World-renowned speaker, Jason Evert, was in Melbourne this week for a series of talks on the true nature of love. Jason has spoken to more than one million people about the virtue of chastity and has been a keynote speaker at five World Youth Days. He has written several books, including “Theology of the Body for Teens” and “How to Find Your Soulmate Without Losing Your Soul,” and has studied counselling and theology at the Franciscan University of Steubenville. It was my great pleasure to meet him and ask him a few questions about how a return to chastity can put the brakes on the abortion culture.

Abortionist Leah Torres is no stranger to controversy. She has a huge following on twitter and actively advocates for abortion, while educating - according to her personal brand of science - on the dangers of pregnancy. Last week, she drew heavy criticism from within and without the pro-life community for her comments about her abortion technique: "You know babies can't scream, right? I transect the cord first so there's really no opportunity. If they're even far enough along to have a larynx." Although like many others, I concluded that Torres was referring to the vocal cords, she says she was actually referring to the umbilical cord. [See Dave Pellowe's article and interview with Leah Torres here.] And, while umbilical cord transection is a technique that is sometimes used for second-trimester abortions, it has mixed outcomes for mothers. In any case, it seems irrelevant which cord is being cut: umbilical, vocal or spinal; for the abortionist, they all lead to the result they're after: a dead baby.  

[As a practising Catholic, it was interesting to read this account by Rissa Hann of her experience at the 2016 Day of the Unborn Child. For those who may not be aware, this annual pro-life event is held in the Sydney CBD on the Feast of the Annunciation, and it is unashamedly Catholic. I've added pictures from this year's event, but have left Rissa's text unchanged - Kathy.]  

Three Canberra men were recently acquitted of the charge of violating an abortuary exclusion-zone. Kerry Mellor, John Popplewell, and Ken Clancy, have witnessed outside the Marie Stopes facility for many years. After a protest-free exclusion-zone was introduced in 2016, they continued to engage in quiet, personal prayer, which they believed did not constitute a protest. The prosecution had argued that praying constituted 'a protest, by any means', although a security guard who was called as a witness conceded that the men's prayer was silent.

Before exclusion-zones were introduced, the Melbourne Helpers of God's Precious Infants were able to help many women choose life for their children. On average, one mother and her baby were saved from abortion every month. That number has dwindled significantly, thanks to the totalitarian "Safe-Access Zones". But Richard Grant explains how God continues to provide for vulnerable mothers and their preborn children:  

Buzzfeed's Gina Rushton recently published an article which attempted to discredit the work of pro-lifers in Perth. [Click here to read the article]. As well as providing the entertainment value that pro-aborts derive from mocking the pro-life community, the article added fuel to the fire of those pushing for exclusion-zones. As covered in other articles on this site, eg this one, there is a global movement by abortion providers to try to shut down prayerful witness outside abortion facilities. Without exception, this movement relies on a false premise for its momentum: the lie that pro-lifers 'harass' and 'intimidate' women. An integral part of this lie is the idea that pro-lifers tell nothing but falsehoods, while abortion providers tell nothing but the truth. And the media plays a very large part in promulgating these lies.  

 [This article first appeared on Dave Pellowe's website, Pellowe Talk, and is reproduced here with kind permission of the author.]   This video was recorded yesterday at Sydney University O Week. While the students of LifeChoice Sydney engaged in legal and peaceful dialogue with people both for and against abortion, pro-abortion-choice protesters abused and insulted them. Rebecca Gosper has a degree in human science and is the director of Life Choice Australia, an activist group in five different Australian University campuses aiming to positively influence culture for the sanctity of life. She joined me to discuss the science, data and logic these students are willfully ignorant of.

[With the Tasmanian elections to be held in just over a week, voters are doing their due diligence in order to make a moral choice at the polls. That task is quite difficult, given that abortion is part of the platform of two major parties, and permanently pencilled-in by the third.

