...Women carry the baby from inception to birth, but proof says, the baby has “rights” of self-ownership held in custody by the mother and as a consequence, the baby must be protected by law..

...I am happy to see you “squirm” on this one issue of Christian morality alone, but the issues of morality are as cluttered as the field of the Melbourne Cup, and include some other favorites such as Gay rights of course!

The fact is, Abbott is simply unelectable.
His is the most repugnant politician in Australian history;
The worst part is, I'm not sure what's worse about him- the fact that he's a complete flip-flopping sellout willing to completely abandon his (supposed) principles for even the lower bidder or when it could sabotage Labor (as if they needed it)- or the fact that his principles are so abhorrent that were he to actually resort to them (that is, making OTHER people live up to them- not himself)- our rights would reset by another century.

Simply put, I will not vote for this clown, and many of my mates who are Liberal voters won't either- and the lot of us are quite conservative.

Many agree, King Hazza.

It's likely the Coalition would have romped in last time if they had had a different "leader".

A good article, Jennifer. However I think that there is a difference.
The USA is the most religious Western nation on the planet, Australia
one of the least religious. America got the religious nuts, Australia
got the convicts, it apparently still shows.

No doubt Cardinal Pell would be regularly lobbying Abbott, should
he ever become PM. But IMHO if Abbott ever tried to force the
Catholic line onto the Australian public, the public outrage would
be so large, that he would not survive for long.

To make it in US politics, politicians have to be seen to be religious.
In Australia its sometimes more of a liability to them
and we freely elect agnostic politicians without a second thought.
Lucky us.

The Christian Taliban are not a major force here, as they are in
the USA

The Christian Taliban are coalescing to seek to have more influence. Especially in the Coalition.

Check out "Dominionism".

The author shows her hypocrisy. She lists human rights as one of her interests. Yet she endorses the slaughter by abortion of 100,000 babies per year in Australia, and millions elsewhere. In so doing, she refuses to recognise that unborn babies have human rights, and that women who undergo abortions are party to premeditated killing. She misleads and deceives by misrepresenting the provision of abortion services as women's reproductive health.

She does not stop there, but engages in fullscale vilification of Catholics for opposing abortion on moral grounds. She is at her negative best in deriding Tony Abbott.

It would be in order to include religious bigotry and promoter of the culture of death as her interests.