Abortion in the Media

The Advertiser (Adelaide Now) have reported that humanitarian, Robyn Grace, is coming to the aid of desperate migrants "spending thousands helping pregnant women on temporary visas keep their babies" - pregnancies that would otherwise be terminated.

According to the report, "The 43-year-old Mt Barker resident is meeting the medical costs which the women and their partners can't afford because they are being allowed into the country without private health insurance, have no access to Medicare and work in low paying jobs." 

The article also stated that "Mrs Grace has funded five migrant births with the help of donations at a cost of around $7500 each since 2009". She said "They wanted to keep their babies and I helped out, but who knows how many others are out there in the same situation without anyone to turn to."

The article describes the desperate situations of two immigrant couples who are delighted to have received support from Mrs Grace, after originally being referred to have abortions. 

Life Network Australia congratulates Robyn for her ongoing commitment to women and families needing support and to their precious babies.

The article said that "A spokeswoman for Minister Bowen said the department had "commenced a review" of mandatory private health requirements for visa holders".

Read more here

Life News have reported that "A new CNN national poll of Americans finds results that are almost identical to a Gallup survey earlier this year, and it shows 62% of Americans want all or most abortions made illegal". Read more here

This is exciting news out of the U.S - and encouraging to Australian pro lifers as we endeavour to also change the tide on abortion opinion by challenging and dispelling the myths of the abortion industry.

Pro-Life groups in the UK have condemned the airing of TV commercials for abortionist group Marie Stopes in Britain, describing them as ‘grotesque’ and ‘misleading’.

According to LifeSiteNews, pro life groups say that the advertisements cover up the dangers of abortion and “trivialize” the taking of human life. Marie Stopes, one of the world’s largest international abortionist groups that receives an estimated £30 million a year from the UK National Health Service, claimed that the ads were needed to “inform” women and help them “confront the taboo” surrounding abortion.

However, the UK charity LIFE said that despite the claims by Marie Stopes, the ads have nothing to do with women’s health and they withhold crucial information from women about the dangers of abortion. LIFE spokesman Michaela Aston said, “Let’s be absolutely clear - abortion has nothing to do with sexual health. In fact, abortion is more likely to damage a woman's sexual health.”

Ms Aston told The Guardian "I can only express utter disbelief that this is being allowed, given the opposition to abortion advertising expressed during the recent public consultation. To allow abortion providers to advertise on TV, as though they were no different from car companies or detergent manufacturers, is grotesque," she said.

 “There is a growing body of scientific evidence supporting LIFE's forty years' experience of counselling women after abortion, that the procedure can cause lasting and sometimes severe psychological ill-effects,” Aston told LSN.

“Marie Stopes are not up-front about this. They sell abortion as a quick-fix solution to crisis pregnancy and largely deny that it has any adverse consequences. Marie Stopes are not empowering women to make ‘confident, informed decisions,’ as they claim, because they are not giving women all the facts.”

LIFE also questioned the transparency of the ASA’s consultation process about abortions ads: “Why did they go ahead with a public consultation period when they knew all along about the ‘charity loophole’? …Who made this discovery and when? And why weren't we informed about it during the consultation period?”

An announcement last year that the ASA was considering approving the advertising of abortion on TV was met with 40,000 complaints against the proposal, according to LifeSiteNews. In response, BCAP deferred a decision as to whether to allow the ads.

The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) said it will be taking advice as to the legality of the ads.

“By suggesting that abortion is yet another consumer choice, it trivialises human life and completely contravenes the spirit of the 1967 Abortion Act, which was supposed to allow for a small number of legal abortions in a limited number of hard cases, but has been twisted and distorted to allow for mass abortion on demand,” SPUC’s Anthony Ozimic said.

The ads, he said, “trivialise abortion. It is an insult to the hundreds of women hurt by abortion every day. Such ads are offensive and will mislead viewers about the reality of abortion.”

