COMMON MYTHS AND THE CRISIS PREGNANCY

Queensland Right to Life
Head Office
62 Charlotte Street
Brisbane Old 4000 Australia
Postal Address GPO Box 1507
Brisbane Old 4001 Australia
Phone: (07) 229 5437
'Abortion ought to be a woman's right'

The 'right to kill' our closest blood relatives is inappropriate, and constitutes a right to family violence. Every member of a family or community is of equal worth - no individual of more value than another. To offer personal, positive and ongoing help to a mother in crisis is to serve the needs of both mother and child.

'Abortion is an essential aspect of women's freedom'

Abortion frees us from our responsibility towards a woman facing a crisis pregnancy.

Serious medical consequences, such as infertility, difficult future pregnancies, hemorrhage may follow and some women suffer psychological and emotional disturbance after an abortion.

We cannot plead for justice and rights for ourselves, and at the same time annihilate those who are the most innocent and dependent. We should urge and support non-violent, creative alternatives to abortion. Facing such a painful problem we should not abandon a woman and her child into the hands of an abortionist.

'It's her body, her choice'

The unborn child is not part of a woman's body. He/she is a unique human being, genetically, physiologically, and organically distinct from both parents.

The only starting point for human life is the beginning - conception - deny that and we deny the evidence of modern genetics and embryology. The unborn child is a fellow human - 'one of us', but discrimated against because he/she is unseen, unheard and can't plead for his or her own life. We have as much 'right' to kill our unborn children as we have to kill any other human.

'The Child of an unwelcome pregnancy is a trespasser'

The womb is the 'home address' of the unborn child: mother and child share the same house. There by an act of nature: the unborn is entirely innocent.

'A grown woman is more valuable than a fetus'

Not more, equally. If you measure importance and value by age and size (as abortion does) you are practicing 'bigger and better' type of discrimination. We all want a society in which every human being has full equal protection of the law. So why discriminate against smaller and younger people?

'Women need abortion to cope with an unwelcome pregnancy'

Even unwelcome pregnancies can become wanted, and many do. But even if a woman hadn't intended to conceive, and faces problems, she doesn't need abortion in order to cope.

Indeed, abortion can give her more problems with its after-effects on her physical and mental health. She needs the sort of practical, immediate, as well as long-term help which a caring community should offer

'Abortion is necessary for a very young pregnant woman'

It has been found that minors are more likely to feel pressure from external circumstances and to be pressured by parents, friends, brothers and sisters or boyfriends because she is still financially and emotionally dependent on such people.

Many young women are not prepared for motherhood emotionally or intellectually. Even so, abortion is not a satisfactory solution. Post abortion conflict and guilt is more evident in younger women because of less maturity and fewer resources.

Post-abortion cervical incompetence is also more common in the young. Many of the associated problems of youthful pregnancy can be solved without the loss of human life. Adoption is one very positive alternative for the youthful mother.

'Women who keep their babies lead wretched lives and the children are battered'

The incidence of abortion and other forms of child abuse is increasing as we become more conditioned to destroying human life.

The single mother can be just as good at bringing up her child as other parents. There is no evidence that battered or delinquent children come mainly from unexpected pregnancies or single parent families.

The single mother may need help from the rest of us, but isn't that what a civilised society should be doing?

'Pro-lifers are trying to impose their views on the majority'

They neither can nor want to impose their views on anybody They say that all people are equal, regardless of race, colour, creed, class, age or sex. They want to persuade, by every democratic means, their fellow-citizens of the tragedy of abortion by telling them the whole truth about it.

Society must not claim the right to declare the unborn to be interior. Nor say 'it would be better for this baby if he/she were not born', nor claim to know that those who might turn out to be handicapped would prefer to be dead: Unwantedness' should never be justification for killing.

'Pro-Life people are only interested in the baby and don't worry about the mother'

Not true. We say that abortion is dangerous and degrading for the mother. In 1973, a separate organisation called Pregnancy Help was set up to help any mother, so that she can avoid the tragedy, the defeat and danger of abortion. Post abortion help is also available.

'We don't need laws'

Law reflects values. Protecting human life, especially in its weakest forms, is considered a mark of a civilized society.

IT IS FACT THAT EVERY ABORTION DESTROYS A HUMAN LIFE

What Abortion does:
The baby is sucked out by machine or pulled out by instruments, bought out by prostagiandins 'dipped' into the mother or cut out by surgery.

In every case a separate, defenseless, innocent human being is killed. Abortion is unjust, negative, violent, defeatist. It doesn't solve problems. It can often create many new ones. It kills children and social conscience.

The abortion experience traumatizes women and their families.
DID YOU KNOW THAT...
It's an indisputable fact that our lives began at conception. There could be no other starting-point.
We were genetically complete at conception.
Our hearts began beating by the 25th day.
By the 28th day our legs and arms had started to form - as, too, our eyes and ears. Our brains had distinctly human features.
In the 6th week the first bone cells appeared and began to replace the cartilage of our already complete skeleton. Our heartbeat could be heard by stethoscope.
Our milk teeth began to form in the 7th week. Fingers and thumbs, ankles and toes had also begun.
By the 10th week all our limbs and organs were established. We could turn our heads, frown, bend the elbow and wrist independently. We were sensitive to touch. Even to the layman's eye - quite obviously a human being.
By the 12th week we could swallow, our fingernails had started, our ribs and vertebrae had turned into bone, vocal chords were complete, reproductive organs well advanced and inherited physical features could be discerned.
At 16 weeks we were half our birth length, our hearts pumped at the rate of about 50 pints a day, our limbs were becoming stronger every day. Our looks were very much like a small born baby.
Eyebrows and eyelashes had begun by the 5th month. We turned, kicked, sucked our thumbs.
Birth - 4 months later - was simply an incident in an already far-advanced process.

If it is wrong to kill a child at birth it must be wrong to kill him at 28 weeks, 16 weeks, 12 weeks, 8 weeks, 4 weeks. Human life is human life is human life. It's entirely arbitrary to pick a moment and say: now he's human, before that he wasn't. Human development is a continuous process, a steady 'becoming'.

WHAT CAN A PRO-LIFE PERSON DO?
PROTECT WOMEN AND THEIR UNBORN - Join and Support Queensland Right to Life
Objectives - The association shall be non-denominational non-party political with the following objectives:
To provide an organizational structure for collective citizen action in defence of the right to life.
To develop and carry out an educational program directed towards legislators who make public policy towards opinion leaders who affect the making of public policy and towards the general public which affects both groups.
To act as a vehicle for persuasive programs of civic action designed to focus lawmakers' attention on the true issues at stake whenever an effort is made to change existing laws which defend the right to life.
To awaken a sense of responsibility within the community and to initiate programs of action directed towards the alleviation of all medical, social and economic conditions which might lead individuals to deny another's right to life.
To establish local branches of the association throughout the state of Queensland.
To co-operate with other organizations in pursuance of the above objectives.