Not content with killing babies, traumatising parents and harvesting body parts, abortion providers are always looking at new strategies to inhibit the work of the pro-life community or to bolster their income. For of course, every baby saved from abortion means a slimmer pay-packet for the abortionist and his staff. In Australia, that could mean a loss of around $600 for a first-trimester abortion and up to $7700 for a late-term abortion. So it's little wonder that abortionists are eager to have special laws created in order to get women to keep those appointments. One example is the profusion of bubble-zone laws that have sprung up in recent years. In a western liberal democracy, we should be very concerned when the government enacts laws that target one specific group of people. Laws should be created solely to target behaviour, not groups or organisations. But exclusion-zone laws in the US, Canada, the UK and Australia do just that. 

It never ceases to amaze me that comments such as "keep your legs closed" or "keep it in your pants" still pop up under articles about abortion in this day and age. Last week's article by Richard Grant about Tanya Plibersek, and her calls for uniform laws to make abortion more readily available, attracted many comments like this. Obviously, I can see the hypocrisy and share the outrage of our readers, but honestly, can't we come up with more constructive comments that express the reality of the situation, and not just one crudely-worded aspect related to unplanned pregnancies? [The same goes for such comments as "They (abortion advocates) should be aborted" or calls for 'retrospective' abortions.]

With bubble-zones in two Australian states and two territories, and abortion advocates lobbying for their introduction in other states, it’s important to realise just how many babies are saved through the intervention of sidewalk counsellors. This story is about one such baby, named Ava. Ava’s mama, Nancy, suffered for many years after her two abortions. She wasn't told there could be side-effects, such as severe emotional disturbances or subsequent miscarriages. Nancy is now a very strong advocate for life and is active on social media exposing abortion and encouraging mothers to choose life. 

Heaven help Australia's unborn children if the Labor Party wins government and Tanya Plibersek becomes Deputy Prime Minister. For in her article "Patchwork abortion laws a lottery for women", Tanya equates the brutal slaying of an unborn child by abortion to medical treatment for a hip replacement or a broken bone. Moreover, in a classic example of Orwellian doublespeak, Tanya stated that "it seems tragic that a woman would bring a child into the world for no reason other than she couldn't afford to have a termination". By these words, Tanya is portraying a God-given "good" {the bringing a child into the world) as an "evil" while portraying a satanic "evil" (the extermination of a child in his or her mother's womb) as a "good".

From time to time, I think about a strange comment made by a doctor on the ABC documentary ” Inside the Clinic“. [Unfortunately, only the trailer is available now; I had made a transcript when it was first released.] The program followed the day-to-day workings inside the abortion facility where I once witnessed in suburban Melbourne. Some of my friends were interviewed for the program. This is the same doco that I wrote about in the article: “The Australian Abortionist Who Wants America’s Dead Babies” . In that post, I talked about a doctor from this same abortion facility who said she enjoyed her work and ‘was inspired’ by it. So …. she enjoys killing babies for a living. A male doctor is also featured, and was shown assessing an ultrasound image of a 7 week foetus. He said that the ultrasound showed a ‘dark little hole’ consistent with this gestation.  

Sometimes I'm stopped in the shopping centre by kind-hearted young people who are trying to raise money for various charities. One of them recently told me that diarrhea is the biggest killer of children under 5 worldwide. But I told him that abortion is the biggest killer of children world wide. [By a factor of 56!] In actual fact,  it's pneumonia that is the disease that kills the most children - it's responsible for 18% of childhood deaths worldwide. This still doesn't come close to the number of children lost to abortion, though. For children under the age of 5: 

Abortion is a Human Rights Catastrophe

According to the Australian Human Rights Commission, human rights are defined as "...the rights and freedoms contained in specific international instruments..." to which the ARHC adheres. These 'instruments' are 7 documents, including the Declaration on the Rights of the Child. Let's take a look at what the documents say about the right to life: International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights: 

Part III Article 6 

Convention on the Rights of the Child

Article 6 

Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities: 

