CRR, Congressman Chris Smith and Kenya
Posted on | March 24, 2011 by Samantha Singson |
The Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR) just sent out a press release blasting a recent trip to Kenya made by pro-life Congressman Chris Smith because of remarks he made regarding the recently passed revision of the Kenyan constitution which loosens restrictions on abortion.
Smith condemned the new Kenyan constitution’s decriminalization of abortion in emergency situations or to protect the life or health of the pregnant woman, telling audience members that “we need a world that is free of abortion.”
CRR’s president Nancy Northup blasted Smith, stating: “Kenya addressed the devastating effect of illegal abortion in a democratic constitutional reform process,” said Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights. “But Congressman Smith evidently traveled across the globe in an attempt to roll back the clock on these changes, disregarding clear evidence that criminalizing abortion merely makes it less safe, increasing the risk to women’s lives and health.”
As the Friday Fax previously reported, the CRR has actively been targeting Kenya for years and lobbied hard for the constitutional change which liberalized Kenya’s abortion laws in certain cases.
Congressman Smith has opposed the CRR and has questioned the Obama administration’s actions in Kenya during the constitutional reform process. Last year, Smith and two other high-ranking US congressmen requested a “federal probe into whether the Obama Administration broke federal laws by promoting a proposed constitution that radically changes abortion policy in Kenya”.
At the time, Smith stated on his website: “The Obama Administration’s advocacy in support of Kenya’s proposed constitution may constitute a serious violation of the Siljander Amendment and, as such, may be subject to civil and criminal penalties under the Antideficiency Act.”
