In the article, CEO of 'Women’s Health Goulburn North East', Susie Reid, has made unfounded statements that pro abortion advocates regurgitate on demand.
In just a few short sentences, Ms Reid has:
1. Understimated the growing concern about abortion in Albury/Australian society: " Small, noisy minority".
2. Marginalised men (many of whom live with hurt from abortion - including Rex Beard who shared his own painful experience of abortion - described in our last article ): - "Many of them (the noisy minority) men".
3. Made a not-so-subtle reference to "backyard abortions": "This may result in women delaying their terminations or choosing to use illegal or unsafe techniques" - There is no evidence of the "droves of women" that supposedly died from backyard abortions, remembering that in 1969 when the Menhennit Ruling was passed, one woman in all of Australia died from a backyard abortion.
4. Blamed the Helpers for "scaring women away" - Away from such an "informed, even empowering decision", that pro aborts claim abortion is? Research shows that abortion actually disempowers women (see unchoice.com ).
5.Attempted to 'handball' her organisation's role of sex education and information about contraception to the Helpers: "The anti-choice lobby is not at all concerned with prevention, like the provision of good sex education (and) access to effective contraception".
It seems that if Susie Reid's organisation was informing women about the procedure and risks of abortion and offering practical and emotional support to women facing unplanned pregnancy, as it should be - the Helpers might just (gladly) be 'out of a job'.
Debbie Garratt of Real Choices Australia wrote to the Editor of The Border Mail:
"Melissa Ohden (abortion survivor) and I were interviewed by Brad Worrell in May and a story printed about Melissa’s survival. During this interview Brad expressed the view that the Border Mail would always want to be sure to ...present an impartial and fair view of both sides of the abortion issue. The Border Mail’s portrayal of the protests outside the abortion clinic over the last couple of weeks have done anything but provide a fair representation of ‘both sides’ however your latest article featuring Suzie Reid is blatant sensationalism, perpetuating the myth that all abortions are actually ‘wanted’ and that there can be no benefit gained by women being offered an alternative.
In one article, the abortionist Kathy Lewis is quoted as saying that business has increased since the media attention, and later Suzie as saying that the protests will scare women away and have them seeking illegal methods of abortion. Both of these claims are absurd, with Ms Reid’s statement bordering on outrageous.
The fact is that the people praying outside the abortion clinic have been doing so for more than a decade. There has NOT been an increase in illegal abortion in that time, and it is ridiculous to suggest that women are seeking abortion more often as a result. For Ms Reid to make statements that people who advocate for more options than abortion for women, do not care about women is blatantly false. There are many pro-life groups in Australia and in our region who work hard as volunteers, to provide material and practical resources for women, as well as mentoring and supporting them both during and after a challenging pregnancy. It is a poor reflection on the position of those seeking to usher women into the abortion clinic that they seek to marginalise and lie about the work of people who are deeply concerned about women facing abortion decisions.
International evidence is growing that women do not always seek abortion as a matter of their free and informed will. They usually seek abortion because they are in situations that are untenable for them, and they lack the support they may need to create more positive circumstances. Abortion should not be the answer to a social or economic problem. Regardless of one’s philosophical position on abortion, surely it is possible to find some common ground about the concern for women’s circumstances and the fact that so many feel pressured toward an unwanted abortion, and uninformed about the very real risks to their mental and emotional wellbeing, rather than perpetuating the idea that neither side actually cares".
While the tone of this article may seem somewhat depressing, the debate going on in Albury is fantastic. Pro lifers welcome the opportunity to address misinformation about abortion and to give the message loud and clear that "Women, (babies and families) deserve better than abortion" (Feminists for Life).
6/6/11 - In the most recent update, the Abortion Hurts Albury website tells of a threatening phone call made to Anna von Marburg who attends the vigil at the clinic and who comments on the website.
Anna's response: "The day before the call, my husband and I prayed in front of the abortion clinic in Albury. The pro abortionists blocked signage on my vehicle advertising this blog. My husband appeared in the newspaper on Friday condemning them for using their umbrellas to cover up what abortion was doing to women. When presented with research, statistics, and images, the response of the supporters of the taxpayer funded billion dollar abortion industry in this country is not to give a shred of evidence that abortion helps women and children, but to threaten me by calling me at home while my children sleep and my husband is away.
The tax payer funded billion dollar abortion industry chews up women , swallows their children, and spits out the women, a shell of what they used to be. They lie to them and their loved ones and tell them babies are just a blob of cells. They withhold or playdown the research and statistics that show the harmful effects on women’s mental, physical, and psychological being and claim it’s “legal” so it’s okay. The class one carcinogenic combined oral contraceptive pill is legal. Silicon breast implants are legal. The Dalkon shield was legal. The gas chambers in Nazi Germany were legal. Up until forty years ago, abortion was NOT legal.
Forty years ago, when abortion was made legal, we didn’t have the research on the harmful effects of abortion , nor did we contemplate the cost to society of trying to make post abortive women whole again. Forty years ago, we didn’t have cameras into the womb or the evidence to show us that from conception a unique and irreplaceable human being begins and continues to grow until she stops or is stopped. After forty years, it’s time to review the accumulated evidence and let the younger generation have a say in deciding whether or not abortion is good for women, children, and society.
I stand across the street from the house at Englehardt Street and pray peacefully and legally as women are churned through for abortions on Thursdays. The greatest human rights leaders of modern times, Ghandi, Martin Luther King Jr., and Lech Walesa combined peaceful protest and prayer to achieve their goals. I am a Christian. When I get a call at the end of my life and am asked what I did while babies died because they had no voice, and women cried because they felt they had no choice, I will answer. At great personal cost , I did not remain silent."
Comments
of our society. Susie Reid needs to reconsider her role very seriously because she is demonstrating hypocrisy in the role that she has accepted with her behaviour and statements. I believe that she needs to educate herself in the facts, for example, the physical,
psycological, emotional, and spiritual consequences that occur in the life of a woman who has had an abortion, not to mention the death of the unborn women in the wombs of their mothers. Ignorance has become so common in our society that we now give people
like Susie Reid authority and responsability when actually someone like her should be a student in a classroom that teaches the fundamentals of who is a woman (this includes unborn women) and the dignity of a woman (this includes the protection a woman offers
her children from the moment of their conception). I suggest that we pray for Susie and many other women who are living in darkness, ignorant of their dignity and the dignity of other women who depend of their decisions.
traumatic things they may ever have to endure.. this CEO of a women's health organisation literally danced in the street. This behaviour is beyond anything that could be considered acceptable by any normal person's standards. It is absolutely sickening.