{"id":96319,"date":"2016-06-20T16:20:45","date_gmt":"2016-06-20T20:20:45","guid":{"rendered":"\/news\/?p=96319"},"modified":"2016-06-20T16:33:10","modified_gmt":"2016-06-20T20:33:10","slug":"un-official-says-pro-life-laws-are-torture-the-facts-say-otherwise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/un-official-says-pro-life-laws-are-torture-the-facts-say-otherwise\/","title":{"rendered":"UN official says pro-life laws are “torture.” The facts say otherwise."},"content":{"rendered":"
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The UN Human Rights Council<\/a> (HRC) is \u201cresponsible for the promotion and protection of all human rights around the globe,\u201d and it received a report<\/a> on torture in April. HRC members are often familiar with torture.<\/p>\n

About half of them commit it.<\/p>\n

Member countries include China, Algeria, and Saudi Arabia–a place where rape victims are whipped<\/a> and being gay can bring a death sentence<\/a>. But instead of focusing on that, this document was more concerned with abortion. \u201cAbortion\u201d is used 24 times–21 more times<\/i> than the word \u201cpolice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, you might think abortion belongs in a torture report. After all, if getting dismembered<\/a> doesn\u2019t meet the definition, it\u2019s hard to imagine what does. However, the report\u2019s author saw things differently. According to him, protecting children<\/i> is what amounts to torture.<\/p>\n

Juan Mendez is with the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, and he attributes pro-life laws to \u201chumiliating and judgmental attitudes\u201d while claiming they inflict \u201ctremendous and lasting\u201d damage on women. The evidence from Ireland, Poland, and Malta doesn\u2019t seem to bear that out: all three ban abortion in most circumstances and all three<\/a> have better maternal mortality figures than the US.<\/p>\n

Further, Chile’s maternal mortality rate\u00a0kept dropping<\/a> even after abortion was criminalized. Meanwhile, Mexican states with permissive abortion laws actually have\u00a0higher<\/em><\/a> mortality rates than those with restrictive ones. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In contrast, there are plenty of ways that abortion damages women and girls. A study published in the British Medical Journal found that abortion is associated with an elevated risk of suicide<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s how sex traffickers<\/a> use abortion to keep their victims profitable. Child rapists<\/a> like abortion, too: John Blanks, Jr.<\/a>, Gary Cross<\/a>, Timothy Smith<\/a>, Joseph Coles<\/a>, Edgar Ramirez<\/a>, Luis Gonzalez-Jose<\/a>, Andrew King<\/a>, John Haller<\/a>, Adam Gault<\/a>, Gray David Woods<\/a>, and Kevon Walker<\/a> all used it to keep their crimes hidden and ongoing. Far from stopping torture, abortion helped prolong it.<\/p>\n

Before Mendez calls pro-life laws torture, he should really look at what an abortion can involve. Dr. Anthony Levatino is an obstetrician-gynecologist who\u2019s performed over 1,200 abortions. In the video below, he explains how a second trimester abortion procedure known as dilation and evacuation (D&E) is performed.<\/p>\n