Conservative Leaders Sound Off Against Kenya's 'Pro-Abortion' Constitution
More than 170 pro-life and pro-family leaders in 21 countries have signed a petition urging the people of Kenya to consider the consequences of enacting a constitution that they say would overturn present Kenyan law prohibiting abortion except to save the mother's life.
Spearheaded by the World Congress of Families (WCF), the petition claims the new constitution "would, in reality, allow unlimited access to abortion and result in the destruction of countless unborn children and injury to women."
"Kenyans are literally fighting for the hope and future of their nation - the lives of unborn children," WCF Managing Director Larry Jacobs remarked in organization's announcement this week.
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"We urge the people of Kenya to carefully consider the consequences of this fatal move, which could be the first step on a road the West has followed, leading to one-quarter of all pregnancies in the U.S. ending in abortion," he added. "Once again, the legacy of Margaret Sanger and Planned Parenthood is revealed with their racist agenda to eliminate black Africans."
According to WCF, the constitution that will be voted on by Kenyans on Aug. 4 includes language that would allow abortion when the mother's "health" is affected by a continuation of pregnancy.
Notably, however, the constitution does not define the word "health," and therefore could come to include "complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity," as defined by the World Health Organization (WHO).
"Western style language legalizing abortion was inserted into the Kenyan constitution by nine voting members of the Committee of Experts, which included three non-Kenyans, and was rejected by Kenyan Parliamentarians in the draft process," reported WCF's petition, which also noted how traditional Kenyan values recognize the dignity of all members of the family, including the unborn child.
"Section 26 of the proposed Constitution sets up a mechanism for unrestricted abortion on demand at any time during pregnancy," added Jacobs.
With the vote fast approaching, WCF quickly gathered the signatures of 170 pro-life and pro-family leaders in 21 countries who support Kenyans opposed to the pro-abortion constitution.
Among the signers of the petition are Linda Harvey, president of Mission America; Wendy Wright, president of Concerned Women for America, Andrea Lafferty, executive director of the Traditional Values Coalition; and Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas.
According to WCF and the signers of the petition, abortion does more to jeopardize a mother's health – including making her more susceptible to breast cancer – than does carrying a child to term.
The "real threat" to maternal health in Kenya comes from unassisted childbirth and lack of access to emergency obstetric care, the petition stated.
"[A]bortion can result in blood loss and infection and inflict harm to women physically, emotionally and psychologically," the organization pointed out.
According to WCF, Africa has been targeted by international population control groups for legalized abortion despite a 47 percent drop in Kenyan fertility and projections that show a declining population in the next 50 years. The organization also claims that the Obama administration has spent over $23 million to promote the pro-abortion constitution.
Founded in 1997, the World Congress of Families (WCF) is an international network of pro-family organizations, scholars, leaders and people of goodwill from more than 60 countries. The organization and its members seek to restore the natural family as the fundamental social unit and the "seedbed" of civil society, as stated in the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Right.
