San Jose Articles On The Status Of The Unborn Child

EDM number 2220 in 2010-12, proposed by Jim Dobbin on 10/10/2011.
Categorised under the topic of Medical ethics.

That this House welcomes the launch of the San Jose Articles on the Status of the Unborn Child in International Treaties and Law; further welcomes the declaration that in international law there is no right to abortion; further notes that the San Jose Articles are the work of leading international human rights lawyers, experts in international law, public health, philosophy, science/medicine, and other fields; notes that the laws of over two-thirds of all UN member states clearly recognises that unborn children deserve protection and that there is no human right to abortion whereas only 56 countries permit abortion for any reason, and only 22 of these are without restriction such as gestational period; regrets the subversive tactics of some UN agencies, non-governmental organisations and wealthier countries in bullying and manipulating nations into changing their laws on abortion by misquoting treaties; furthernotes these nations include the Irish Republic whose constitution protects the unborn child from conception and can boast of having the lowest maternal mortality rate in the world, eight times lower than the UK; salutes the Government and Opposition for their respect for Northern Ireland in defending their own law against abortion; and further calls on the Government to withhold support from UN officials and others who misquote treaties and international law to manipulate poorer countries and to require respect for the sovereignty of member nations on determining the law on abortion.

This motion has been signed by a total of 16 MPs.