Bruce Kent says: Women are not human
Bruce Kent in the Guardian

"It is outrageous for Williams to suggest that the church wants to punish those teenage girls in the developing world who are dying because of unsafe abortions."

It is not in the least outrageous. We judge by deeds, not words. The Catholic Church is arguing that it is only right that teenage girls in the developing world, raped and abused, should not be able to obtain abortions: that the 80 000 women worldwide who die because their country does not permit them to obtain safe legal abortions, die in a good cause. To argue that a teenage girl, raped in a war zone, abandoned by her family, desperate for an abortion, ought not to be allowed to have an abortion, *is* a straightforward argument that such girls deserve punishment, not help and support. (We'll bear in mind, too, that the Magdalene Houses in Ireland, designed for the Catholic Church to punish pregnant teenage girls, were closed down less than 20 years ago.)

"Unborn children also have human rights."

But those human rights do not include the right to make use of another human being's body against her will. No human has the right to use someone else's body for their own purposes without that person's consent - not even to save their lives. This argument is logical, Bruce, if and only if you do not consider that pregnant women are human.

"Why should Amnesty now leave its traditional focus and take up a position supporting abortion? "

Because women are human, too. To claim that the women who are suffering because the laws of their country deny them abortions - who are unjustly detained and cruelly treated - are not part of Amnesty's traditional focus - is yet more evidence that you do not consider women to be human, and that you do not consider that we too have rights not to be unjustly detained and cruelly treated.

"I very much hope that Amnesty's leadership will see this as a flexible way forward which will respect the consciences of many supporters."

Thank you for reminding me to ensure I vote against allowing people who do not consider women to be human to determine where Amnesty subscription money goes.