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A bill to decriminalise abortion in NSW has been slammed by church leaders.
“The bill is a bad one”, said Catholic Archbishop Anthony Fisher. “It will require Catholic (and other) doctors and hospitals to collaborate by either taking part in the abortion or referring patients to someone who will.”
He said it is yet another attack upon the rights of people of faith and fails women.
“Worst of all, it does absolutely nothing to provide alternatives for women distressed about being pregnant who often feel they have ‘no other option’. It is the dream bill of the abortion industry, which they have already pressed upon other several states; but it will leave unborn children and unsupported pregnant women even more at risk.”
Archbishop Fisher encouraged people to contact their local MPs to make sure their voice is heard.
Likewise, Archbishop Makarios, the Primate of the Greek Orthodox Church of Australia, has criticised the legislation.
“The Orthodox Christian Faith and Tradition unequivocally teach that life begins form the first time of conception, that the life of the unborn is sacred and infinitely valued by God, and therefore must be considered with the same dignity and worth we enjoy ourselves,” he said.
“Tragically, the right to life of the indefensible unborn child is increasingly violated despite the protection and advancement of many other rights.”
Archbishop Makarios said NSW MPs should support pregnant mothers by offering alternatives to abortion.
A Christian who was wrongfully arrested for street preaching has been awarded a payout by Scotland Yard.
Oluwole Ilesanmi, a retired dentist aged 64, was preaching outside Southgate Tube station in London at earlier this year.
The Daily Mail reports:
A passer-by had earlier called police and accused Mr Ilesanmi of hate speech.
He admits to having described Islam as an ‘aberration’ but insists he was simply expressing his point of view as a Christian rather than denigrating Muslims.
One of the police officers claimed Mr Ilesanmi was disturbing the peace, saying: ‘No one wants to hear that. They want you to go away.’
A video of the incident taken by a passer-by shows the policeman taking the Bible away, to Mr Ilesanmi’s visible distress.
One of the officers then says: ‘You should’ve thought about that before being racist.’
He was handcuffed before the officer gave a thumbs-up to the camera. Mr Ilesanmi was then bundled into a police car and driven several miles away. There the grandfather was ‘de-arrested’ and let out of the car.
According to Christian Concern, a group which defends persecuted Christians, Mr Ilesanmi has been preaching in Southgate and elsewhere around Greater London for eight years.
Christian Concern reported that after his arrest, Oluwole said “that he was then put into a police car and his Bible was thrown into the back of the vehicle. Still cuffed and in pain, he was taken a short distance to Southgate Police Station. He was not brought into the station, but instead was taken out of the car and searched. They found nothing, but as he said he didn’t want to go home, the Police officers drove him to an unfamiliar location miles from his home and de-arrested him.”
“I believe God loves everyone, including Muslims, but I have the right to say I that I don’t agree with Islam – we are living in a Christian country, after all,” said Mr Ilesanmi.
“I was upset when they took away my Bible. They just threw it in the police car. They would never have done that if it had been the Koran. Whatever happened to freedom of speech?”.
Scotland Yard agreed to pay Mr Ilesanmi £2,500 for wrongful arrest.
Christian Concern said that Christians should be free to preach on the streets of the nation without suppression.
FamilyVoice Australia MEDIA RELEASE 30 July 2019
FamilyVoice slams NSW abortion bill
Christian advocacy organisation FamilyVoice Australia is urging MPs to vote against the Reproductive Health Care Reform Bill 2019 set to be introduced in NSW Parliament this week.
“All life, whether born or unborn, holds intrinsic value and worth. Unborn babies should not be treated as any less human just because they have not yet passed through the birth canal,” FamilyVoice NSW Director Greg Bondar said.
“We urge both sides of the government to exert proper parliamentary scrutiny on a bill of extreme significance to human life and worth," Mr Bondar said.
“Any move to suspend normal parliamentary process, including committee scrutiny, fails to give the NSW public and their representative MPs the ability to voice concerns.
“Scientific evidence proves that babies feel the excruciating pain of abortion and mothers frequently report physical harm and mental anguish following the procedure.
“In any abortion, it’s not just the child that dies in its mother's womb. Especially in late term abortions, something else dies in the mother's heart.
“We are concerned that this bill opens up abortion to sex selection.
“Parliament must recognise the significant medical advancements that have reduced the age of surviving premature birth to about 22 weeks which is a clear indication of the child's full humanity.
“Australian laws must defend the right to life of all human beings from conception until natural death. It must work to protect the most vulnerable in society – the unborn child.”
--ENDS--
For more information, contact Greg Bondar on 0411 854 115.
Christian advocacy group FamilyVoice Australia is disappointed media company Ooh has buckled under pressure from an activist minority by scrapping the Emily’s Voice billboard from the Pacific Highway in Belmont, NSW.
The billboard featuring a woman’s hands creating a love heart symbol around her belly read: “A heart beats at four weeks.”
“Nothing on that billboard remotely hints of the abortion process, condemning words or graphic illustrations,” said FamilyVoice NSW State Director Greg Bondar.
