The Samoa Victims Support Group will not be supporting any move by the Faatuatua I le Atua Samoa ua Tasi government to introduce pro abortion legislation.
Samoa Observer reports that SVSG President Siliniu Lina Chang said from New Zealand that her organization is firm on their position and would “wash our hands clean of being part of anything like that”.
Legalizing abortion is part of a submission by the United Nations country office as part of the Universal Periodic Review (U.P.R.) to be undertaken by the U.N. Human Rights Council.
Samoa is among 14 states whose human rights records will go under scrutiny with the Council’s session scheduled for today.
However, the push by the U.N. for abortion to be legalised in the country has been rejected by the S.V.S.G. leadership.
Siliniu said they don’t have the authority to say this person has a right to live or not.
“But you should see how beautiful the faces of these children are and how you can do something like that.
“Even if the Government passes the law to legalise it I would not be part of that and I wash my hands clean from it.”
The U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, raised concerns about Samoa’s limited grounds for legal abortion.
It suggested this be considered “at least in cases of rape, incest, severe fetal impairment and risk to the health or life of the pregnant woman, and decriminalise abortion in all other cases”.
Photo: Samoa Observer
