Displaying items by tag: Victoria

The activists and their supporters are always telling us to relax and ease up – they insist that what they want will have no impact on anyone else. They tell us that what they do in the privacy of their own bedrooms is not the business of anyone else. They say nothing will change when things like homosexual marriage are legalised. They accuse us of being alarmists and fear-mongers. They tell us to just shut up because they are entitled to do what they want, and we should just butt out since it will have no impact on us.

26 years ago, I had an abortion here in Melbourne. Even back then, it was quite easy to obtain an abortion. I told the abortionist I was about to buy a business so I couldn't have the baby. That was enough reason for the abortionist to classify my reason for the abortion as ‘mental health’. The business deal fell through a few weeks after the abortion. The irony of this didn’t dawn on me until many years later. I sacrificed my baby’s life for a business that never eventuated. There were no 'sidewalk' counsellors back then. 26 years later, I have suffered indescribable psychological trauma as a result of that abortion.

Abortion activists are at it again, attempting to introduce bubble-zones around New South Wales abortion facilities. As stated many times on this website, these so-called 'safe-access zones', also known as exclusion zones, are designed to stop advocates for life from offering assistance to desperate women who feel pressured to abort their children. They also hamper the freedom of political communication which should exist in a free society like Australia. Exclusion-zone law, very similar to that being proposed in New South Wales will be under the scrutiny of the High Court of Australia this year due to our legal challenge. Any politician who is realistic about the fiscal and time constraints that apply to our parliamentary system wouldn't dream of introducing legislation that has a constitutional cloud hanging over it.

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:  

[This article was updated on 28/12/17 to include the latest violent-crime incidents - Kathy.] Victorians were outraged to hear of yet another act of senseless violence which occurred only a few days before Christmas in the CBD. A car deliberately ploughed into pedestrians, injuring 19 people, including children. Fortunately, no-one was killed this time - unlike a previous similar episode which saw 6 civilians murdered and 30 injured. This attack came hot on the heels of other violent acts around Melbourne: gangs roaming Werribee and St. Kilda, terrorising neighbourhoods, threatening police but with not a single arrest being made.

I'll be spending this day in court, answering my charge of violating an abortion facility exclusion zone in 2016. The "Safe-Access Zone" law is an amendment to the Public Health and Wellbeing Act, and takes this heinous abortion law to another level. Click here to read more about Safe Access zones.   On October 10th 2008, Victoria enacted some of the worst abortion laws in the world. That year there were 16,084 abortions performed in the state. That equates to 44 babies killed every day. If there has been no increase in the abortion rate - which is pretty unlikely -  then there are now 144, 756 little children missing from the Victorian landscape. I'm not in a position to evaluate the difference this law reform has made to the state. But, I'd like to offer a few observations on this sad anniversary.

At the completion of the Rio Paralympics in 2016, Marieke Vervoort, a Belgian silver medallist in the 400 metres, and a winner of silver and gold medals at the London Olympics announced to a BBC interviewer that she had completed the requirements to receive medical assistance to commit suicide at a future time of her choosing.

Marieke explained that, notwithstanding her satisfaction at winning the medal:  there is also another side to the medal, the side of suffering and of saying goodbye to the sport. Because I love the sport, sport is my life.  Referring to her future plans, she confided: I know when it's enough for me, I have those papers.

We think that this model, which we acknowledge is the most conservative model for assisted dying in the world, is the right model for Victoria (Professor Brian Owler)

Claiming a world’s best regulatory document inevitably recalls Bob Carr’s comment in the course of the debate on an Australian bill of rights.  Carr commented that, on reading, the world’s most impressive charter of rights came from the USSR in the mid 1930s.  Recently, the difference between regulation and practice in banking and irrigation has made news.  It’s all about compliance.  How well will the 66 recommendations in the world’s most conservative model for assisted suicide accomplish compliance?  This paper will briefly consider some of the recommendations, especially in the context of other regulatory systems.

As the debate on the legalisation of euthanasia and assisted suicide in Victoria ramps up in the coming months, Daniel Giles discusses how fellow disability advocates feel about this important topic.

[Note on the accompanying photograph: Disability advocates in Adelaide last year for the parliamentary debate on euthanasia (source: http://gimpled.blogspot.com.au/2016/10/why-we-must-not-go-gently-into-night.html) Courtesy: Paul Russell]

Disability advocates in recent times have raised concerns about the impact the legalisation of euthanasia and/or assisted suicide will have on them. There are people within the disability community actively campaigning against both.

Paul Russell, founder and director of the Australian organisation HOPE: No Euthanasia, gives his opinion of the flawed Victorian 'Assisted Suicide Panel.'   

Not Safe, Never Safe

An expert panel has recently been formed in Victoria at the request of the Premier, Daniel Andrews, tasked with creating 'safe' assisted suicide laws. Even though the earlier Parliamentary Committee on end-of-life issues never actually made a reasoned case for euthanasia and assisted suicide, they still recommended that the government look to create such a law and the Premier accepted their recommendation last December. It must be a little easier from a political perspective to move forward with such a radical agenda as euthanasia and assisted suicide by being able to simply accept and endorse the recommendations of a report - even a report that did not engage once in trying to resolve the push for euthanasia with the case against. Easier still for the Premier and his government to present a bill that will have the 'five star tick of approval' of a panel tasked with making what is inherently dangerous seem safe. The panel charged with this impossible task will hear the views of Victorians, provide the government with an interim report and then proceed to propose a draft bill in July of this year.