The head of Amnesty International in the UK has condemned as "nonsensical" the Catholic church's attack on its decision to support abortion in the case of rape, incest or health emergencies.In her first full interview since a senior Vatican cardinal called on Catholics worldwide to stop donating to the human rights body, Kate Allen defended the change, and revealed that only 222 of the organisation's quarter of a million British members have resigned as a result.
A further 105 have increased their donations in the wake of the claim last June by Cardinal Renato Martino, president of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, that Amnesty had "betrayed its mission" on human rights by abandoning its policy of neutrality on abortion in limited circumstances.
Allen also said she greatly regretted that eight schools in Northern Ireland have now closed or suspended their Amnesty groups following an instruction by the Catholic church in the province.
Last week more than 2,000 schools in England and Wales were also advised to sever their links with Amnesty in a letter from the Catholic bishops.
"I particularly regret that many of the young people involved in those groups [closed in Northern Ireland] had no say over that decision," Allen said.
There have also been high profile resignations of Catholic clergy from Amnesty, including the archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh, Cardinal Keith O'Brien, and the Bishop of East Anglia, the Right Rev Michael Evans.
Amnesty's international council voted last August to scrap the organisation's policy of neutrality on abortion in favour of supporting access to the procedure for women who have been raped, or become pregnant as a result of incest, or whose health is seriously threatened if the pregnancy continues.
It also called for abortion to be decriminalised, so that women could no longer be jailed in some countries for having a termination.
The change was an attempt to address issues including the widespread use of rape as a weapon of war in conflict zones such as Darfur and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
"I absolutely think this was the right decision for the movement," Allen said. "Amnesty has to have something to say to women whose lives have been so horrendously affected.
"We are very keen to keep our approach to the Catholic church open and keep a dialogue going. I am disappointed that the Catholic church has categorised us as a pro-abortion group. That ... simplifies things to a sense that I think is a bit nonsensical really."
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