News

Published: 30 July 2019

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.

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

Published: 26 July 2019

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.

Published: 26 July 2019

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.

Published: 26 July 2019

World swimming body FINA has levered podium protests at its Gwangju world championships as an opportunity to ban religious expression by competitors at all future FINA events.

The new Code of Conduct provision entitled “rules of conduct during the competition” was enacted after an alleged drug cheat was snubbed at two official FINA medal ceremonies.

The two new clauses, which could breach international human rights (ICCPR Article 18), effectively ban religious statements or behaviour “during competition” and appear to apply to all modes of communication, including social media.

The new code of conduct, according to News.com.au, reads: “The competitors shall actively participate in the full conduct of the competition including victory ceremonies and, if applicable, presentations and or press conferences”.

“They shall strictly avoid any offensive or improper behaviour towards the officials, the other competitors, the team members and/or the spectators during the entire conduct of the competition. Any political, religious or discriminatory statement or behaviour is strictly prohibited.”

According to FamilyVoice WA State Director Darryl Budge, these clauses are dangerously broad.

“Such clauses are so expansive that if Israel Folau agreed to similar terms in his Wallabies playing contract, Rugby Australia would have a much stronger case against him.

“A competitor or spectator might claim to have heard or seen a political or religious statement, even if it was not intentionally addressed to them, as in the case of social media. Alternatively, they may claim to possess a subjective, unverifiable feeling that the athlete’s behaviour was ‘offensive or improper’.

“Sporting competitions and teams have increasingly become platforms to exclude political and religious viewpoints and advocate solely for the claimed ‘righteousness’ of homosexual or transgender identity.”

Mr Budge comments about a recent American example.

“In a Folau-like case, Christian sportswoman Jaelene Hinkle reportedly rejected a place on the American national soccer team, because it would force her to wear a pro-LGBT rainbow jersey.

“The team coach is a lesbian, whose religious beliefs about LGBT values appear to be decidedly exclusionary against biblically-firm Christians.”

There are many more such cases of discrimination.

A Christian doctor in the UK is suing the government after he was sacked for refusing to refer to patients except by their obvious biological sex.

A UK school student who disputed his teacher’s claim that there are more than two genders has been banned from returning to the school.

UK social work student Felix Ngole recently won a three-year court battle, after being expelled in 2016 from the University of Sheffield for quoting Bible verses on Facebook.

Religious freedom is increasingly under threat, not only for Australian athletes, but all employees, all independent schools, charities and organisations with a religious mission.

As Australia is committed to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, our nation should treat freedom as a positive right and not regard it as a narrow exemption.

Please send a quick email to your MPs urging them to enact laws that provide comprehensive protection for religious freedom.