Religious Leaders Ask Obama To Loosen Abortion Restrictions Abroad

[Novara]

Religious Leaders Ask Obama To Loosen Abortion Restrictions Abroad

WASHINGTON — A dozen religious leaders called on President Barack Obama on Thursday to make it easier for rape survivors in foreign countries to access safe abortion care.

The Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (RCRC) wants “swift executive action” on expanding the Obama Administration’s interpretation of the Helms Amendment, which applies to foreign aid. The 1973 regulation prohibits federal funding from paying for abortion “as a method of family planning” or from encouraging anyone to seek an abortion.

“In cases of rape or incest, or when a woman’s life is at risk, abortion is clearly not family planning,” Rev. Harry Knox, president of the RCRC, said at a press conference Thursday morning.

The amendment has long been interpreted as a ban on U.S. support for any abortion services in programs it funds overseas. The coalition says that interpretation is overly strict.

“We are here today to not only say that this interpretation is wrong; it is morally bankrupt,” Knox said. “Obama talked about showing compassion… but he has failed to act with compassion.”

Knox’s group — which includes Catholics, Muslims, Jews and other Christian denominations — released a resolution it said that it would also deliver to the White House’s Council on Women and Girls in a Thursday afternoon meeting. The resolution called abortion a “vital component of the standard of care and compassion” for female rape survivors and labeled safe abortion as a key component of women’s health and rights.

At a press conference, the coalition specifically mentioned women and girls kidnapped and raped by Boko Haram, the terrorist group active in northern Nigeria, and ISIS, whose trafficking and rapes of Yazidi women from northern Iraq have been well-documented.

The first results from a Centers for Disease Control (CDC) multi-year global survey on violence against children, published today, offer a quantitative look at the problem of sexual violence. The CDC found that nearly 1 in 4 girls in the eight countries surveyed experienced sexual violence before turning 18.

Approximately 10% of girls in the seven of the survey countries had experienced forced sex, which can but does not always include rape (some countries’ definitions of rape are narrower than others).

Five of the seven countries whose results were released today are in sub-Saharan Africa, where rape as a weapon of war has received special attention in recent years.



Read more: http://www.buzzfeed.com/jinamoore/religious-leaders-ask-obama-to-loosen-abortion-restrictions#.htY2eOdm0j

[niyad]

1. that this should still be an issue is disgusting.

[Novara]

2. Agreed. Rape is a war crime here

Give the victims the dignity of letting them choose.

[niyad]

3. don't be silly. they are, after all, only women. not important.