The Case Against Abortion

A courageous Victorian GP, Dr. Mark Hobart, has spoken out against abortion for gender selection purposes, describing his own experience of refusing to refer on those grounds. Read more here .

The public's response has generally been one of disgust that anyone would seek an abortion because they didn't want a girl or boy (see vote poll  and comments following the article here).

Click the image above to see the Letters to the Editor in full size

But now Dr Hobart could face tough sanctions.

According to another Herald Sun article, "Dr Hobart admits he has broken the law and could face suspension, conditions on his ability to practice or even be deregistered. But he was willing to risk punishment in pursuit of principles".

The article also mentions another doctor "who was brought before the Medical Board in January for airing his views against abortion was cautioned and warned he could be deregistered if it happened again".

Christian Agenti host of 'Talking Back the Night' on FM Mix 92.7 spoke with Dr Hobart and got feedback from callers on their views. You can listen here

Dr Hobart was interviewed this morning by Neil Mitchell. You can hear the interview here

It will be very interesting to follow what happens from here - we will keep you posted.

Michael Cook (Bio Edge) have reported that "Another controversial review of the mental health risks of abortion has been published, this time in the peer-reviewed Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry. The authors of “Does abortion reduce the mental health risks of unwanted or unintended pregnancy? A re-appraisal of the evidence” argue that abortion may be a mental health risk.
 
They contend that the evidence shows that abortion is not associated with a reduction in rates of mental health problems, and is associated with increases in risks of anxiety, alcohol and drug misuse, and suicidal behavior. They warn that “the growing evidence suggesting that abortion does not have therapeutic benefits cannot be ignored indefinitely, and it is unacceptable for clinicians to authorize large numbers of abortions on grounds for which there is, currently, no scientific evidence.” Read more here

Other research on the negative psychological impacts of abortion here .

The ABC have reported that "There have been angry scenes outside Tasmania's Parliament as schoolchildren as young as nine protested against abortion.

More than 200 people rallied against proposed changes to the state's laws to allow abortions up to 24 weeks into a pregnancy."

Comments from E.M.I.L.Y List's Tasmanian Premier included:

 "I think that people will look at that and think that's a step too far,"

 "I find it really abhorrent to see the sort of campaign that's been raised now on a really sensitive issue".

"I'm concerned to see young kids involved in a debate like this.

"There was a good point made in some of the commentary that I saw, that these young people are at an age that they haven't actually lived long in the life to experience the competing issues that adults have to confront in their lifetime."

Sadly, Premier Giddings is happy to endorse abortion without parental consent for minors, but takes issue with young people having a say in legislation that would inevitably impact their own generation.

"Southern Christian College principal Alan Lawson says students and parents want their (pro life) views on abortion heard". Sadly, the proposed legislation is about silencing those who oppose abortion, and the Premier's response to the pro life protest confirms this. 

You can voice your concerns about this proposed legislation to Premier Lara Giddings here

President and co-founder of Life Network Australia, Sonja Couroupis, has written about sex selection abortions in Australia and her piece has been published by Opinion Online. Please leave a comment on the Online Opinion website (see link below) and support Senator Madigan's courageous efforts.

"The reaction to Senator John Madigan preparing a bill, to remove federal funding for sex selection abortions has been telling. The old tricks of the abortion lobby have been dragged out to avoid much needed consideration of the implementation of abortion in Australia – these tricks include undermining men who do not agree with their position (playing the exhausted misogyny card), assuming they represent all women and avoiding the issue at hand – in this case, sex selection.
 
What many don't know is that internationally, millions and millions of baby girls are, in fact, being killed in the womb and after birth…just for being girls!"

 Read more (and add your comment) here:

By Bill Muehlenberg, Culture Watch - Used with permission.

You may have seen on the news the past few days the ongoing saga about some trapped killer whales in Canada. The ice around them was closing in, and a dozen whales were trying to get some breathing space. All the mainstream media was agog with the story, and you could almost see tears in the face of some of the news announcers.
 
