The Abortion Law Reform Act of 2008

Although abortions were already available, the Victorian Abortion Law Reform Act removed abortion from the criminal code and placed it into the health code. Along with this change were some very radical additions:

• Abortion was made legal to 9 months.This meant that a baby could now be aborted, literally moments before natural birth. Around 40 proposed amendments aimed at moderating this law were rejected, leaving women vulnerable to an abortion industry with little regulation.
• There was no requirement of warning to be given of health risks. Almost all Australians agree that every woman has the right to “informed consent” before any medical procedure. Yet the Victorian parliament voted against requiring information and counselling for women on the risks of abortion.
• There was no requirement to provide medical assistance for babies still alive after failed late-term abortions. After decriminalising abortion in 2008, there was a six-fold increase in late-term abortions at the Royal Women’s Hospital (Seven News, 17/4/10). The parliament rejected granting legal status to babies that die in the womb from assaults on the mother, or in road accidents.
• There was no help for young girls. The parliament voted against mandatory reporting of suspected child/teenage victims of sexual abuse when a suspected abuser takes a young girl to an abortion clinic and against requiring custodial parents to be informed when a young girl seeks and abortion.
• There was no right of doctors not to refer for abortions. Doctors not wanting to refer for abortions are required to refer a woman to a doctor who will. This violates a doctor’s right to conscientious objection.
• There was no right of nurses to refuse to assist with abortions.

(Source: LifeVote website.)   So this legislation wasn't merely decriminalising abortions, it was enabling them to become available virtually on demand through all nine months of pregnancy. It also removed some important protections from medical staff. 

Abortion Tourism

Who could imagine such a thing? Women visit the state for the sole purpose of having their children killed. According to this article, Marie Stopes International said about 46 per cent of Victorian's late-term abortions were performed on women from interstate. The article suggests that 'scores of women' travel to access these abortions. Women also travel from New Zealand to access late-term abortion in Melbourne. The South Australian abortionist who performs abortions in Melbourne to 24 weeks spoke on this topic at a New Zealand Family Planning conference. In her talk entitled, Crossing the Ditch for a Second Trimester Termination, the abortionist described how:

Marie Stopes International’s clinic, Dr Marie Maroondah in Melbourne Victoria, is able to provide surgical termination of pregnancy up to 23 weeks and 6 days from LMP. I will take you on a patient’s journey through the process of booking for a 2nd trimester service at our clinic in Melbourne, the staff they will encounter and the procedures they will experience. I will detail what a health care worker, assisting women to access this abortion service, will need to know to support and streamline her abortion journey.

It would seem that abortion tourism is a win-win for the nihilistic state government, at least in the short-term. Fewer new babies coming along means less maternity leave means a bigger pool of employees to service more tourists. But one day those employees grow old with no-one to replace them. It's easy to see why euthanasia is so appealing to these social engineers.

Late-Term Abortion and Other Atrocities.

Pro-lifers believe that life should be protected from conception, even as an embryo, and even before the tiny being looks human. But often, the reality of abortion only strikes home when we're confronted with the scenario of aborting a well-developed, viable baby. The thought that a child could have been born alive and adopted out to loving parents enrages ordinary people. Even so, many of these people have less of a problem with aborting babies at a lower gestation. Although most states don't collect official abortion statistics, there are annual stats available for abortions after 20 weeks.  Real Choices has collated these into a table recording the number of abortions after 20 weeks from 1999 to 2015. Surprisingly, these numbers include what is perhaps the most shocking part of the abortion reform law: babies that survive an abortion are not resuscitated. The tables shows that there is around one late-term abortion every single day in Victoria, and that in 2015, there were 31 babies born alive after failed abortion. Those babies are left to die. This is legal in Victoria. 

Demography of an Aborting Mother

The Abortion FAQ website offers this outline of a typical abortion-minded woman. It's quite different from our perception of the average aborting mother as a young, helpless, poor woman being pressured by her aggressive partner. [But this also doesn't suggest that the latter scenario is rare.]

Unplanned pregnancy can affect any woman of childbearing age, but studies show some women are more likely to have an abortion than others. The typical woman seeking abortion is:

• Aged in her 20s
• Single
• Childless
• Well educated
• Employed.

Research shows that at the time of an unplanned pregnancy: Up to 60 per cent of women were using at least one form of contraception and one in five of those were using more than one method. Up to 43 per cent of women who were using contraception were on the pill and 22 per cent were using condoms.

  If so many women who are using contraception are becoming pregnant, what does that say about contraception? Surely it's proof - if there ever was any - that abortion is simply back-up contraception.   

Abortion's Violent Influence.

There's one more observation I'd like to make. It's about the increase in violence in our society. Movies have become more violent, video games have become more violent. Of particular concern is the increase in violence perpetrated by children against children. But by contrast, our society prides itself on its sophistication and diplomacy in resolving conflict. Even religion has come to be valued more for it's ability to provide 'peace' and 'harmony', rather than for teaching about sin and our need for redemption. It is politically correct to oppose gun-ownership and to espouse a just-war stance. So how do we account for this conflict - a pride in our 'peace' but widespread evidence of violence? Perhaps the violent and traumatic nature of abortion has implicitly taught us that aggression is justified on certain occasions. Perhaps the betrayal and dismemberment of our most vulnerable citizens has affected us more than we care to admit? Some of this aggressive behaviour is undoubtedly the result of the porn epidemic - but is violent pornography itself a cause, or a symptom, of abortion's violent influence? It's very difficult to wind back abortion, once it has been decriminalised. But that must not deter us from our fight to end discrimination against the unborn, and our hope that we will one day 'Change the Law.'  

For more articles on abortion: The Australian Abortionist Who Wants America's Dead Babies

Equality: You Keep Using That Word.

Restoration of Legal Protection for the Unborn Must Remain Our Primary Focus

Redefining Choice: The Use of Aborted Foetuses in Australia.