Salt Shakers are tearing their hair out over the Queensland doctors who can now legally prescribe the abortion drug RU486:

Even those of us who saw it coming did not think it would happen this fast - that it would take little over a month after the appallingly irresponsible vote in our parliament for the [Therapeutic Goods Administration] to officially give permission for RU486 to be used to kill babies!!! (Salt Shakers E-News, 13 Apr. 2006)

Hmm, ‘killing babies’? I translate this as follows: ‘Female sexuality is disgusting and pregnant women must be forced to go to term regardless of anyone’s interest including that of the foetus. This is the women’s punishment for being icky and not nice.’

Filed in: Abortion

It was inevitable that the Parliamentary debate and conscience vote on removal of the RU-486 veto would turn into an argument over the availability of abortion. And so we had the unedifying spectacle of politician after politician proclaiming their own personal stance on the matter. Although commonsense won out in the end, there is something vaguely uncomfortable about decisions on matters of personal morality being decided on the whims of politicians. After all, the debate was concerned with removing approval of RU486 from the personal whim of the Health Minister, Tony Abbott.

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Filed in: Abortion, Politics

Back in 1968, Melbourne journalist Keith Dunstan published a wonderful book called Wowsers (i.e. obsessive puritans). Evangelicals claim that the word ‘wowser’ is merely an acronym for the slogan ‘We only want social evils remedied/removed’, but this is false - see Dunstan’s first chapter for a more accurate etymology.

In his book, Dunstan examined all the major concerns of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century wowsers. There were the old perennials like ‘the Demon Drink’, tobacco-smoking, prostitution, pornography and gambling, but there were a number of other ‘Evils’ against which puritan divines fulminated and waged war. Among these were ‘the Evil of the Desecration of the Sabbath’, ‘the Theatre Evil and the Evil of Dancing’, ‘the Evil of Bathing’ and ‘the Evil of Cremation’.

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Filed in: Abortion, Christian Right, Family Values, Stem Cell Research, Voluntary Euthanasia

I feel the public should be made aware of the female child murderers among us. Information regarding child murders should not be secret.
(Anonymous contributor to Melbourne Age Online Forum, Age, 1 July 2005, regarding abortion.)

This little piece of psychopathia reminded me of a mystery I have yet to solve. Perhaps my perceptive readers could help enlighten me.

On 16 July 2001, Peter James Knight walked into the Fertility Control Clinic in East Melbourne, Vic. and shot dead Steven Rogers, a security guard. Knight was then wrestled to the ground by two men, one of whom was later awarded the Star of Courage, the highest Australian bravery honour for a civilian. It later emerged that Knight, an anti-abortion fanatic, had gone to the clinic equipped to kill everybody inside. After his arrest, Knight refused to identify himself to police and was known for some time as ‘Mr X’.

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Filed in: Abortion

In a recent article about Tony Abbott’s adventures (’After the DNA, will Abbott get a reality check?’, Melbourne Age, 24 Mar. 2005) Leslie Cannold asked whether ‘Abbott’s complex personal situation will lead him to question his rigid and long-held views of female sexuality and reproductive obligation’:

According to psychologist Dr Susie Allanson, a counsellor of 15 years at the East Melbourne Fertility Control Clinic, the odds are regrettably slim. Over the years Allanson has counselled a number of women who are not just morally opposed to abortion but have actively campaigned against it being safe and legal. Yet, when they have found themselves unhappily pregnant, they decide on abortion.

Essentially, such women convince themselves that they are special cases - to the point of being actually unique - and that their situations are thus quite irrelevant to the cases of all those female ‘murderers’ who have abortions.

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Filed in: Abortion

There have been various proposals put forward for suggested government action such as not funding late term abortions or only funding those that have occurred following the informed consent of the mother through viewing foetal images.

Frankly - that is not good enough. Right to Life Australia wants abortion defunded - as simple as that! Those who think we’ll win some concessions by making timid suggestions will find that they could end up with nothing.
Margaret Tighe, President RTLA, RTLA News, Jan.-Feb. 2005, 1

Anti-abortion advocates are a motley crew, ranging from Margaret Tighe types, who believe that all abortions should be outlawed regardless of the circumstances, to people like David van Gend who would apparently permit abortion ‘in cases of rape, incest, pregnancy in minors(!) or where it is necessary to save a mother’s life’ - www.australiandoctor.com.au/news/a1/0c0291a1.asp

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Filed in: Abortion