It was one of the more emotional news items going for a few days. And the champagne was likely flowing when the story finally ended with the whales freeing themselves. One news report covers the story as follows: “About 12 killer whales trapped under sea ice in Canada’s Hudson Bay appear to be free after the ice shifted.
 
“However, people who fear the whales will get stuck elsewhere have hired a plane to find them. The whales’ predicament in the frigid waters of Hudson Bay made international headlines. Locals had been planning a rescue operation with chainsaws and drills before the mammals slipped away on Thursday.
 
“Tommy Palliser said two hunters from remote Inukjuak village reported that the waters had opened up around the area where the cornered whales had been bobbing frantically for air around a single, truck-sized hole in the ice. Officials said shifting winds might have pushed the ice away. ‘It’s certainly good news – that’s good news for the whales,’ said Palliser, a business adviser with the regional government.
 
“But fears remain that the whales may be trapped elsewhere by the ever-moving ice. Some villagers were sceptical the killer whales had escaped harm, so the community hired a plane to scan the region on Thursday for signs of the pod. Mark O’Connor of the regional marine wildlife board said the aerial search did not locate the orcas but he noted that large swathes of ice-free water were seen in the area. ‘So as far as I could tell, the emergency, for sure, is averted,’ said O’Connor, the board’s director of wildlife management.”
 
Another news item added these remarks: “Over the last few days, 80 people at a time had gone out on the ice to watch the whales. ‘We were all trying to find out how we can save them,’ he said. ‘We observed the wind, the moon, everything.’ The whales’ escape was cause for celebration elsewhere in Canada, where there had been a desperate campaign to push the government to send in ice-breaking ships to crack open the ice and help the animals find open water.”
 
Wow, that is a lot of time, attention and money being spent on a bunch of killer whales. Of course I, like everyone else, never like to see animals suffer, and if reasonable measures can be taken to help some animals, then that may not be uncalled for.
 
But to have a worldwide panic over this “emergency” with plans to get governments sending in ships and planes, just to help out a few killer whales seems a bit much, especially if we highlight another inconvenient truth. Every day in Canada something like 300 trapped creatures are mercilessly killed.
 
This too is an extreme emergency, yet I see no global media campaigns erupting over this, and I do not notice any local community worrying itself to death about this fact. Indeed, there is complete silence about these poor trapped creatures who will die if no one intervenes.
 
I of course refer to the unborn who are slaughtered each year in Canada. Abortion accounts for around 100,000 dead babies each year there. Yet where is the outcry about all this? Why not the same moral outrage and concern about even more worthy life worth living?
 
Why the double standards all over the West? Why mega-concerns about a bunch of whales, and zero concern about the mass slaughter of our own children? That makes no sense to me whatsoever. That is an indication of a culture which has lost its way big time.
 
Indeed, just contrast our whale story with another story which broke in Canada not so long ago. To me this is far more horrific, but I never heard a peep about it from the MSM. The story goes like this: “Figures from Statistics Canada, a federal government agency, show 491 babies were born alive following botched abortions during the period from 2000-2009 and left to die afterwards. The numbers have pro-life advocates up in arms.
 
“Andre Schutten, legal counsel for ARPA Canada, noticed the numbers and blogged about them recently. The blog Run with Life has reported that, from 2000 to 2009, 491 babies have been born alive following a failed abortion procedure, and subsequently left to die. And those are only the ones that are recorded by Statistics Canada.
 
“The blog explains that ‘there were 491 abortions, of 20 weeks gestation and greater, that resulted in live births. This means that the aborted child died after it was born. These abortions are coded as P96.4 or “Termination of pregnancy, affecting fetus and newborn”.’
 
