Pro-choice gone mad
1 May 2013 Hits:20931
According to Monday’s Herald Sun, by refusing to provide a referral for a patient on moral grounds or refer the matter to another doctor, Dr Hobart admits he has broken the law and could face suspension, conditions on his ability to practice or even be deregistered. But he was willing to risk punishment in pursuit of principles. He said he did not believe any doctor in Victoria would have helped a couple have an abortion just because they wanted a boy. Another doctor who was brought before the Medical Board in January for airing his views against abortion was cautioned and warned he could be deregistered if it happened again.
Victoria's Abortion Law Reform Act 2008 specifies the obligations of registered health practitioners who have a "conscientious objection" to abortion. Under the Act, if a woman requests a doctor to advise on a proposed abortion and the practitioner has a conscientious objection, he or she must refer the woman to a practitioner who does not conscientiously object.
But this incident highlights a much bigger problem regarding abortion. The Law states that "the woman's current and future physical, psychological and social circumstances” need to be considered when proposing an abortion (especially after 24 weeks). I agree with the first two conditions: if a woman’s physical or psychological health and wellbeing are threatened by the pregnancy then a higher law comes into play. But what we’re seeing in society today goes far beyond this. Abortion is being used as a form of contraception because a baby would interfere with lifestyle or career, or, as in this instance, because the couple wants a boy not a girl. So, what happens if they become pregnant with a girl next time? Abort? What if they keep having girls? How many babies die until these people get the son they want?
One in six Australian couples cannot have children. Why don’t people choose to adopt their “unwanted” babies to people who’d love and care for them? But it’s just a fetus, an unwanted pregnancy, just a lump of disposable epithelial tissue right? The word “fetus” comes from Latin and means “offspring”, “bringing forth”, “hatching of young.” When a couple are happy to find out they are pregnant you don’t hear the words, “we’re expecting a fetus.” No, they’re expecting a baby. Maybe our “throw-away” society has just gone too far.
Rob Buckingham
Senior Minister
5 replies on “Pro-choice gone mad”
Good point about a doctor’s commitment to the wellbeing of women Rob. Quite apart from what abortion means for the unborn child, there is a lot of research to affirm that abortion hurts women. You may be interested in reading ‘Redeeming Grief’
http://www.victimsofabortion.com.au/RedeemingGrief.htm
Blessings, Vickie
Rob, may I ask what the higher law is that you refer to above? It saddens me that Victoria has some of the most liberal abortion laws in the Western world. You know about the March for the Babies movement? I’ve attended a couple of their rallies in the city. In doing this I was simply making a peaceful statement against what I consider to be an unjust law, and not to judge anybody who has had an abortion. Having said that, I was quite taken aback by the anger and hatred of the pro choice crowd, who were holding their own counter rally at the same time.
Thank you for your comments. The “higher law” is mentioned in my blog:
“if a woman¹s physical or psychological health and wellbeing are
threatened by the pregnancy.” That is, if a pregnant woman’s life or
mental health is threatened by the pregnancy then the higher law would be
to preserve her life.
For further understanding of this principle I explain it in another blog “Binding & Loosing” – http://www.baysidechurch.com.au/content/view/701/243/
Blessings
Rob
The other thing that irks me about “pro-choice” is that the “choice” they support is very one-sided. When has anyone heard of a Pro-choicer campaigning for more support for the women who want to keep their baby but are being unrelentedly pressured to abort by partner or family? Until they suport these women’s choice with equal ferver their name should reflect what they actually are, Pro-Abortion.
I been in this place myself. I been pregnant and been told that baby was very sick and I had to decide. This was a pregnancy I was waiting for all my life and I thought it was a miracle from God. I went ahead with the termination. Why ? For me, I could not bring myself to bring this baby to suffer a lifetime of “assisted” living, life in hospitals, being sick and disabled physically and mentally, and me being alone dealing with all this. I don’t support abortion genrally speaking and I would give anything to have this baby in my life, but healthy, not very sick. I would give anything to see baby’s smile and hold the baby. I made the choice because if there was no assistance from modern medicine this baby would not survie long alone because of a broad speactrum of problems asscited with this illness. The choice broke my heart and I still cry and miss that baby but I still would not like this person to be here and be sick whole life and to suffer a lifetime of pain and disability, and live in hospitals under constat threat, being in pain due to many problems, of in constant threat of something going wrong and being sick all of life. You may say that higher law would be to leave things as they are. But in my mind, I was looking at this life of constant difficulty and suffering for me and the baby and thats why I did it. I was praying for sign from God that things maybe would improve and every time I went for a check and a scan things were looking worse and worse and they were finding more wrong with the baby. it was the hardest choice and the most heart breaking thing I was ever faced with and it was so hard I would not wish that on my worst enemy and I suffered throughout all of it.