Article 10 

Declaration of the Rights of the Child:

Introduction 

Declaration on the Rights of Disabled Persons:

Point 3 

Declaration on the Rights of Mentally Retarded Persons:

Points 1 & 2

Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief:

Article 5 part 5 - [This document doesn't specifically mention a right to life, since that right is assumed as a basis for desiring freedom of religion or belief. It does, however suggest that pre-born babies are to be protected from being aborted, for cultural reasons, on the basis of gender.] Regardless of what we might think of the United Nations, Australia is a signatory to the seven documents mentioned above. So why does our country pay only lip service to this most fundamental right, by allowing 100,000 babies to be slaughtered every year? Our government not only allows this killing on demand, but subsidises it, and promotes it through a sexualised education system. Far from discouraging abortions for flimsy reasons, it's permissible to abort on the basis of gender, or for a minor disability. This callous disregard for life flows into society and creates - not a haven from abuse, as we've been promised - but an increase in child abuse and the number of murders of pregnant mothers. If we fail to acknowledge the humanity of the preborn, how can we not be confused about glaringly fundamental facts such as the nature of marriage and even gender identification? It's no wonder that we have black deaths in custody. It's no wonder that detention centres are inhumane. And it's no wonder that the criminal justice system rewards perpetrators and blames the victims. If we can't get the basics right, then nothing else is going to work properly. If we don't respect the right to life of our children, then all other rights are meaningless. We don't have to look far for a humanitarian crisis: we have one at our own front door.  

Although abortion providers don't like to admit it, medical abortions - that is, abortions which use medication such as mifepristone/RU-486 - can often be reversed without any harm to the unborn child. I recently spoke with a Victorian GP who has successfully helped an aborting mother to continue her pregnancy; our interview is recorded below. But, first let's look at the reversal process and what's happening in the US and Australia.

Like a bottle of spilt ink, Queensland is poised to be tainted with darkness if Member for Cairns Rob Pyne’s abortion bill is voted into law in February/March 2017. Seems there’s not enough “death to the unborn” for some people and the evil tentacles spreading the deadly deception of abortion came to our Sunshine State in the form of a bill of far less than 100 words. In fact, when one looked to find the details of his first bill, the Abortion Law Reform (Woman's Right to Choose) Amendment Bill 2016, you could be forgiven for thinking that you had somehow missed it, it had so few words but the consequences of this bill could be dire. The bill called for the repealing of Sections 224, 225 and 226 of the Queensland Criminal Code. These sections state it is illegal for anyone to try or succeed in procuring an abortion (whether or not the woman is actually pregnant), and illegal for anyone to actually perform an abortion whether by instruments, medication or poison to achieve the same result – a dead preborn baby.

Les Jones is a veteran pro-lifer with decades of experience. Here he shares some memories of activism at a former abortuary in Carlton, Melbourne.

Following the example and inspiration of people like Joan Andrews, Right to Life tried a few Operation Rescues in the late 80s.  

One was at the facility of Christine Healy in Swanston St, Carlton. 

About 12 people blocked the entrance, while others witnessed outside and did not break the law. I was one of the latter group that day.

Those arrested were fined varying amounts, and accepted imprisonment for periods ranging from 12 hours to 6 days for a re offender.

The magistrate also banned Right to Life from witnessing within 50 metres.

The late Mary O'Connor, grandmother of Veronica Corboy's husband, was in a waiting room several months later and admired a baby.

The baby's mother told Mary that she had gone to the facility that day, but changed her mind and kept the baby, a decision that she was grateful for.

There is a young person walking around today as a result.

We had similar witnesses outside abortuaries in Wellington Pde and St Kilda Rd. Because of the ruling of the magistrate mentioned above, the idea of rescues was abandoned: Right to Life did not want to cause problems to Richard and his team of Helpers

Christine Healy moved to a new location near the University. We know of one baby saved through the witness of a young mother.