Event Reports

Great Feedback from Advertising 
One of the goals of Emily's Voice is "to change the way Australians think on the issue of abortion."  Some very encouraging feed back came to us recently to demonstrate that this was actually happening as a result of our advertising campaigns!

We received a report from a local high school where a classroom discussion came round to the issue of abortion and children with disabilities.  As the discussion progressed, one boy excitedly referred to the Not Born Yet ad on TV that featured Jimmy, the child with Downs Syndrome, saying, "What about that kid on the four-wheeler in the ad? He looked alright." The discussion continued and the class conclusion was that having a disability was no reason to abort a child!
 
Networking with Priceless Life Centre 
Priceless Life Centre is a pregnancy support centre located in Brisbane. They offer help to pregnant women and their families, as well as new parent support and post abortive support through both telephone and face to face counselling.  Emily's Voice is already partnering with Priceless Life Centre as they provide the practical help offered on our websites. 

Priceless Life Centre is seeking to network with individuals and groups in Toowoomba that are offering assistance to those who lack support during pregnancy and early parenting.

There will be a public meeting on Monday, 26th October at Thommy's, cnr Thomas and Neil Streets, Toowoomba at 7:30pm. 

If you are interested in this very practical area of giving support to pregnant women, please come along to this meeting.

House of Nathan and Fresh Hope representatives will also be there.   
 
Further Networking to spread the Pro-Life Message 
Emily's Voice was delighted to join a number of other pro-life organisations around Australia in supporting a recent Australian Christian Lobby initiative.  An advertisement featured in The Weekend Australian on 19th September in response to the cover of the Weekend Australian Magazine from the week before.  The cover read, "For Dear Life.  Babies born at just 23 weeks can now be saved, but they risk severe disability.  Has medical science gone too far?"  The jointly-sponsored ad used similar format to the previous week's cover, but changed the wording to:  "For Dear Life.  Babies born at just 23 weeks can now be saved, but we abort them even older.  Has abortion gone too far?" 
 
Christmas is around the corner 
To celebrate the Christmas Season, Emily's Voice is sending a precious message of life through TV, radio and the newspaper in Toowoomba.  It will be a compilation of the three NotBornYet ads shown this year, giving a Christmas spin to their stories.  The TV ads will feature the familiar scanned unborn image common to the NotBornYet ads, affirming that the best gift of all is life itself. 
 
Annual Report 
Emily's voice has released its very first Annual Report.  It has been mailed to all who have financially supported Emily's Voice during 2008-2009.  If you have not received one but would like to, please contact juliet@emilysvoice.com 

Life Network Australia co-founder and President, Sonja Couroupis, was one of a small number speakers to address a rally against abortion on the steps of the Victorian Parliament last weekend.

             
The rally was organised to mark the first anniversary of the passing of legislation that made many changes to abortion legislation, including access to abortion until birth.
 
Others speakers including leader of the National Party, Peter Ryan and the event's organiser, Bernie Finn, Liberal MP.
 
Each of the speakers criticised the changes and emplored the need for coordinated and unrelenting pressure to improve protection for society's most vulnerable.
 
The invitation extended to Sonja Couroupis by the event's organising committee is recognition of both the positive contribution Life Network Australia has made to informing people of the many issues related to abortion and the prospects of similar legislation being put forward in NSW.
 
The event was supported by over 2,000 people, who marched through the city centre, then gathered on the steps of Parliament to voice their united opposition to the new abortion laws.
 
Mrs Couroupis of Deniliquin highlighted the negative impact abortion has on babies, mothers, fathers and families and that they all deserve better support and options to keep their children.
 
Facebookers can view footage of Sonja at the rally here.

            

Response to Not Born Yet
Having now completed the run of the first two advertising campaigns in our Not Born Yet Series, it has been encouraging to see that our campaigns are producing a response from the general public!

People have emailed their own stories to us and these have been added to the website. Conversations have been generated on the letters to the Editor page of the Toowoomba Chronicle in the SMS section. One excited father of a child who has a disability wrote to us, "I have just seen your latest advert in relation to the parents of the child with Downs Syndrome.  I wanted to say THANK YOU! The latest campaign of "Not Born Yet" is sensational and a long time coming."

