Great another person trying to tell other people how to live. The great divide in this debate is not between Pro-choice and anti-choice groups, but between reality based laws and faith based oppression.

I'm all for non-directive, supportive counselling for women (or couples, for that matter) who want more information about their options.

But if the stated aim of the extra money being ploughed into counselling is to reduce the number of abortions in Australia, this is surely at odds with a service that Tony Abbott and John Howard are claiming is "non-directive".

I agree with Nicholas that a strategy is required to address the issues of sexual and reproductive health with young people, one that includes the somewhat amorphous concept of "values".

But let's not forget that some people's values are still "sow your wild oats, wa-hay!"...at least when talking to teenage boys. As the parent of a boy I want to do everything I can to prevent he and a partner coming to me or his dad teary-eyed due to a sexually transmitted infection or an unwanted pregnancy. That, as I see it, is partly about good education by parents, extended families and the education system.

A system of education that presents all the options (including abstinence AND "should you become sexually active, these are your responsibilities") has a values system: that people's sexual and reproductive lives are complex and different. Either way, both systems would argue as their central tenet: prevention is always better than cure - this is a value we can surely all share.

I note that Dr Nicholas Tonti-Filippini is a member of the Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference Natural Family Planning Board of Management. In other words, he is associated with a faith based so-called family planning method, which has a high incidence of failure, and still expects to be taken seriously by logical people who prefer more reliable forms of contraception.

On the topic of sex education, I posted the following link, together with a warning for those who have psychological problems regarding the human body:
http://www.clothesfree.com/pregnancy.html
[NB This website is nudist. I don't know what the attitude of On Line Opinion is to such things, but if you are offended by a very small amount of non-sexual nudity, then don't go to it.]

This is an article showing the comparative lower rates of teenage pregnancy and abortion in some Western European countries, compared to the US. And isn't that what we all profess to want in Australia too?

There's a pattern here which Australia could easily follow, provided we had politicians and bureaucrats who refused to be led by the nose by religious extremists and instead used their common sense.

here, here

The new abortion laws implemented in South Dakota recently emphasizes the control that the religious right now have in USA.

"South Dakota touched off a national tempest with its strict new abortion ban, but the law also fomented a local grassroots movement and opened a schism in the state's dominant Republican Party.......

......The new law--intended to set up a legal challenge to Roe v. Wade, the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court landmark ruling legalizing abortion--makes it a felony for anyone to help a woman end her pregnancy, even in cases of rape and incest or when the woman's physical or mental health is at risk. The law only permits abortion when it is necessary to save a woman's life."

read on at:

http://www.alternet.org/rights/35787/

The author uses the label of 'Pro-life' - this is inaccurate so-called 'pro-lifers' care only about the foetus, nothing about the care or lack thereof of children already alive in this world and no consideration at all for the lives of women.

The correct label is Anti-Choice.

It is not rocket science to suggest that young people need assistance, support and education in sex and other life skills. However, what is not needed is a one sided religious doctrine which ignores all aspects of sexuality and promotes only that which fits its narrow dogma.

We, in Australia, need to be constantly vigilant or we will end up like many states in the USA, where women will have NO Choice but to seek backyard abortions.

Scout,
You are so ill informed on what agencies are assisting the children and women of the world that you make wild unfounded statements that have no bearing in fact. Your posting is based upon your ignorance and attitudes. Get educated in reality.