Abortion Better than Adoption says European Parliamentary Assembly Proposal

Life Site ^ | 6/23/08 | Hilary White

[ZGuy]

The UK's Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) has warned that an initiative of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) will bring the EU closer to mandating unrestricted legal abortion for its member states.

PACE has proposed a draft resolution on the problem of the abandonment of children, particularly newborns, in Europe. But as with most discussions of the problems facing mothers, the resolution quickly reveals the strong pro-abortion mindset of its drafters, who call on member states to push for greater liberalisation of abortion restrictions.

The resolution reads, "To fight against abandonment, the Assembly invites member states inter alia to ensure the right of women to freely choose maternity," language that is acknowledged in international politics to mean the "right" to have access to abortion. The vote for the resolution is set for Friday 27 June.

The draft resolution notes the reintroduction in some countries of the idea of the "foundling wheel" system, first pioneered in Catholic countries in the middle ages, that allows mothers to leave their children in the care of modern medical facilities with subsequent access to social services and adoption without identifying themselves. Modern "baby hatches" in hospitals or social centres are safe for the child and include sensors that alert workers when a baby has been put in it. In Germany, babies are first cared for for eight weeks, during which time the mother can return and claim her child without any legal repercussions. If this does not happen, after eight weeks the child is put up for adoption.

But the authors of the draft resolution have downplayed this pro-life solution, hinting that it encourages criminal activity and human trafficking and calling it "controversial". The real solution, the resolution implies, is abortion.

"Even where voluntary termination of pregnancy is permitted, it is subject to countless administrative formalities all of which constitute obstacles to many women in distress." The document goes on to say that "abandonment of newborn babies clearly raises the question of access for women - particularly migrant women - to sexual rights and reproductive health services" - in other words, abortion.

Ominously, the document also hints that abortion is morally superior to adoption, implying that solutions such as foundling wheels only encourage adoption, which, it says, "is closely tied up with abandonment, just as it is with child trafficking."

"The Assembly notes that adoption has become a market and that the shortage of adoptable babies in the west makes matters worse," the resolution says. The foundling wheel solution is downgraded in the resolution, which says, "In many cases, the abandonment of children is considered a crime, and this system is seen by some as inciting crime and taking responsibility away from mothers."

In the document's next paragraph, abortion is proposed as a solution superior to that of allowing the child to live and be adopted. "For the Assembly, the abandonment of newborn babies clearly raises the question of access for women - particularly migrant women - to sexual rights and reproductive health services."

SPUC says that although the resolution contains some good aspects, such as a call for greater support for women in crisis pregnancies, the draft resolution and its accompanying report are seriously flawed in that they promote abortion as a solution.

The organization also notes that the "high-jacking" of the draft resolution by "pro-abortion extremism" is "shocking", but not surprising given that it was drafted by the strongly pro-abortion British MP Mike Hancock, under the chairmanship of Christine McCafferty, a leader of the abortion lobby in the British parliament.

The Council of Europe is the oldest and largest of the pan-European bodies and is distinct from the European Union. It has a Parliamentary Assembly consisting of representatives of 47 member-states. Although the Parliamentary Assembly cannot pass laws, it does pass resolutions which may have significant influence on EU law.

[HoosierHawk]

Ominously, the document also hints that abortion is morally superior to adoption, implying that solutions such as foundling wheels only encourage adoption, which, it says, "is closely tied up with abandonment, just as it is with child trafficking."

That's a huge leap...

[BienHoa69-70 RVN]

Wonderful concept. Why not extend it to curing poverty by killing off the poor or to reducing the number of people with birth defects by killing them as soon as the defect is discovered after they are born. Better yet, the Eurocrats can control population growth by mandating abortion unless the state allows a particular baby to be born. (sarc)

[proudmilitarymrs]

As an adoptive mother I can unequivocally declare them

WRONG!!!!!!!!!!

mrs

[Burkean]

Why not just decriminalize killing a child up to two weeks after birth—call it post partum abortion. That will give men a choice in whether they want to raise or abort the child and it will be going back to Margaret Sanger’s eugenics roots.

