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Lawmakers in Tennessee are looking to implement legislation which provides broader protection for the unborn than pro-life legislation passed in other states.

Earlier this year a Tennessee bill to protect unborn children once a heartbeat is detected failed to pass.

But now lawmakers are considering providing more comprehensive protection for the unborn.

If the new legislation passes, babies will be protected from the moment their mothers discover they are pregnant.

The move comes as a number of US states have passed legislation to recognise the rights of the unborn.

So far in 2019, six US states have passed “heartbeat” bills, which protect the right to life of the unborn once a heartbeat can be detected.  Those states are Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi and Ohio.

Missouri passed legislation which protects the unborn from eight weeks and Alabama has implemented an almost complete ban on abortion.

American pro-life advocate Lila Rose said that she is so proud of Tennessee “moving to protect the basic right to live of every child”.

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Suicide prevention campaigns are hypocritical when assisted suicide is pushed in today’s society by the regressive left, writes Caleb Stephen.

I was terribly sad to read that a Victorian mum has become the first person to fall victim to the state’s new retrograde euthanasia laws.

Kerry Robertson, 61, suicided by lethal poison at a nursing home in Bendigo on July 15 having battled breast cancer for almost a decade.

She was the first person to be granted the permit in Victoria, having visited her specialist the day legislation came into effect.

This is a tragedy, but it isn’t shocking. Especially when we consider the direction public opinion has been heading in recent times in relation to end of life matters.

You see, our culture has become used to the glorification of death. Many now believe that to assist a person to commit suicide is somehow an “empowering” experience.

What I find most illogical about the situation is that we have media promoting suicide prevention awareness campaigns at the same time they are actively promoting euthanasia.

As a society, we need to seriously question this glaring hypocrisy.

Back in 2017, I had the pleasure of interviewing US doctor William Toffler of the Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) when he touched down in Australia for a whirlwind speaking tour.

Dr Toffler is a practicing doctor in the state of Oregon where euthanasia has been legal for over 20 years.
I asked Dr Toffler whether he saw a conflict between suicide prevention and euthanasia.

He replied:

"There's clearly a conflict between suicide prevention which I'm not only entrusted to do, I'm empowered if I can’t keep a person safe from themselves to even put them in the hospital against their will to protect them.

"So here we now are empowering doctors to do exactly the opposite under the circumstances of labelling someone 'terminal'. I'm now empowered to give massive overdoses so they can kill themselves. I'm essentially a helper in suicides.

"In Oregon, this has clearly eroded the protection for people with suicidal ideations and desires and in fact, we have no money now going to suicide prevention programs.

"The suicide rate in Oregon has gone up. It was above the national average before passage of assisted suicide. And now it's going up at a rate even faster.

"Now I can't prove cause and effect. On the other hand, it's not reassuring if people think by legalizing assisted suicide that you somehow decrease non-assisted suicide rates.

"The states of Oregon and Washington both undermine that argument. And I've literally heard people espouse such an argument that somehow by legalizing and regulating it that you would have less of it.

"We actually have a phenomenon that news reporters here in Australia know very well. Suicide can be contagious. So at the end of the article about the tragedy of the three people killing themselves in Queensland, there's a note saying if you feel depressed and you need help, call this number. And of course we're doing that because we care and value lives and we don't want to encourage suicide as the solution to suffering.

"Never has the solution to suffering been to end the life of the sufferer.

"We need to redouble our efforts to help with pain management, we need to get consultation from palliative care, we need to invoke a transition from curative care to comfort care but care's always there. We should emphasize care, not killing."

Euthanasia, contrary to popular belief, is not purely a personal choice. By definition it requires at least one other person to assist and a social commitment not to prosecute those who do assist.

It goes without saying that euthanasia affects society as a whole. The bottom line is that it effectively turns doctors into killers, not caregivers.

It is very difficult to be a caregiver one day and a killer the next. Legalising euthanasia creates an insurmountable moral and ethical dilemma. As with forced abortion referrals in Queensland, many doctors will be forced to leave the profession when so-called “medical care” compels them to refer patients to their premature death.

This cultural push towards killing must be stopped in its tracks.


Caleb is in charge of Digital Communications & Media at FamilyVoice. 

Prior to working fulltime with FamilyVoice, Caleb was an investigative journalist, ghostwriter, commentator and editor for some of the largest news outlets in the United States, Israel and Australia.  

Outside of FamilyVoice, Caleb enjoys working with youth and the homeless and is an emergency services volunteer.

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Former Deputy PM Barnaby Joyce has slammed a NSW abortion bill, saying that “two doctors does not equal God”.

“Just because they’re doctors does not mean they have a right to determine whether a healthy person lives or dies,” he said.

The bill before the NSW Parliament would permit abortion on request up until 22 weeks. After 22 weeks, abortion would be allowed right up until birth with the consent of two doctors on the basis of very loose criteria.

There is no cooling-off period and doctors will be forced to refer a woman for an abortion, robbing them of their freedom of conscience.

Joyce has previously spoken out against the bill, invoking his new born son Tom.

“On 1 June Vikki's and my son Tom took his first breath,” Joyce said in a recent speech in parliament.

“This was not the start of his life. The reality is that he was part of this world for some time and was merely passing from one room to another.

“The hour of birth is an arbitrary point in modern medicine, within a range of two to three months. His birth, to Tom, did not endow him with greater meaning as a person. As parents we had no lesser responsibilities than when Tom left the hospital, being totally reliant on our nurturing and protection.

“Inside the womb, Tom kicked, punched, grabbed his umbilical cord, felt pain, slept and dreamed. With ultrasound, he was most certainly seen in real human form. To say he didn't have the rights of other human life is to say he must have been subhuman,” he said.

Religious leaders have also criticised the bill, including Catholic Archbishop Anthony Fisher OP.

“New attempts to make abortion even more widely available in NSW are deeply troubling,” he said.

“The measure of a society is how it protects its most vulnerable, be they unborn children, their mothers who are too often pressured emotionally, financially and even physically to choose against the life of their child, or the sick and frail elderly.”


»We urge NSW residents to defend unborn life by urgently​ contacting MPs and telling them to oppose the bill. It’s easy and will only take just a few moments of your time.

 

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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.


»We urge NSW residents to defend unborn life by urgently​ contacting MPs and telling them to oppose the bill. It’s easy and will only take just a few moments of your time.

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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.