“The question that should immediately present itself is, why has there not been 491 homicide investigations or prosecutions in connection with these deaths? Section 223(2) of the Criminal Code (the accompanying subsection to the now infamous subsection that Mr. Woodworth’s motion 312 was examining) reads ‘A person commits homicide when he causes injury to a child before or during its birth as a result of which the child dies after becoming a human being.’
 
“That is to say, anyone who interferes with a pregnancy such that the child dies after it is born alive due to that interference, is guilty of homicide. So again, why have there been no criminal prosecutions? Why no outcry? And why are the provinces funding this explicitly criminal activity?”
 
Good questions indeed. And here are a few more: Why did I not see this reported on ABC news? Or Ch 9 news? Or in the Australian newspaper? Or on SBS radio? Or in the Sydney Morning Herald? Every single one of these media outlets would likely have covered the whale story, and more than once.
 
Yet on something far more important all we get is complete silence from these guys – a total media blackout. Not only does that tell us much about the warped values and priorities of the MSM, it also tells us that the MSM does not report the news, it determines the news and censors that which it does not want aired in public.
 
It is about censorship, propaganda and ideology, in other words. It only covers that which fits into its secular left agenda. That means whales will hit the front pages any day of the week, but butchered babies will not even rate a mention.
 
Thus if you want to know why a website like mine exists, here is your answer. As long as the MSM censors the news, I will be around to present it. And especially when it considers baby killing to be un-newsworthy and a non-issue, then I will run with it far and wide, day in and day out.
 
www.theaustralian.com.au/news/breaking-news/shifting-canada-ice-frees-trapped-whales/story-fn3dxix6-1226551689091
 
www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/jan/10/stranded-killer-whales-break-free-hudson-bay
 
www.lifenews.com/2012/11/23/canada-491-babies-born-alive-after-failed-abortions-left-to-die/

Used with permission.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the vilest evil of our time!

Dear Abortion, forty years ago today you were swept under the rug and allowed to become legal. Women ignored or didn't understand the holocaust of damage you do, and called it "choice". The "right to privacy" was deemed more important and valuable than a human life.

Today, you're all grown up. You're forty years old now, and you are a lean, mean, killing machine. You have perfected your art - you kill not only bodies, but souls. And not once have you felt remorse.

You defy the psychiatrists, legal eagles, feminists, people who "say" they care about women. You even managed to bamboozle alot of people in the Church. You are smooth and slick. You take no prisoners and you call it "freedom". You're better than Jim Jones, baby girl. You're what they call a "femme fatale", seducing and beautifully hypnotizing millions - until you destroy them. And the only one left standing is you, as you laugh over their scarred bodies and souls.

You've got women hypnotized from one end of this country to the other, women who are so orgiastically enamored with their "rights" that they lost sight of their souls and their bodies - and their sisters' bodies and souls, too.

You seduced a president who has sold his soul to the temptation of your power. You sold a cheap bill of goods, you hawked a lie. But someone came around the back of the building and caught you hiding and laughing up your sleeve at the utter gullibility of even the most select and intelligent.

We caught you. We see you. And we know you. We have seen your fangs bared, dripping the blood of little girls. We have seen you howl at the moon, claws flexed, as you seek new flesh. My, but you know how to clean up pretty; I'll give you that. You walk alongside women as they angrily clench their fists and demand the legal right to destroy their own bodies and souls and kill the child inside them. You fooled them. You once fooled me, too.

But there is something you didn't count on, baby girl - I woke up. And there are many of us who, bearing the scars you laughingly inflicted, are now wiser than before. And we stand before you and tell you, quietly and to your face, that we will destroy you. Did you know that education is more effective than the bullying power of Roe v. Wade? Did you know that, for all your bullying-in-the-playground legalized fun you've had for forty years now, that your bark is actually worse than your bite? That the ground you stand on is becoming more tremulous by the day?

Feel the ground beneath you trembling? That is the rumble from the millions of broken souls you thought were gone. That is the vibration of bodies and souls that you thought you conquered. That is the ground shifting, the sound and sensation of a battalion of truth coming towards you.