“The billboard message positively stated an unborn baby has a heartbeat 22 days from conception – a scientifically accurate statement,” Mr Bondar said.
“This action by a commercial organisation amounts to blatant discrimination against mums and dad who celebrate conception, unborn life and the birth of a child.
"Despite pressure from a vocal pro-abortion minority, most people greatly appreciate the billboard reminder of the goodness of pregnancy and the humanity of the unborn."
--ENDS—
For more information, contact Greg Bondar on 0411 854 115.
By Darryl Budge, WA State Director
A recent news headline reads, “Police raid elderly Australians over euthanasia drugs”, as police attempt to do their job, yet only so far as curtailing illegal importation and use of intentionally lethal poisons intended to kill persons.
SUICIDE SAFEGUARDS NOT PROSECUTED
Australian Federal Police have identified hundreds of traffickers and seized around 15kg of euthanasia drugs between 2007 and 2014 (enough to kill between 1500 and 2500 people) but less than a handful of people have been convicted over an importation offence (whether a minor fine or a suspended sentence).
The federal penalty for importing suicidal poisons is up to 25 years imprisonment, or fines of up to $850,000.
Eight followers of Nitzsche’s pro-suicide group were recently visited by local police and were reportedly told, “We want you to hand over the drugs”.
Nitschke told AAP that police acted on intelligence shared by the Australian Federal Police, Interpol, and the US Department of Homeland Security. It appears email intercepts revealed up to 100 people may have ordered the illegal drugs.
He said that police “are claiming they are doing wellness checks, to make sure that you're a person who isn't in danger of ending your own life.”
The public could justly question whether police are willing to enforce the full extent of current laws.
Lawmakers may therefore justifiably judge that so-called euthanasia safeguards will not increase public safety in the hands of an ineffectual police force that has not prosecuted blatant importation offences.
PRO-SUICIDE DOCTORS BREAK PROMISES
Medical pro-suicide campaigners are boastfully breaking the law, while telling the public to trust them that they will abide by future safeguards.
Assisting a suicide in WA carries a penalty of life imprisonment. “Dr Death” campaigner Philip Nitschke of WA has boasted about assisting patients to import illegal euthanasia drugs, and was banned from practising medicine in 2014. One of his patients, Nigel Brayley was helped to commit suicide while under investigation over the suspicious death of his wife Lina.
In 1999, Nitschke advocated a suicide pill to be available to all who might want it, including children (The Advertiser, 12/8/1999 p3). In 2003, he told suicidal New Zealanders to ask vets to supply the drug to them illegally. He said, "If you happen to be the best friend of a vet, maybe things can be stitched up for you”, according to The Australian (14/4/2003 p3).
Dr Rodney Syme of Victoria was publicly filmed while assisting the suicide of Ray Godbold in 2015. The Victorian penalty for doctors for aiding a suicide was up to five years imprisonment, until the pro-euthanasia laws in July 2019. No Victorian doctor was charged with aiding and abetting a suicide in the previous 50 years.
No criminal charges have been laid on Dr Nitschke or Dr Syme.
Accordingly, lawmakers have the option of investigating police culture and appropriate penalties for certain crimes, instead of legalising assisted voluntary manslaughter by a medical practitioner.
Police, the Health Departments of Australia, and all of society, have a direct interest in preventing suicide, which means promoting the dignity and wellness of people through effective palliative care in their closing stages of life.
OVERSIGHT ALREADY REFUSED
The unreasonable plea for encouraging suicide by Dr Nitschke comes after the first terminally ill person has reportedly been granted permission to be assisted by doctors towards suicide under Victoria's new laws.
Victoria’s Department of Health and Human Services has refused to provide details about the person’s age, illness and any other practical oversight regarding the request.
The Department will not publish a list of doctors who support assisted suicide, further curtailing any independent oversight of suicides, except by the department and its licensed doctors, none of whom are legally compelled to self-incriminate.
Two government-appointed "navigators" have been hired in Victoria to assist patients and their families, acting like a suicide-only shopfront. They are known to cold-call doctors, effectively called “doctor-shopping”, to locate a doctor who is willing to provide euthanasia for a patient.
Doctor-shopping is especially useful if a doctor refuses to provide assisted suicide and recommends that another medical pathway has better whole-of-life outcomes for the patient and their family.
The Victorian legal system does not require either of the two doctors who verify a request to have any medical expertise in the patient’s condition, or to have qualifications in mental health assessment.
Rather than increasing public safety, the hollow promises of ‘safeguards’ by the pro-suicide campaign appear to be an ineffectual speedbump on a pathway to no restrictions.
FamilyVoice expects a pro-assisted-suicide bill from the Labor government of Western Australia later this year. The WA Ministerial Expert Panel recently recommended a model that has even less protections than the Victorian laws.
We will provide more details about the legislation, and how to contact WA MPs, as soon as they come to light.
FamilyVoice Australia upholds Christian values and the family: permanence of marriage, sanctity of human life, primacy of parenthood and limited government.
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