More From The Lovely Catholic Church

The most abhorrent quality of the most zealous pro-life fanatics is their sheer devotion to life over and above quality of life. A child and its parents could be terribly unhappy because of some circumstance, perhaps the child was conceived due to rape or is severely disabled, but all that concerns the pro-lifer is the life of itself. It’s so un-wholistic you can’t help being shocked by it. What they espouse is essentially that you deserve to be unhappy if the alternative is the removal of the potential for a life — lets remember we’re talking about bundles of cells here.

As well, it strikes me as hypocritical: I’m sure many of those same fanatical pro-lifers are chuffed to have a huge steak from a living cow on the plate in front of them, but killing some completely non-sentient cells is a no-no.

I bring this up due to the pronouncement from the Vatican today that Amnesty International should be boycotted as they have had the sheer audacity to say that women who have been victims of rape, incest or other violence should have the right to a legal and safe abortion. An Amnesty spokesman described their position,

	"It was partly inspired by our experience in Africa where soldiers rape women in communities they attack to force them to have their children. We also believe women who have had abortions should benefit from medical care regardless of the reason for the abortion. Moreover we aim to promote education and contraception to reduce abortion rates."

Amnesty are not saying they are pro- or anti-abortion, just making the statement that a woman should have the right to make their own choice available. But no, this isn’t okay by the Catholic church. They want a woman to be coerced into bearing an unwanted child.

It’s frankly sickening that an organisation claiming to be caring can hold this position.