery, abortion...and other such matters on individuals, societies and religions which have their own social ethos."

One of the leading pro-life women's groups in the United States, Feminists for Life of America, honored Bhutto in the 1998 issue of its publication The American Feminist. The group named Bhutto as one of the first and best "remarkable pro-life women" around the world.

"Prime Minister Bhutto advocated a more holistic approach to resolving population-control issues worldwide," the group said of the Pakistani leader.

FFLA said Bhutto prefers "the empowerment of women" over their destruction via abortion.

Related web sites:
Feminists for Life of America - http://www.feministsforlife.org

[Spacetrucker]

Sane voice? I don’t know that I completely agree with that sentiment - Benazir was a study in contradictions - avowed socialist in her governing policy, yet very West-friendly. She was educated at Harvard alongside Kathleen Kennedy-Townsend, yet very much a populist in her approach to politics. She was beloved by many of the Pakistani people, yet was constantly embroiled in corruption (which is why she was ousted from office over 8 years ago). And because of her corruption, she met the same fate (in a manner of speaking) as her father. I was shocked upon learning of her death, but not wholly suprised - she engendered much derision and hatred amongst the radical Islamist factions in her country, but continued to “press the flesh” at her political gatherings. We shall see, but my main concern right now is the immediate term stability of the government core institutions - namely the military and the nuclear arsenal. This could be something the islamists could use to forment an uprising and takeover, but methinks that “W” would step in before that was allowed to occur.

[Ann Archy]

Prime Minister Bhutto advocated a more holistic approach to resolving population-control issues worldwide," the group said

ANY person who says "population control" loses me!

[Clemenza]

Corrupt as she was (though her father was worse) Bhutto was excellent on this issue. I remember an interview on 60 minutes when she pointed out to Lesley Stahl how interesting it was how western nations kept lecturing the (nonwhite) nonwestern nations to produce “less children.”