The spiritual leader of the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland has resigned from Amnesty International in protest at the organisation’s new backing for abortion.

Cardinal Keith O’Brien, Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh, is the second UK bishop to leave the group because of its vote to support the decriminalisation of abortion in developing countries.

He said today that he was resigning as “a matter of conscience and with great sadness”.

The Bishop of East Anglia, the Right Rev Michael Evans, also stood down this month after 31 years in the organisation.

The resignation of Cardinal O’Brien will hit the organisation hard and deepen fears that its human rights campaigning work will be damaged by the row.

Until the controversial policy change was made at a meeting this month, Amnesty International had avoided entering the abortion debate. Many of Amnesty’s strongest backers have been leading Catholics and there are fears that many others will now be re-examining their support.

Anti-abortion rock stars Christina Aguilera and Avril Lavigne are among the contributors to an Amnesty International CD released recently to raise money for survivors of atrocities in Darfur.

Catholic bishops in the US have also warned that Amnesty risks losing the support of thousands of church members as a result of the change.

Amnesty is backing abortion only in specific circumstances, such as when a woman’s health or life is in danger, or when she has been a victim of rape or violence in conflicts such as Darfur.

Cardinal O’Brien, who joined Amnesty as a student more than 40 years ago, said that throughout his ministry he had been committed to defending life in all circumstances.

“In recent years I have spoken out strongly on pro-life issues, including our necessity to ensure life for the poorest of the poor people of the world and have shown my care and concern by visiting some of those poorest countries, especially in Africa and Asia and including also my visit to Darfur.”

He had now had to examine his own conscience, after realising that Amnesty International was approving proposals in support of abortion, he said.

He had also taken note of statements by other Catholic leaders, such as Cardinal Renato Martino, President of the Vatican’s Council for Justice and Peace, who said Amnesty had “betrayed its mission” by abandoning its traditional neutral policy on abortion.

Amnesty International has previously criticised the Vatican for its stance against abortion and in 2005 described the refusal by America to pay for abortions overseas as “an attempt to stifle the evolution of the human rights framework”.

Cardinal O’Brien said: “I hope I act in a manner that is ‘pro-life’, following what I believe is the teaching of Jesus Christ and the teaching of my Church. That basic and most fundamental of all human rights, the right to life, is recognised by the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the document upon which Amnesty International was founded.

“Sadly now Amnesty International seems to be placing itself at the forefront of a campaign for a universal ‘right’ to abortion in contravention to that basic right to human life.

“For me it is a matter of conscience that I have decided to resign from Amnesty International. Others must follow their own consciences.”

He continued: “We are all members of the one human family and we must defend unborn children in our family however conceived. They may be seen as unwanted or inconvenient but they have, from moment of conception, been given the gift of life by Almighty God.”

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