Yes, I too have seen the sign, “RU486 Drinks” on the Family First website.

But is it not illegal to take a video camera into the Parliament?

Did Steve put up that sign , and then video it himself ?

Hmmmmmmm?

Abortions happen - surgically, induced by a pill or from a kick to the guts by an irate violent partner.

and if some politicians are sooooo in favour of children, lets see more funding spent on pre-school and childcare centres !

Abortion for convenience is rife in Australia and the disaster is degrading the law but much worse our ethics and shared humanity and its spells the end of faith.

The argument that we should be looking at the reasons behind the number of unwanted pregnancies is a sound one and the article made many intelligent observations in that regard.

However the author's tendency to discuss abortion itself in the emotive terms of the anti-choice movement cast doubt on the true intentions behind it.

Seems to me to be an example of using the enemy's own tactics against them, in which case the point is not to make women's lives better, but to keep the abortion debate alive.

Alpal “What a disgraceful article.”

Yep you are right, Alpal. An article as sour as sour grapes can be.

Melinda Tankard Reist has declared what her choice would be. Yet she cannot abide the idea that other women, who she does not know, with rights, feelings, expectations, desires, emotions and circumstances which she does know about or have responsibility for, should be allowed to exercise their choice

By any reasonable standard, her sour grapes have be fermented and turned into a “whine” full of hypocrisy.

Robert Garvey Solicitor “degrading the law but much worse our ethics”

The law is expected to reflect the values and ethics of the society which it serves. That these values change over time does not mean they are being “degraded”, merely that they are changing.

We have had abortion as a legal option for the past 30 years and we had abortion as a “illegal” option for about 150 years(during which time as many abortions occurred as when it has been legal (per annum / capita). Before that it was not “illegal” as any part of the criminal code.

Exercise of freewill is not unethical. My personal view is people only develop and grow toward their full potential by exercising their own freewill and being responsible for the outcome. I have no doubt every woman who exercises choice to abort carries a burden for that decision with her through the rest of her life.

Conversely, your decision, to deny her freewill and subordinate it to your own value of “No Choice on abortion” would carry no responsibility for you from the outcome of your decision.

Exercise of choice without accountability or responsibility is what you are requesting and to be honest, I have “ethical” and “moral” issues in not opposing such a view

"Yep you are right, Alpal. An article as sour as sour grapes can be.

Melinda Tankard Reist has declared what her choice would be. Yet she cannot abide the idea that other women, who she does not know, with rights, feelings, expectations, desires, emotions and circumstances which she does know about or have responsibility for, should be allowed to exercise their choice"

How is this sour grapes exactly? Melinda has always maintained that women deserve better than abortion. This is even more apparent now that the "Reproductive Choice" we should be so joyful about comes in the form of a pill that could kill. Anyone who hasn't read her book - Giving Sorrow Words - should do so, if they want to get an idea about the "rights, feelings, expectations, desires emotions and circumstances" women are facing, as told by the women themselves.

I suggest reading it with a box of tissues nearby, these women's stories are truly heartbreaking.

Being male with a world outside Australia that is over populating itself to the brink of extinction'I'll not pass judgement but just share a few anicdotes.

I know of people who have adopted children whereby all has not worked out.Apparently it is common for adopted children to feel rejected by their natural parents and indulge in self harm or become mal-adjusted adults.From what I can gather,there are no studies done on the outcomes in terms of the eventual happiness of adopted children.This couple we not warned of the possible mental problems of feeling rejected adopted children can suffer,however after several suicide attempts of their adopted daughter,they were told that it was quite common.

Recently I've learnt of a very affluent family who put their pregnant 15 yr old in a unit and didn't tell the rest of the family of her plight.The rest of the family was naturally furious.The shame was too much to bear.This teen mother wants now to keep the baby,but the parents are vehmently against it.

In the light of what I've learnt about adopted children,I'm thinking that parents of young pregnant teenagers should seriously consider a co-operative child rearing situations with their daughters.These are the problems faced when abortion is just too late.We have to put the ethics aside and look at the reality.

What do you women think?