Whether it is 100,000 abortions or actually less than that figure, I must say I don't have a problem here. The raw figures are simply statistical data indicating that x number of women have made a choice to have an abortion based on the information they have on hand and their feelings at the time.

Most of these women would surely understand that adopting the future baby would be an option. However, they chose not to do so for their own many and varied reasons which I respect (especially as I will never be in that situation).

Genuine coercion is another issue and if, for example, a woman is physically threatened by the father into having an abortion, my position is that nobody has the right to cajole a woman into not carrying to term. But that is why people like myself call ourselves "pro-choice" - I am equally opposed to policies of the Chinese Government as I am to anti-abortionists.

Basically the only worry I have about the number of abortions is that they represent many women who would have preferred the contraceptives to work. But that is an argument for better contraceptives and more research into improving contraceptives.

Fletch has to be kidding in claiming that the number of abortions has not impacted on Australia's fertility rate. More than 2 million unborn Australians have been killed by abortion in the past 35 years. This is a national tragedy, both in terms of the demographic crisis this nation faces and the number of traumatised women and families. The most accurate estimate as to the total number of abortions currently performed each year in Australia is 90,000.

Using data from Tables 8.8; 8.9; 8.10; 8.13 and 8.17 from Australian Hospital Statistics 2002-03, there were 73,686 abortions funded by Medicare of private patients in private hospitals (including free-standing day clinics which covers most of the stand-alone abortion clinics). These statistics also report 14,259 abortions of public patients in public hospitals. This would gives a total of 87,945 abortions. Assuming approx. 2000 uncounted abortions - those performed in GPs' offices for which Medicare is not claimed (eg, overseas students) and those claimed as Medicare Item 35640 (curette after an incomplete miscarriage) to avoid recording an abortion on a woman's Medicare record, we arrive at the 90,000 estimate. According to official New Zealand Government statistics, 26.4% of pregnancies in Australia are aborted - a higher rate than the US, England, Japan, Canada, New Zealand or Sweden (see http://www.stats.govt.nz/analytical-reports/dem-trends-03/dem-trends-2003-part-7-induced-abortions.htm).

The most dangerous place for any Australian child is in her mother's womb. If the unborn child were able to play Russian roulette in the womb, she would have a better chance of survival - because you "only" have a one in six chance of being killed playing Russian roulette! If women received independent counselling including information on the development of their unborn child, the nature of the procedure, the true physical and psychological risks of the operation and where to obtain support to continue with their pregnancy, I believe there would be a substantial reduction in the abortion rate. It is a disgrace that many women and girls are pressured into abortion by their boyfriends, husbands or parents and are not given the information to make a choice other than abortion. Women deserve better than abortion.

Actually, assuming that 1 in 4 pregnancies end in termination, an unborn child playing Russian roulette in the womb would actually have a 5/22 chance of being killed. Quite frankly, I consider the chances of a foetus being able to load a revolver fairly low, and so your analogy appears to be flawed.

From the moment of conception life is formed/created.
Abortion is murder.
its as simple as that.
People that want to avoid aids use condoms or abstain.
If one doesnt want a baby then abstain or use a condom.
Even in rape cases murder is still murder and this is the only area where there is a need for discussion and alterative solutions.

This is an extremely well written and well researched article. The author discusses some very important issues which all Australians should consider. The emotional issues associated with sexual relationships have long been overlooked in sex education programs in our schools. I'm glad to see that someone is highlighting this defeciency!

I congratulate the author and others who have supported her. How can the Medical Profession tolerate this barbarism? They take the Hippocratic Oath [I refer to the Modern Oath 1964] which states " Above all, I must not play at God". Yet aren't they DOING JUST THAT, deciding that a tiny helpless human life has to die, and in a most cruel way? The latest pictures of human life in the womb would surely convince anyone with a heart that it must be sacrosanct!

It sees to me that those who take the Hippocratic Oath and carry out abortions, are doing so more in the spirit of hypocrisy rather than that of Hippocrates [the "Father of Medicine"].