The Struggle for a Pro-Life Future
"The angel of death has been abroad throughout the land; you may almost hear the beating of his wings." These famous words were uttered in the House of Commons on February 23, 1855, by the famous English statesman, John Bright, a Quaker pacifist, in his speech against Britain's war with Russia in the Crimea.Bright's unforgettable line could equally apply to today's Australia as it has continued to repudiate its Christian heritage and embrace the culture of death. First Victoria in 2008, then Tasmania in 2013 enacted the most anti-life abortion laws in any country outside communist China. In these states abortion is now legal for up to nine months into pregnancy. In other words, a baby can be killed in the womb literally moments before natural birth.
Doctors and nurses have been stripped of their right to conscientious objection. Doctors not wanting to refer a woman for an abortion are now required by law to refer their patients to a doctor who will. Similarly, nurses are not allowed to refuse to assist with abortions.
Pro-abortion politicians insist that such measures are essential for "empowering" women; but, strange to say, their so-called reforms never oblige abortion-providers to warn women of the grave health risks, both physical and mental, associated with undergoing an abortion.
Nor do these laws ever oblige the authorities to offer women with unplanned pregnancies alternatives to abortion and practical support should they choose to keep their baby. The Victorian and Tasmanian parliaments have gone so far as to impose exclusion zones around abortion facilities in order to muzzle free speech and prevent volunteer pro-life counsellors from being able to approach women to offer them help.
In New South Wales, Liberal Premier Gladys Berejiklian, despite her government having a wafer-thin majority of two in the state parliament's lower house, continues to press madly ahead for NSW to adopt the Greens-initiated Reproductive Health Care Reform Bill, which features most of the worst features of the Victoria and Tasmanian abortion laws.
Two-thirds of Premier Berejiklian's fellow Liberal MPs in the parliamentary lower house voted against the bill on August 8. Despite their principled stand, the bill was nonetheless passed.
This editorial lacks the space to discuss Victoria's recently enacted doctor-assisted dying laws, which mark another milestone on the state's road to perdition.
What is most chilling about laws legalising abortion and euthanasia is the way they subtly undermine people's sense of right and wrong. Doctors become accustomed to treating the killing of the unborn, the chronically ill and the elderly as types of healthcare delivery. Even church leaders and their congregations gradually acclimatise themselves to the new political realities.
That is not how it should be. If we are to resist and eventually
roll back evil laws, Australian churches must unite in proclaiming
the Christian message of life and hope, and commit themselves
to mobilising God's people to fight the culture of death. 