The Marie Stopes ad the ads, which will run from May 24 to the end of June on BBC Channel 4, does not use the word “abortion,” but asks “Are you late?” and directs pregnant woman to Marie Stopes International's 24-hour helpline. The group in their press release boasts that of the 195,296 abortions carried out in England and Wales in 2008, one in three were at Marie Stopes facilities.

An online petition is being circulated that allows the public to protest and request that permission to air the ads be rescinded. 

An estimated one million people marched in Madrid, Spain, protesting proposed changes to abortion law, according to christianpost.com. The Bill proposed by socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero included allowing abortion for any reason during the first 14 weeks of pregnancy and to allow girls as young as 16 to have an abortion without parental consent.
 
Currently abortion is only allowed in the cases of rape, foetal abnormality, or when the mother’s physical or mental health is at risk. 

An article on a popular men's web site that offered advice on how to pressure or coerce your wife or girlfriend into an unwanted abortion has been removed after receiving a flood of criticism from people on both sides of the abortion debate, according to The Elliot Institute News.

US-based Elliot Institute, billed as the ‘leader in post-abortion research’, released the astounding news in their July 28 eNews bulletin. 

The web site article described a situation in which a woman become pregnant after she and her partner agreed not to have a baby. The author, Isabella Snow, wrote about things the man could say to persuade the woman to have an abortion, even if it was unwanted.

Especially disturbing was the advice that the man threaten to withdraw his support if the woman has the baby anyway, which is a form of coercion. “This was her decision, not yours, and the bulk of the responsibility is now hers," Snow wrote. "Take a moment to spell this out for her when she gives you her final decision; it just may sway her over to your side."

Elsewhere in the article she tells men to back up their position by laying out the reasons they can't have a baby, asking questions about how they will afford the child or who will take care of the baby. According to the Elliot Institute, women and girls report that this is a technique often used at abortion businesses in the US to make them feel that they can't have the baby and that abortion is their only option.
 
Many readers expressed anger, disappointment and dismay at the author for endorsing and even encouraging coercive actions that can lead to unwanted abortions. Posts from male readers of the site express frustration and a sense of loss from abortion of their unborn children, indicating that abortion can hurt men as well as women.

There is strong evidence that many abortions are, in fact, unwanted or coerced.
 
A survey of American and Russian women who had abortions found that more than half of American respondents reported feeling rushed or uncertain about the abortion and 64 percent reported feeling pressured to abort by others. Given the similarities between Australian and US culture, coercion may be just as prevalent in Australia.

Download the Elliot Institute’s special report Forced Abortion in America and find more information and resources here.
 

About 65,000 Americans have signed a national petition in just one week calling on Congress to exclude abortion as a mandatory health benefit as part of any health care legislation being considered, The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) announced yesterday, according to LifeSiteNews.  The ACLJ, which specializes in constitutional law, is providing legal analysis to House members urging them to reject the abortion mandate.

" When it comes to mandatory health benefits, Americans don't want their tax dollars used - or force private insurance plans - to fund abortion.  We will continue to push for a legislative remedy that explicitly excludes abortion from any government mandated coverage or taxpayer funded health plan." said Jay Sekulow, Chief Counsel of the ACL.
 
"The two central 'health care reform' bills currently moving in Congress … each contain provisions that would, if enacted, represent the greatest expansion of abortion since the Supreme Court handed down its Roe v. Wade ruling legalising abortion in 1973," explained US National Right to Life Committee Federal Legislation Director Douglas Johnson in LifeSiteNews’ July 13 bulletin. 

"These bills contain multiple provisions that would result in federally mandated insurance coverage of abortion on demand, massive federal subsidies for abortion, mandated creation of many new abortion clinics, and nullification of at least some state limitations on abortion."

Unlike Australia, abortions in the US are not yet funded by taxpayers. With over 50% of Americans now calling themselves ‘pro life’, Obama’s pro-abortion legislation is likely to meet with a lot more opposition over the coming months.

Australian taxpayers paid out over $10.5 million in Medicare-subsidised abortions in 2003.