The Bigger Picture

Debbie Garratt RNM.Ed, B.Ed, B.N, Cert. Couns

Executive Director

Real Choices Australia

• Statistics– Number of abortions– Timing of abortions– Late term abortions

• Legislation– Victorian– Children

• Societal and cultural issues

90,000 abortions every year

Majority of abortions by women aged 20-29 (years of greatest fertility)

About half teenage pregnancies end in abortion

Reasons given

• Inadequate finances 21%

• Not ready for responsibility 21%

• Woman’s life would be changed too much 16%

• Problems with relationship; unmarried 12%

• Too young; not mature enough 11%

• Children are grown; woman has all she wants 8%

• Fetus has possible health problem 3%

• Woman has health problem 3%

• Pregnancy caused by rape, incest 1%

• Other 4%

Reasons

• 3% for reasons of maternal health

• 3% for suspected or confirmed foetal

abnormality

• <1% for pregnancy resulting from rape

• 95% of abortions for psychosocial reasons

Numbers of unwanted abortions

International evidence: more than 70% of women have abortion feeling like they have no other choice.

In Australia this equals more than 63,000 women a year

Or 250 women every working day of the year

Timing of Abortion

Abortion by gestational age

57.6%

20.3%

10.2%6.2% 4.3%

1.5%0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

% o

f ab

orti

ons

<9 9-10 11-12 13-15 16-20 21+Weeks

• 1.5% of post 21 week abortions equals

• 1350 each year

or

• Approximately 5.3 abortions for each

working day of the year

The majority of post 20 week abortions are also for psychosocial reasons

• Vic 2005 • Of 309 post 20 week: 180 for psychosocial reasons

• 129 for suspected or confirmed congenital abnormality• 4 of them were aborted post 27 weeks

• SA 2006 • Of 78 post 20 week: • 39 for psychosocial reasons

Babies ‘aborted’ alive

The brutal reality…

Left to die

• Victoria 2005• 47 babies alive following abortion

• Victoria 2006• 42 babies alive following abortion

• SA 2001• 13 babies alive following abortion

• SA 2004• 13 babies alive following abortion

Victorian Legislation

• Gave no protection to babies born alive.. Hence they continue to be left to die

• Made no ruling on partial birth abortion, stating that this is an area for doctors to decide.

• This means that babies can be aborted in the most brutal ways without benefit of analgesia

The National Health and Medical Research acknowledges the impact of potentially painful stimuli on animals used in research, including foetal animals. It states that…

• Regardless of the circumstances, the wellbeing of both the foetus and the mother must be considered when unborn animals are subject to surgery or other interventions. Laparotomy with uterine surgery causes significant pain in the mother (Mellor 2004), and can expose the foetus to

potentially noxious stimulation. This might be interpreted by some people as potentially painful for the unborn animal

And goes on to say that….

• Whether or not the foetus can experience pain

during a surgical procedure, it can still mount a

stress response to noxious stimuli (Derbyshire

2003) with potentially detrimental consequences.

Consequently, effective pain management should

be taken into account in those circumstances

where the foetus is exposed to noxious stimuli.

No such protection

Is granted under law to the unborn human being

Legalities

• Legal Aid Victoria tell us that in Victoria, girls can procure an abortion at any age, without their parents consent or knowledge… ‘if the doctor thinks they are mature enough to understand what they are doing’.

• Yet, they must be 18 to get a tattoo, piercing or branding and 16 for any kind of piercing, unless they have parental consent

• If you are under 16 in Victoria, you cannot legally use a solarium

• If you are 16-17, you need a parent’s written consent to use a solarium

• If you are 14, you can have an abortion up to 24 weeks for any reason without parental consent

Is current practise Best Practise?

Abortion practise today allows that

• A ‘counsellor’ who is an employee of an abortion provider, is considered an acceptable source of impartial information and counselling.

• A woman can walk into an abortion clinic crying, seeking information about abortion, and be under anaesthesia within an hour.

Current practise allows

• Children to have abortions without parental knowledge or consent

• Those same children to go back to potentially dangerous situations without support

• Organisations who derive their major source of income from abortion, to provide sex education to our children.

• Best Practise necessitates a process of informed consent.

• Full knowledge of procedure including all potential adverse outcomes

• Time to make an informed decision

• No other medical or surgical procedure in the country is provided as freely available or with as little information as is abortion.

No Vested Interest

• Women have the right, and we have a responsibility to women of ensuring that the professional they speak to has no vested financial interest in the outcome of their decision.

• If an adoption centre could profit from the adoption of women’s babies, and this centre was the first port of call for a woman distressed by unintended pregnancy, we would be very quick to question the impartiality of the information provided.

Promotion of abortion

• Fertility Control Clinic has advertisements for its services on 5 pages of the Melbourne University student diary.

• Offers ‘Special Student Discounts’ and Same Day Procedures for abortion.

• If something is really Truth, it will be confirmed through not only faith, but also science, society, our culture.

• The science of embryology, the truth of women’s experiences, the Truth of our faith is consistent.

• Refuse to be marginalised because of your faith. Argue the facts.