Evidently, abortion goes against one of the greatest human rights – the right to life itself. Today, in Australia between 80, 000 and 100, 000 abortions are being performed annually, unborn children are being killed. Australia is a country, which prides itself on its record on human rights, and it is quick to criticize those countries, which deny basic human rights and freedom because of a person’s race or religion. Surely it is wrong and unjust to discriminate against an unborn child because of their size or because they are hidden from the worlds view inside their mothers. When a tragedy or loss occurs in our community, leading politicians are quick to point out the value of those human lives, but they ignore the thousands of killings being performed daily in government-funded abortions.
It has been believed that abortion will solve the problem of unwanted pregnancies and babies born out of marriage, but this is not the case as there are means of preventing fertilisation using contraception. If a woman is sexually active, she should already be using reliable forms of contraception such as; The Pill, Condoms, Morning After Pill, Diaphragms and various others including artificial barriers etc. If the contraception method being used is defective or under other circumstances like rape, a woman should straight away resort to going to the pharmacy and enquiring about the morning after pill. This should happen even if the woman has had sexual intercourse the previous day and was not 100% certain that the type of contraception has worked, this is just used as a safeguard and added precaution to unwanted pregnancies. An additional choice is going through with the pregnancy and putting the unwanted child up for adoption. Australia has a low number of children up for adoption, and parents who cannot conceive are having to travel overseas to adopt a child. If women went through with these pregnancies, the child would benefit by having a happy healthy life surrounded by love, is not this what all children deserve? Recent years have seen the emergence of numbers of women who are still suffering the pain following their abortions, and who still grieve for the child they have lost through abortion. Some women have created self-help groups – like the group Women Exploited by Abortion – as a means of supporting each other in the emotional outcome of abortion. Abortion Clinics have recognised this and some clinics now offer post-abortion counselling.
‘In January (1987) I went to the Fertility Control Clinic in Melbourne to obtain an abortion. Some group members met me at the front gate and thank God they were there! As I was walking in they begged ‘Please don’t kill your baby’. Until then I had never really thought of it as a baby, only as a nuisance. I actually was on the theatre table and ready to have a general when it hit me exactly what I was doing. I was about to snuff out a human life, mainly because it didn’t fit in with my plans at the time. I have since realised how totally selfish I was being ……………On the sixth of August I gave birth to a healthy baby boy. I am now so happy with my life as a mother and when I look at my little boy I wonder how I ever thought – justified – I had a right to kill him’ Anonymous Australian Women, wrote in letter to Dame Kiri Te Kanawa.
Unmistakably, abortion is the immoral way to go about these unwanted pregnancies, and more people would benefit from these children’s lives if they were born rather than from them to be killed.
In our major hospitals, some members of the medical profession go to great lengths and cost to save the lives of tiny babies – both born and unborn. Sadly, in another part of that same hospital, some of those same doctors kill unborn children by abortion. Melbourne’s Royal Women’s Hospital said they reached ‘saturation level’, with 2000 abortions performed there in 1985 – approximately one-third of the number of babies born at the hospitals. Some unborn children are allowed to be operated on prior to their birth if it is certain the treatment can save the baby’s life. It is hard to believe that although doctors and nurses can save the lives of some babies, however they kill others. We are told that we have to protect animals from cruelty and some species from being killed, though a baby can be killed, a human being rather, and the government will not stop it.
Finally, what we have to ask ourselves regarding abortion is this: are we really going to make a better world by killing? Is a society which accepts and overlooks the killings of innocent babies really going to turn us from the violence around us? As Nobel Prize winner, Mother Teresa of India says, ‘Peace begins in the womb’.
Therefore, it is evident that abortion should be illegal throughout Australia because each life deserves basic human rights and these should be respected, even an unborn child has the right to live. Australia has a multicultural population and we must consider these peoples views on abortion as many religions regard abortion as unethical. Clearly we as these unborn children’s voices should think of their existence as a human and we would not kill an innocent human being for just living, as these babies are just living inside of their mothers.