Because it took us a little while, but we finally figured you out. We learned a few things about you - - that girls and women have souls and they don't like it very much when their souls are destroyed by you. And each one of us, are walking proof today of your spirit of the black widow. We are telling people about your homicidal seduction. What's the thing a bully fears the most? A secret becoming known.

We whisper in your ear, "We KNOW your secret. You have nothing left."

We are telling your secret to the world and there is nothing you can do to stop us. The world, the very order of humanity, cries out for justice. And we are here to see to it that it will be done. You and I, personally, have a destiny. I will stand with head held high and I will not shrink from seeing your destruction. I will not laugh. I will shed tears over the souls and bodies you have destroyed, over the minds you have cast a hypnotic veil over.

I will see you destroyed. The greatest enemy of a lie is the truth. I AM the truth of abortion. I AM your greatest enemy.

So enjoy your birthday today. You and I have a date with destiny, and there is no dark cave in this world or any other world, you can escape to. I am coming for you.

- Mary Anne, your survivor

In recent facebook discussions, I have been surprised by the number of people who argue that "unwanted babies (in the womb) become abused/neglected children." There is just no evidence to support this. In fact, research shows that  "Compared to women with no history of induced abortion, those with one prior abortion were found to have a 144% increased risk of engaging in child maltreatment."

While this claim is incorrect, there are pro life advocates who do have histories of abuse. One such person is Bob Brewer.

Read Bob's story here.

I am a 22 year old male from NSW. My parents were unmarried when they conceived me, they were extremely poor and essentially unable to look after me. Virtually uneducated, my dad was officially a truck driver, but received very little income, and was also partly disabled. They had many other problems but had me (and over the next few years, my brother and sister).

When I was born, I had a blood condition known as anaemia, I was in hospital for some time because of this.

After my sister was born, they split up, so my mum then became a single mother.

After numerous complaints to the NSW Dept Community Services we were removed from the care of mum when I was about 4 years of age - this was in my best interest. I was officially in foster care until I was 18 (though I'd been living on my own with support from DOCS from 16 y.o.).

My time in foster care was not overly pretty. I moved between 14 "families" in as many years, I was transferred to many schools, I was sexually abused when I was 10 years old and was bullied for most of my life (there were many other things that occurred as well).

Despite all the issues I faced and overcame growing up, I still feel very blessed that my parents at least gave me a chance at life. I have a world of opportunities available to me for the future, many of which I am working on achieving. I have some very amazing friends, who help me through a lot of issues that I still face today, but I do not regret being alive for a single day.

Because of my own life, the lives of my siblings, and the lives of many other people I've seen, who have overcome some extraordinary challenges during their lives, I am 100% pro-life. I do not believe that there is any justification for abortion. Every single child, no matter how bad their situation seems, has the ability to have a very fulfilling life, and it is not our decision to make, as to whether a child should live or die.

By Clinton Wilcox

What is RU486?

Most people who are familiar with the abortion issue are familiar with surgical methods of abortion (such as D&E). But what you might not be as familiar with is RU486, which is essentially an abortion in a "convenient" pill. RU486 is also known by its more generic name, Mifepristone. RU486 can be "effective" on its own, but it is usually followed up with a second drug, Prostaglandin, to induce the uterus to contract and expel the shriveled corpse.

A woman is first counseled, given a physical examination and an ultrasound. Once the doctors determines it would not be dangerous or deadly to the woman, she is given the drug to take in the doctor’s presence. Two days later, on a follow-up visit, she is given the Prostaglandin. This results in powerful and painful contractions of the uterus which works to expel the baby. It can take up to two weeks for the RU486/Prostaglandin abortion to fully complete. On another follow-up visit, if the abortion hasn’t been completed by then the doctor will recommend a surgical abortion to complete the aborton.

How does it work?

