[This is the third in a historical series describing the work of the radically feminist CEDAW committee of the UN]
The Bill on Women’s Rights – A Cover for Legalising Abortion
The Bill on Women’s Rights will soon be tabled in parliament. For the following grave reasons, this bill should not be enacted.
The Bill on Women’s Rights Legalises CEDAW
The objective of the bill is the advancement of women’s rights in accordance with the framework of CEDAW - The Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women - and of the Women’s Charter, which is based on CEDAW. CEDAW is fundamentally flawed as demonstrated below.
CEDAW undermines National Sovereignty
Article 2 of CEDAW requires Sri Lanka “to repeal all national penal provisions” and “to abolish laws” and even “change the national Constitution” if so instructed by the UN’s CEDAW Committee.
CEDAW Requires the Legalisation of Abortion without Restrictions
The CEDAW Committee which monitors the implementation of CEDAW worldwide, requires that abortion is legalised and made available on demand to all women, and to girls as young as 10 years, at any time during pregnancy . The CEDAW Committee also objects to conscientious objections of doctors who refuse to commit abortions .
The Women’s Charter which constitutes the Schedule to the Bill, and which is based on CEDAW, states that a woman should have the right to “control her reproductivity” . The right to control reproductivity is an established euphemism for the “right” to commit abortion on a child. The Women’s Charter also requires that the State should ensure women’s access to “family planning devices” . These devices cause early abortion of a child and are harmful to women .
Abortion Kills a Child
The right to life is the most fundamental of all human rights and all other rights proceed from it. Abortion violates the right to life of a human being at the earliest stage of her existence. Ultrasonic stethoscopy reveals that our heart was beating 18 days after our conception . Further the neurological structures necessary for pain sensation develop towards the end of the first month . It follows that surgical abortion stops a beating heart and the child senses the torture when being dismembered and killed during the abortion.
Abortion violates Women
Abortion harms the mother both physically and psychologically regardless of whether it is illegal or legal . Legal and “safe” abortions continue to kill and maim mothers in countries where abortion has been legalised. The association between abortion and breast cancer and the trauma of the post-abortion syndrome (PAS) are well established.
CEDAW is anti-woman and anti-family
CEDAW defines “discrimination against women” as any distrinction made on the basis of sex , thus negating the distinction between what is specifically male and female. CEDAW states that “a change in the traditional role of men as well as women in society and family is needed to achieve equality” . Sri Lankans are to be indoctrinated with this radical feminist ideology via the revision of school textbooks .
CEDAW is against Motherhood, and is Anti-Religion
CEDAW also requires the reducing of care towards pregnant women , assaults motherhood , undermines religion , and requires the legalisation of prostitution .
For the sake of our women and girls, for the sake of our preborn children, and for the good of marriage and family it is vital that the Bill on Women’s Rights, which gives legal provision to CEDAW, is rejected.
Footnotes
cf. the preamble and Part 1, section 2, of the Bill on Women’s Rights (draft of February 2004, issues by the Ministry of Women’s Empowerment
Article 2 of CEDAW, sections (a), (f), (g)
cf., for example, “Women and Health Mainstreaming the Gender Perspective into the Health Sector, Expert Group Meeting, Tunis, Tunisia, 28 September – 2 October 1998, United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women (EGM/HEALTH/1998/Report).
cf. Also, for example, the CEDAW committee’s instructions to Mexico (May 14, 1998), Colombia (February 4, 1999), Chile (July 9, 1999), Peru (July 8, 1998), Zimbabwe (May 14, 1998), Myanmar (January 28, 2000), Luxembourg (January 21, 2000), Slovenia (January 23, 1997), Ireland (July 1, 1999), Italy (August 12, 1997), Croatia (May 14, 1998), Uruguay, January 28, 2002), Portugal (January 23, 2002), Jordan (January 27, 2000), Nepal (July 1, 1999), United Kindom and Northern Ireland (July 1, 1999), Liechtenstein (February 1, 1999).
cf. The CEDAW Committee’s reprimands to Croatia (May 14, 1998), Italy (August 12, 1997), Zimbabwe (May 14, 1998)
The Women’s Charter, Schedule to the Bill on Women’s Rights, article 13, section (iii) (a)
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cf. for example, Croxatto, H. B. et al., Contraception, 49, 1994, 56-72; Saoban, M. M. et al., Fertility and Sterility, 59(5), 1993, 998-1002.
Howard, J. C., Director of the American Bioethics Advisory Commission, January 19, 2001
cf. for example, Anand, K. J. S., Anaesthesiology, 2001, 95 (4), 823-825; Collins, V. J., Principles of Anesthesiology (Third Edition, Williams and Wilkins, 1992).
cf., for example http://www.afterabortion.org/physica.html
cf., for example http://www.afterabortion.org/psychol.html
Article 1 of CEDAW
Preamble to the articles of CEDAW
CEDAW articles 5(a), 10(c), and the Women’s Charter, article 9(v).
cf, for example, CEDAW Committee instructions to Belarus (January 31, 2000), the Czech Republic (May 14, 1998), Russia (January 28, 2002), etc.
cf, for example, the CEDAW Committee’s instructions to Austria (June 15, 2000), Estonia (January 30m 2002), Uzbekistan (February 2, 2001), etc.
cf. for example, the CEDAW Committee’s instructions to Ireland (july 1, 1999), Libya (April 12, 1994), China (February 3, 1999), etc.
cf. for example, the CEDAW Committee’s instructions to China (February 3, 1999), Mexico (May 14, 1998), Germany (February 2, 2000), etc.