Going Further Afield!
An opportunity has opened for the Not Born Yet advertisements to be shown on Channel 10 in Launceston, Tasmania.  Through a very enthusiastic contact there, free air time has been given to Emily's Voice.  We are grateful to be able to trial the ads in another location. 
 
Conversations in Your World 
We would encourage you to generate conversations about Emily's Voice in your world, just like the ones reported above in Toowoomba's newspaper.  Talk about the ads as you gather with relatives, friends and colleagues.  Spread the word that people are being challenged and encouraged by the advertising campaigns. 

We thank you for standing with Emily's Voice during this pioneering time.  Our vision of "changing the social consciousness of the entire nation and for ordinary people to fall in love with the unborn" is huge. It's great to know there's so much support as we work toward making this vision a reality.

Used with permission

Last weekend, Pregnancy Help Australia held their annual conference for affiliated pro life pregnancy support centres. The conference celebrated the work of hundreds of compassionate counsellors and support workers around Australia who assist women to defy the pressure to abort by providing the material and emotional support that is so often lacking. Over 75 delegates learn new skills and encouraged one another to continue with their life-saving work.

Pregnancy support services are provided by volunteer counsellors and generally exist on the donations of their supporters. If you would like to donate to a service near you, or are interested in volunteer counselling, visit the PHA website and contact a pregnancy support service in your area.

Pregnancy Help provides training and support to affiliated pregnancy support agencies, all of whom subscribe to the pro life approach and do not refer for abortions.

Melbourne based pro life group, Doctors in Conscience conducted a conference on Saturday July 25, addressing the impact of the Victorian abortion legislation upon the traditional right of medical workers to object to undertaking certain medical procedures.

The conference examined the implications that anticonscience laws (such as abortion legislation) will have on the practice of healthcare for conscientious objectors. It also examined the broader issue of anti-conscience laws and the threat they pose to the freedom of thought, conscience and religion from a cultural, political and legal perspective.

According to the conference brochure, “The recent Victorian Abortion Law Reform legislation enacted in October 2008, ushered in a new era of healthcare in Australia in which individual health workers and healthcare organizations can be coerced to act contrary to their consciences and their deeply held ethical, moral and religious convictions, by requiring the compulsory participation in abortion through referral and, in some circumstances, direct assistance.”

Dr Lachlan Dunjey, convenor of Medicine with Morality, spoke at the conference. According to Dr Dunjey, ‘compassion’ is the most common reason given by doctors as to why abortions should be performed. He counters: ‘compassion must be aligned with love and not pity. Genuine compassion will look to the future holistic welfare of the person or persons concerned and therefore in conscience respectfully saying no to the requested procedure and seeking instead to give a more informed picture’.

The Victorian Abortion Law Reform legislation requires medical practitioners with a conscientious objection to abortion to refer a woman seeking one to another practitioner who doesdn’t have that objection.

For more information, check out the article in The Age.

 

Pregnancy Crisis Inc. has passed its first milestone with a successful fundraising dinner held recently in Brisbane, according to an article in the Catholic Leader. The Catholic group is a recently formed, Brisbane-based organisation providing support to mothers experiencing at-risk pregnancies.

PCI is a great example of what ordinary people can achieve. Launched in November 2008 by a determined group of concerned people, the association currently has 100 members and another 100 supporters

The Catholic newspaper reports that PCI members have already assisted a number of women with unplanned pregnancies which had resulted in the birth of several children.

“One of our members was praying outside an abortion clinic and after speaking to a young woman (found that the young woman) decided to continue with her pregnancy and did not go ahead with the abortion. She is now the proud mother of a baby boy and we have provided her with a bassinet and baby pack.

In a previous report in the Catholic Leader, PCI President Patti Camp explained that the group’s existence was recognition of statistics showing that a minority of women actually wished to terminate pregnancies.

“Women who receive support are more likely to continue with their pregnancy”, Mrs Camp said.

Approximately 15,000 children are killed by abortion each year in Queensland. Studies  show that lack of emotional, social and material support are major factors contributing to abortions in Australia.

(from their email update)

 (from their April E-news)

(from LifeSiteNews May 14, 2009)