[gridlock]

For all of it's flaws, Roe vs. Wade was based upon the notion of balancing the rights of the woman to privacy against the right of the unborn to life. Now, many think the calculus was wrong, and that the decision is thus flawed. But at least the argument was not about utility.

Now we have gone past that. The advocates of Embryonic Stem Cell Research openly make utilitarian arguments, saying that the potential benefits of the research outweigh the value of the life of the embryos destroyed. In order to make these arguments, of course, they exaggerate the potential benefits and denigrate the miracle that each embryo represents. They place them on the balance, and find against life.

Similarly advocates of Right to Die, now morphing into Duty to Die are making overtly utilitarian arguments, saying that the value of the life of terminally ill patients does not justify the expenditures necessary to keep them alive. Of course, this argument is never static, and as soon as society accepts one scenario that seems clear-cut, the next scenario, less clear-cut, is advanced. Before long you have a situation such as exists in The Netherlands, where the elderly are afraid to go to the hospital for medical care because they fear they will be involuntarily terminated.

Now you see the value of the unborn being weighed against the problem of abandonment. In order to make this argument, the simple solution to abandonment must be ignored and the life value of the unborn must be set at near zero. Unfortunately, such things are inevitable once the argument is shifted to matters of utility. We all know that this road leads to the gas chambers, but nobody seems willing to get off or stop.

[Salvation]

Abortion is never better than adoption. Abortion kills a soul, adoption allows that child to live.

1:

CCC Search Result - Paragraph # 2271  (618 bytes )  preview document matches 1 Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, URL: http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/para/2271.htm

97%

2:

CCC Search Result - Paragraph # 2272  (580 bytes )  preview document matches 2 Formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave offense. The Church attaches the canonical penalty of excommunication to this crime against human life. "A URL: http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/para/2272.htm

96%

3:

CCC Search Result - Paragraph # 2322  (290 bytes )  preview document matches 2 From its conception, the child has the right to life. Direct abortion, that is, abortion willed as an end or as a means, is a "criminal" practice (GS 27 § 3), URL: http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/para/2322.htm

96%

4:	CCC Search Result - Paragraph # 2274  (554 bytes )  preview document matches gravely opposed to the moral law when this is done with the thought of possibly inducing an abortion, depending upon the results: a diagnosis must not be the equivalent URL: http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/para/2274.htm

[Salvation]

Pray for an end to abortion and the conversion of the world to a mindset of life!

[correctthought]

abortion is morally superior to adoption — just plain evil

[<1/1,000,000th%]

“The assembly immediately voted to abort themselves and recessed for the procedure.”

[vimto]

Quite right...

President Reagan “I notice all those in favor of abortion have been born.”

[HoosierHawk]

Yeah it is.

[GSWarrior]

I notice the Assembly failed to seek out the opinions of those who were aborted, who, undoubtedly, would offer a differing opinion.

[PGR88]

Before long, these people will, in the name of Govt, be able to kill anyone they like and call it postpartum abortion....

[gridlock]

After all, if government bears the expense for your medical care, your housing, your food, your heat and your transportation, shouldn’t the government have the responsibility to balance those expenses against the value you produce for society?

The problem, in a nutshell, of making other people responsible for your maintenance is that other people value your maintenance much less highly than you do.

[Blood of Tyrants]

There is not one country in western Europe that does not have a birth rate above the death rate. If they insist on extinction, then they shall become extinct.

[Scotswife]

“But the authors of the draft resolution have downplayed this pro-life solution, hinting that it encourages criminal activity and human trafficking and calling it “controversial”. The real solution, the resolution implies, is abortion. “

Ya gotta love the liberal outlook.

criminal activity - bad
human trafficking - bad
killing babies - good

[fella]

ensure the right of women to freely choose maternity

Don't women freely choose maternity just before they part their feet for some man. It seem that they want multiple choices after that.