It is important to note that RU486 is different from the morning after pill. There is some research that suggests the morning after pill may cause an early abortion (by preventing implantation of an already conceived human zygote) [1], but the pill usually works to delay ovulation or prevent the sperm from fertilizing the ovum. [2] This is why it’s called Plan B. If other contraception fails, you take the morning after pill to try and prevent pregnancy. However, if the research is correct and it does have a chance of preventing implantation of a human zygote, then it would be unethical to use (since the zygote is a living human organism). It would essentially be a very early abortion.

RU486 is abortive. Since the woman doesn’t even know she’s pregnant until about the fifth week of pregnancy, RU486 is used from the fifth week of pregnancy until the ninth week (so there’s a five-week window in which it’s effective).

The drug essentially works by shutting down the process of pregnancy, causing the child to suffocate or starve to death and detach from the uterus. She will then be flushed out with the woman’s next menstrual period, along with the decayed uterus lining. It does this by interfering with the action of progesterone, a hormone crucial to the early process of pregnancy. [3]

Progesterone helps suppress uterine contractions which could dislodge the child, as well as stimulates the proliferation of the uterine lining which nourishes the developing child. RU486 fills the chemical receptor sites reserved for progesterone but does not transmit the progesterone signal. Failing to receive the signal, the woman’s body shuts down the preparation of the uterus and initiates the normal menstrual process.

How developed is the child by this time?

Since it is about the fifth week of pregnancy that a woman detects she’s pregnant, that means the unborn child is three weeks old (pregnancy is measured from the last menstrual period, so when a woman is X weeks pregnant, the unborn child is X-2 weeks old since conception is about two weeks after the last menstrual period [4]).

Development in the womb is pretty rapid. Everything is in place by the eighth week of embryonic development (which is the tenth week of pregnancy). So when RU486 can first be used, the preborn human has already developed a beating heart that pumps blood (often a different bloodtype than the mother). She has also started to develop the spinal column, nervous system, brain, liver, kidneys, and intestines. The child is roughly the size of a tip of the pen by the end of this week. [5] This is at the earliest RU486 is used.

If used in the sixth week of pregnancy (fourth week of fetal development), basic facial features have begun to develop, and small buds that will become the arms and legs. Growth becomes rapid at this point. If used in the seventh week (fifth week of fetal development), nostrils form and eye lenses begin to take shape. The arms continue to grow. By the end of this week, the baby might be a little bigger than the top of a pencil eraser.

If used in the eighth week of pregnancy (sixth week of fetal development), the arms are growing longer and fingers develop. The eyes are visible and ears begin to take shape. The upper lip and nose have formed. By the end of this week, the baby is roughly ½ inch long. If taken in the ninth week of pregnancy (seventh week of fetal development), the arms develop bones and bend at the elbows, toes form, eyelids and ears begin developing. By the end of this week, your baby is about ¾ inch long. This is the latest at which RU486 is used (although it begins to lose its effectiveness at seven weeks).

If a woman uses RU486, she ends up expelling the aborted unborn human (now a shriveled corpse) into the toilet when she uses the restroom. She can see what it looks like (though if used earlier it might be too small to make out any features). You might have to look closely at it.

Complications

RU486 is hardly a safe drug. Normal side-effects are prolonged heavy bleeding, severe cramps, nausea, diarrhea, headache, skin rash, and vomiting. [6] The woman usually bleeds for ten days, but it can last up to 43 days. Five women out of a hundred bleed so severely that a D&C is required to stop the bleeding. Some women even have required blood transfusions. [7] There have been two reported heart attacks and one confirmed death. [8] [9] Though death by abortions are sometimes difficult to measure (and RU486 is no different). Complications from abortion usually set in at a later time. The official cause of death will be whatever she died from, though the actual cause of her death was the abortion she had.

