ENDEAVOUR FORUM NEWSLETTER No. 113, FEBRUARY 2004

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The world has changed a great deal since 1979 when we began ours. Then Prime Minister Fraser's  "National Women's Advisory Council", and in subsequent years a coterie of Labor-appointed "Women's Advisers", purported to speak for all women (See the review of Anne Summer's book “The End of Equality" on p. 3).

Four intrepid "Women Who Want to be Women" (as we were then known) attended the UN's Mid-Decade for Women World Conference in 1980 in Copenhagen, where we pro­tested Australia's signing of the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), by Federal Attorney-General Robert Ellicott. Our stance, then regarded as "unenlightened", was vindi­cated two decades later when the implied "rights" in the Convention were found by a compliant judiciary to extend to the legal obligation to provide in vitro fertilisation to single and lesbian women on the same basis as to married couples. The intervention in the High Court by the Catholic Church and the Australian Family Association against this interpretation of CEDAW was unsuccessful. Ironically, the AFA was represented in their High Court challenge by Mr. Ellicott QC, the same Ellicott who originally signed the Treaty. All we can say, although he is a leading lawyer and we are just women who want to be women, not androgynous unisex persons, is "we told you so".

A sign that gives us cause for cautious optimism is how many women, young and old are rejecting the label of "feminist", i.e. "feminist" in its contemporary political sense which is more of a rejection of femininity than a plea for equal rights. Both in the US and Australia, women who have been successful in the world of business, are going home to nurture their families. They have learned that the corporate ladder is not all it is cracked up to be. A headline in The Australian , "Reclaimed by Biology", was about women giving up high-flying careers to care for their children. Some sad feminists who have left such decisions too late, are mourning the children they could have had. ABC journalist Virginia Hausegger believes feminism robbed her of children - hopefully her cri de coeur will sound the alarm bell of the biological clock for other women.

Other causes for optimism are the tremendous advances in science and technology, especially in the imaging of the unborn child in utero. Few who see the 3D/4D images of the unborn baby could fail to recognize its humanity. That is why abortionists turn the ultrasound screen away from the mother - the baby just might smile at her, and then how could she kill it?

At United Nations conferences, instead of being the only pro-life activists as we were in 1980, there are now a number of UN-accredited pro-life organisations, and with the strong pro-life official US delegations from President Bush's Administration, the possibilities of promoting a culture of life have greatly increased. One who has shared some of our adventures at the UN is Monsignor Peter Elliott, so join our 25th Birthday celebration and hear him speak.

Member Organisation, World Council for Life and Family

NGO in Special Consultative Status with ECOSOC of the UN