Women's Views on News |
- Standing to make history
- Northern Irish denied free abortions in England
- Committee on torture talks to Holy See
| Posted: 14 May 2014 08:07 AM PDT
Vanessa Hudson is the leader of Britain’s Animal Welfare Party (AWP), which campaigns against what she feels is the unspoken “ism” of our age, speciesism. “The assignment of different values, rights or special consideration to individuals solely on the basis of their species membership,” she told the Independent recently. She pushes the message unpaid, from a small office behind a vegan cafe in Bethnal Green, East London. But she and her colleagues are aiming for a bigger platform – as MEPs. This month, the AWP will make history as part of the first pan-European movement featuring the animal parties of seven EU countries. They will be contesting the elections on 22 May with a shared goal – getting the first dedicated representative for animals elected to the EU Parliament. And the AWP recently announced a full party list of eight candidates for the London Region. It estimates that it needs around 140,000 votes, which amounts to less than a third of the number of vegetarian members of the electorate in the London Region, to win a seat and make history for animals on 22 May. One of the candidates, animal welfare campaigner Meg Mathews, said she would like to see the Animal Welfare Party and their European counterparts succeed at the EU elections in May "because this would really signal to the rest of the world that the way we treat animals has to and is changing for the better." Hudson, who became vegetarian at seven and vegan by 15 and is a founding member of Vegan Runners UK, appears, the Independent reported, to be calm and non-judgmental; even meat-eaters can join the party. “I feel a duty to counter some of the stereotypes – that we’re scruffy or angry or militant,” she told the Independent. “I feel I have a duty to actually show that we can be really logical and rational.” "And I do believe that it’s a social justice campaign as important as any other. She would, she said, never suggest that an animal has the right to vote or to drive a car because that would be nuts – but they do have a right to live, and live without undue suffering. She finds that most voters are shocked to discover some of the realities of modern food production. “The fact that dairy cows have to be pregnant to produce milk – lots of people still don’t know that. "The fact that the boys who are born are expendable, they’re just by-products of that industry. "And most people don’t realise that male chicks in the egg industry are killed at one or two days old – gassed or ground up.” There are more vegetarians and vegans in London – an estimated 530,000 – than Londoners who voted Conservative at the last EU election – 479,000. If elected they idea is to seek to redirect EU subsidies away from livestock and fisheries farming into plant-based agriculture, launch Europe-wide campaigns about healthy plant-based eating, and cut public money being spent on animal products, trans fats, palm oil and refined sugar. “It’s immensely stressful and I’m worrying about money and how to pay the bills,” Hudson told the Independent. “But I have to shove those thoughts aside and get on with this task, which is huge but probably the most important thing I’ll ever do.”  |
| Northern Irish denied free abortions in England Posted: 14 May 2014 04:15 AM PDT
The High Court judge in London has ruled that women and girls travelling from Northern Ireland for an abortion are not entitled to free NHS care. In a disappointing turn of events, Mr Justice King decided that the NHS should only provide free abortion services for people who are resident in England. Teenager “A” and her mother, who brought the case forward, are now reportedly planning to take their case to the Court of Appeal. The current situation in Northern Ireland is that abortions can only be provided in “highly exceptional” circumstances, which does not seem to cover things like rape, poverty, or abnormalities that could cause the death of the child. It appears that the only situation where one can legally get an abortion in Northern Ireland is the life or long-term health of the pregnant woman is at risk. Women's organisations, pro-choice and sexual health groups have been pushing for a relaxation of the law in Northern Ireland for years now. They argue that the current situation leaves women and girls with no choice but to buy potentially dangerous and illegal abortion pills, or spend thousands of pounds travelling to other countries, or forces them to have children they cannot cope with financially or mentally. As many other countries have now realised, to restrict abortions in such a way is absolutely shameful. If the aim is to prevent any abortions happening, they are failing miserably. It has been shown time and again that criminalising abortion does not cause lower abortion rates; it just makes abortions unsafe. To force people to pay for safe abortions, which should be a basic human right, is an appalling thing to do; but thankfully, many organisations are still campaigning to change this. Teenager A and her mother travelled to a Marie Stopes clinic in England, where the operation cost £600 on top of travel costs of £300. Half of the funding was provided by the Abortion Network, a voluntary organisation, but the mother said "the whole experience and stress" of raising the funds as "harrowing". You can donate to the Abortion Support Network here.  |
| Committee on torture talks to Holy See Posted: 14 May 2014 01:09 AM PDT
The UN Committee Against Torture has questioned the Holy See on its efforts to curtail women's health care globally. The UN Committee Against Torture has been reviewing the Holy See on its record related to torture and human rights violations – from clerical sexual abuse to violations of women's reproductive rights. Representatives of the Holy See have been asked by the United Nations committee to answer for its interference with women's access to reproductive health care across the globe leading to cruel and degrading treatment. The Holy See is one of the 155 States parties to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. As such, the Holy See committed to ensure that all people are free from torture or other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment and is required to undergo regular examinations of its record before the Committee, which is made up of 10 independent experts. The Committee, which will issue its findings from this review later this month, questions states about reproductive rights as part of its mandate to monitor this commitment. The Center for Reproductive Rights submitted a shadow letter to the Committee about how the Holy See’s efforts against abortion and contraception access have caused women and girls severe pain and suffering in different countries throughout the world. Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, said: "Decisions about women’s health should be made between women and their doctors. "The Holy See should have no place in what health services, including reproductive health services, women and girls can receive. "Forcing a woman to carry an unwanted pregnancy to term—especially when she is a rape survivor or her life and health is at risk—is cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment. "Eliminating options by which women can control their lives and keep their families healthy is an egregious violation of their fundamental human rights. "The United Nations Committee against Torture must be resolute and make clear that no one can stand between a woman and her health, dignity, and human rights. "The Vatican," she said, "must be held accountable for these injustices." The Holy See’s canon law bans abortion in all circumstances, including when a woman’s life or health are at risk or when she is the victim of rape. During the UN Committee review Holy See representative Cardinal Silvano Tomasi claimed that “[b]y no means does the Holy See enforce or impose this code on any individual,” but the evidence proves otherwise. Indeed, the vice-chair of the UN Committee, Felice Gaer, noted that Holy See officials had “called for the blanket criminalization of abortion by other governments….I agree that that this policy should not be imposed on others. How do you respond to the argument that that is exactly what’s going on?” In 2009, Archbishop Jose Cardoso Sobrinho and Cardinal Giovanni Batista Re publicly condemned the mother and doctors of a nine-year-old girl who had become pregnant following years of sexual abuse, because they decided to perform an abortion to save her life. UN Committee member George Tugushi questioned the Holy See about this and similar cases, noting the humiliation of women the Holy See inflicts and finding that “[w]hen [women and girls] are subjected to additional pressure when they have undergone such a trauma, it should be considered ill-treatment.” Cardinal Tomasi disavowed responsibility for this and another similar case in Nicaragua but stated that “these are two exceptional cases.” However, as the Center for Reproductive Rights highlighted in its submission to the UN Committee, there have been several other cases where Vatican officials have interfered in women’s reproductive health. These include a 2013 case where Holy See officials persuaded the government of El Salvador to deny access to abortion for a pregnant woman named Beatriz whose life was at risk because of lupus and kidney failure. Holy See officials, the Center for Reproductive Rights said, have also interfered with policymaking in other states surrounding reproductive rights, including the Philippines, Peru, Nicaragua and the United States.  |
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