Amnesty International is shifting its position on abortion, from its long-held neutral stance to one that regards abortion as a mother's right in certain circumstances. An association with the Catholic Church that dates from the charity's foundation is now under threat

Amnesty International's long and often fruitful relationship with the Catholic Church - its founder,  Peter Benenson, was a convert to Catholicism - could be finished if Catholic supporters of the human rights organisation heed the advice offered by Cardinal Renato Martino. Cardinal Martino, who as the Vatican's ambassador to the UN was known to be a keen supporter of Amnesty's work, gave an interview to National Catholic Register last week in which he said that Catholics should "withdraw their support" for Amnesty International (AI) because it had "betrayed its mission" by changing its long-standing neutral stance on abortion.

The issue has been rumbling away beneath the surface at Amnesty for a number of years and intensified following the launch of AI's Stop Violence Against Women campaign in 2003. The campaign, which aimed to raise awareness of domestic violence, forced and early marriage, and rape as a weapon of war, included a section on women's sexual and reproductive rights and thrust the issue of abortion back to centre stage.

Over the past two years Amnesty's 70 plus   sections worldwide have been engaged in a consultation process with the membership over whether to change the stance on abortion to one that favoured decriminalisation and access to abortion for victims of rape, incest and in cases where the mother's life was at risk. In the UK, where Amnesty International has its headquarters, a consultation of the membership was launched in September last year and revealed a slim majority in favour of retaining the neutral position. But following a lively debate, albeit one behind closed doors, at the AGM in Edinburgh earlier this year, the UK section voted for change.

A series of meetings followed and in April, AI's international executive committee confirmed the change. An historic shift in position certainly, but no one was informed beyond the membership.

"We don't compete against ourselves for media attention," AI's executive deputy secretary general Kate Gilmore, said this week, adding that the organisation did not put out press releases whenever it changed an aspect of its policy.

American members were informed via a "members-only" section of the website that the group "has adopted a new position on sexual and reproductive rights that includes support for abortion in very particular circumstances, in the context of our work to stop grave human rights abuses against women and girls".

Although several pro-life websites in the United States exposed the change, Amnesty did not come out publicly until after Cardinal Martino's comments were flashed around the world last week. Not only had Amnesty betrayed its mission, said the cardinal, it had also betrayed "all of its faithful supporters throughout the years ... who have trusted AI for its integral mission of promoting and protecting human rights".

The new policy commits Amnesty to working towards the decriminalisation of abortion in countries such as Nigeria, where women can find themselves on death row if they are found guilty of undergoing the procedure. It also seeks to recognise the right of women to access safe, legal abortions in cases of unwanted pregnancy as a result of rape, incest or if the life of the mother is in danger and to ensure access to medical treatment for women who have already had an abortion.

Although Cardinal Martino's and the Church's position on abortion remains absolute - "It is never justifiable to kill an innocent human life" - Amnesty's limited definition of when abortion is acceptable is likely to find supporters among some liberal Catholics.

But a great many Catholic members of AI wonder aloud why the organisation ever ventured into these troubled waters to begin with and fear that the move may be just a stepping stone on the way to pushing for recognition of a "human right" to abortion on demand, something AI categorically denies.

Bruce Kent, a lifelong Amnesty member and Catholic, who knew Benenson, told The Tablet: "From the beginning I thought it was completely unnecessary for AI to take up this issue. There are numerous organisations interested in advising and helping people with unwanted pregnancy. AI has always managed to not get involved with this. It's going to create a real problem."

Another Amnesty member told me that AI was making a "major error" which risked fracturing the human rights community. "One of the best things about Amnesty was that it was a genuine meeting place for secular-minded liberals and people from faith-based backgrounds," he said, adding that the move could make people of faith feel that they were no longer welcome in the organisation: "This move could turn AI into a ‘cold-house' for people of faith."

Amnesty's relationship with the Catholic Church goes back to the beginning of the organisation in 1961. Its founder, Peter Benenson, was from a Russian Jewish family but converted to Catholicism. Throughout AI's history Catholics have worked there and have at various points held key positions. Pope John Paul II is known to have admired its work and invited AI staff to the Vatican in the early years of his pontificate, following the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to the organisation in 1977. In 1998, AI was one of only three non-Catholic organisations (along with the Red Cross and the Council of Europe) invited to the first World Congress on the Pastoral Promotion of Human Rights hosted by the Vatican.

Following Cardinal Martino's interview on Wednesday, the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace issued a statement insisting that the "inevitable consequence" of Amnesty's decision was "the suspension of any financing to Amnesty on the part of Catholic organisations and individual Catholics". Amnesty categorically denied receiving funds from the Vatican, although it did say that it welcomed donations from individual members of the Catholic faith and indeed from millions of people around the world of other faiths.

Kate Gilmore told The Tablet that since Cardinal Martino's comments had been made public AI had received hundreds of phone calls from Catholic members pledging their continued, and in some cases increased, support for AI. It is likely, however, that AI will lose out in many ways if its relationship with the Catholic Church is severed. The trust built up over the years between Catholic clergy on the ground in countries where Amnesty operates may be dented if priests are no longer willing to cooperate and share information with AI staff. Catholic schools, particularly in countries such as the United States, Ireland and Italy, often welcome speakers from AI and provide a good deal of the organisation's younger membership, something that may or may not dry up after Cardinal Martino's pronouncement.

Bruce Kent believes that there may yet be a way round the "difficult moral situation" faced by Catholic members of Amnesty, for instance through the "ring-fencing" of subscription funds. "I'm a member of many organisations where I support the general thrust of what they do but disagree with them on specific issues. The Catholic Church is one example," he said.

According to one high-profile supporter, who did not wish to be named, the issue of abortion rights was one of the objectives of the Stop Violence Against Women campaign from its inception, and there was "never a serious prospect of it going in any other direction". This was despite a series of resignations in the aftermath of the early meetings held to discuss the issue.

The suspicion lingers among some Catholic members of AI that the latest development will be the "thin end of the wedge" as far as abortion is concerned. One longstanding member said he believed that the issue was being driven by an "American feminist agenda" within the organisation that ultimately wanted to see abortion recognised as a human right.  

"On the contrary," said AI's Kate Gilmore. "One of the reasons we concluded the consultation process when we did was it had become apparent we were fighting straw men. The hollow spectre that AI was contemplating a ‘right to abortion' was taking energy out of our movement. We do not believe abortion is a human right; we do not make a judgement about the morality of abortion."

Women who became pregnant as a result of a human-rights violation should be free to exercise their own moral judgement as to whether an unwanted pregnancy should continue, she continued. Sometimes the secular framework of human rights that AI upholds converges neatly with the standpoints of Catholic members and sometimes it does not. Amnesty does not accept the position of the Catholic Church on sexual orientation, contraception or divorce.

"We have to be accountable beyond our membership, to the woman in Darfur who has been raped, the girl in El Salvador with an ectopic pregnancy who is denied an abortion, or the 12-year-old girl bearing a child as a result of incest. This is the nature of our work; you can't sit at a distance and characterise the debate in abstract terms."

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