[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.]

About the sources: This post draws heavily on the work of noted post-abortion counsellor, Anne Lastman, specifically from her articles posted on my old website, here and here. A full list of references to research papers is included at the end of the original articles. Personal testimonies included as quotations are from a recent study by Priscilla Coleman et al, which reinforces previous research about abortion's devastating effects on men and women. Information about the impact of abortion on men is taken from the MAN [Men and Abortion Network] website.

2017 was a landmark year for Australians, and for Victorians in particular. In fact, it was a triumph for the cultural revolution and its minions. Marriage was redefined and Christians endured an unprecedented attack on their faith, which is not openly scorned in the public square. the Catholic Church in particular was targeted, as the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse became a witch hunt designed to humiliate Catholics, while failing to offer true healing to victims of abuse. Queensland and New South Wales managed to stave off the decriminalisation of abortion, while Victoria legalised assisted killing. The incidence of violent crime is rising, particularly among immigrants who refuse to assimilate. Our two major parties are almost indistinguishable in their policies and both incapable of leading our country into the future. But one great result has risen in response to this tidal wave of immorality and persecution: Christians are banding together, getting involved and becoming emboldened to fight evil head-on.

[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.

What do you call a couple with an over-abundance of eggs and a conspicuous absence of sperm? Well, you or I might call this couple 'lesbians', but to the IVF industry, there's a more marketing-savvy term. Their category is 'socially infertile', and it's a growing market for artificial reproductive  technology. IVF providers are just leaping at the chance to provide gay couples with designer babies. In fact, Sydney company, IVF Australia, is so enamoured of homosexual couples, that it has sponsored the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras since 2012.  

This is an updated and expanded version of an article that first appeared on my website, Light up the Darkness, and entitled 'Solzhenitsyn and the Abortion Archipelago'. Unless otherwise stated, all quotes are from 'The Gulag Archipelago, Part III, 1918 - 1956', by Alexander Solzhenitsyn.  

This post is a part of a Feminine Genius series written by 4 different bloggers, and is the final post of the Marian Virtues Series. You can find the start of the series and the list of articles in the introduction post. If you're not a Catholic, or simply want to find out more about the Feminine Genius, please read the introduction post first. All quotes below are from the encyclical Mulieris Dignitatem, by Pope St. John Paul II.

[Photo credit: xT3ddotcom - still taken from video] I had the pleasure of hearing the wonderful Gabriele Kuby speak on her book,  The Global Sexual Revolution,  last weekend. This is the second time I've heard Dr. Kuby speak about her groundbreaking book, which is subtitled, 'The Destruction of Freedom in the Name of Freedom.'  That phrase alone speaks volumes about the gender ideology and sexualised culture that is perverting our children, marriages and family life.