[1] http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/morning-after-pill/MY01190/DSECTION=why-its-done -- some research suggests this may not be the case. There is no definitive answer as to whether it does or not.
[2] http://health.howstuffworks.com/sexual-health/contraception/morning-after1.htm
[3] André Ulmann, Georges Teutsch, and Daniel Philbert, "RU486," Scientific American, Vol. 262, No. 6 (June 1990), pp. 18-24.
[4] http://www.americanpregnancy.org/weekbyweek/week1_2.htm
[5] http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/prenatal-care/PR00112
[6] Louise Silvestre, et al, “Voluntary Interruption of Pregnancy with Mifepristone (RU486) and a Prostaglandin Analogue,” New England Journal of Medicine, Vol. 322, No. 10 (March 8, 1990), pp. 645-648, and E.E. Baulieu, “RU 486 as an Antiprogesterone Steroid,” Journal of the American Medical Association, Vol. 262, No. 13, (October 6, 2009), pp. 1808-1814.
[7] Mary W. Rodger and David T. Baird, “Blood Loss Following induction of Early Abortion Using Mifepristone (RU 486) and a Prostaglandin Analogue (Gemeprost),” Contraception, Vol. 40, No. 4 (October 1989), p. 439.
[8] Dr. Y.M. Kervran, “RU 486: Rousell addresse une lettre aux gynecologues des centres d’IVG (RU 486: Rousell Addresses A Letter To Abortion Center Gynecologists),” Le Quotidien Du Medicin (Medical Daily), (April 30, 1990), p. 11.
[9] Martine Laronche, “Les contre-indications de 1’IVG par voie maedicamenteuse pourraient etre elargies (Contraindications for abortion by medication could be expanded),” Le Monde, (April 10, 1991).

 By Debbie Garratt - CEO of Real Choices Australia.

Reproductive Choice Australia's latest campaign is one which brings a sickening feeling of dismay to the many people who have contacted us about it.  Reproductive Choice propose to carry out a flashmob in Melbourne's CBD, wearing t-shirts with the slogan: Abortion, a Fact of Life .

For those who don't know what a flash mob is, it is a group of people who carry out a pre organised form of entertainment in a public space, most often to the surprise and delight of unassuming passers-by. Flash mobs usually consist of some dancing and/or singing or some kind of drama. They can be lots of fun.

Leslie Cannold, a prominent pro-abortion advocate leads the dancing lesson in a YouTube video, where they are working to recruit participants for the flash mob.

Leslie Cannold stated in her book, The Abortion Myth, that she had very real concerns that the experiences of women who sought and had abortions were not being heard. Yet it seems that when it comes to the evidence that abortion leaves up to 30% of women suffering serious and prolonged mental health problems, and that many women are having abortions in the absence of genuine and supported alternatives, neither Leslie, nor her organisation are interested in hearing the voices of real women. Dancing in the streets to celebrate abortion is their answer to these women. Celebrating what for so many women is a tragedy and an unwanted solution to a difficult issue. Shouting down the testimonies of women harmed by abortion at events where they desperately try to have a voice is the answer they give to the women whose rights they espouse to value.

This event serves to minimise, if not dismiss the very real trauma so many women experience whenfaced with an abortion decision. It makes a mockery of the circumstances so many women find themselves struggling with if they are unexpectedly pregnant and are desperate for support. It shows how little pro abortion advocates really understand what it is they are fighting for, surgical and medical solutions to social problems that make it challenging for women to fully participate in activities of their choosing, whether that be in the home, the workforce or in education.

Instead of lobbying for greater access to childcare, more flexible work practices, less violence toward women, more concern about the potential harm of abortion, they choose to dance in the streets to celebrate the pain their advocacy helps to inflict on women, men and children.

Reproduced with permission from Endeavour Forum.

A complaint to the United Nations Conference on the Status of Women (UNCSW) has been made by The Coalition to End Violence Against Pregnant Women, July 31, 2012.
 
This complaint was signed by Endeavour Forum Inc., and acknowledgement of receipt was received from UNCSW
 
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