It is not even an hour and a half into Australia Day yet, but some very rare good news on the abortion front has just emerged. This headline is just in, and it makes for great reading: “Croydon Clinic stops late-term abortions”. The very short article in the Herald Sun goes like this: “Australia’s only clinic offering late-term surgical abortions has scrapped them. The Croydon clinic will no longer give abortions to women post 24 weeks.
“Health Services Commissioner Beth Wilson said she was concerned it could lead some women to pursue unsafe solutions. ‘The worst-case scenario is that it will lead to backyard abortions,’ Ms Wilson said. Marie Stopes International Australia CEO Maria Deveson Crabbe said it was in the process of taking over full management and ownership of the clinic, and the move to stop the service was an operational decision. It remains supportive of late-term abortions.”
The article itself is questionable in various ways. A number of clinics around the country had been performing late-term abortions. Many of these were done by the notorious Dr David Grundmann. I in fact had not long ago been at one of his clinics in Queensland. It too had been taken over by the pro-death body Marie Stopes International.
And the line spouted by Ms Wilson is just more pro-abortion propaganda. But the fact that this infamous Croydon clinic (not far from where I live here in Victoria) is actually stopping these gruesome baby-killing operations is a real nice bit of good news indeed.
For those unaware of what late-term abortion (also called partial-birth abortion, or D&X abortion) is all about, I refer you to these articles where the ghastly procedure is carefully explained:
https://billmuehlenberg.com/2001/02/28/the-dx-abortion-method/
https://billmuehlenberg.com/1997/12/23/the-horror-of-late-term-abortion/
https://billmuehlenberg.com/2010/05/20/late-term-baby-killing/
Let me cite one nurse’s testimony about all this. She had to take part in this, and it made her absolutely sick. This is part of her moving story: “I was present for three of these partial-birth procedures. It is the first one that I will describe to you in detail. The mother was six months pregnant (26 1/2 weeks). A doctor told her that the baby had Down Syndrome and she decided to have an abortion. She came in the first two days to have the laminaria inserted and changed, and she cried the whole time. On the third day she came in to receive the partial-birth procedure.
“Dr. Haskell brought the ultrasound in and hooked it up so that he could see the baby. On the ultrasound screen, I could see the heart beating. As Dr. Haskell watched the baby on the ultrasound screen, the baby’s heartbeat was clearly visible on the ultrasound screen.
“Dr. Haskell went in with forceps and grabbed the baby’s legs and pulled them down into the birth canal. Then he delivered the baby’s body and the arms – everything but the head. The doctor kept the baby’s head just inside the uterus.
“The baby’s little fingers were clasping and unclasping, and his feet were kicking. Then the doctor stuck the scissors through the back of his head, and the baby’s arms jerked out in a flinch, a startle reaction, like a baby does when he thinks that he might fall.
“The doctor opened up the scissors, stuck a high-powered suction tube into the opening and sucked the baby’s brains out. Now the baby was completely limp. I was really completely unprepared for what I was seeing. I almost threw up as I watched the doctor do these things….
“Dr. Haskell delivered the baby’s head. He cut the umbilical cord and delivered the placenta. He threw that baby in a pan, along with the placenta and the instruments he’d used. I saw the baby move in the pan. I asked another nurse and she said it was just ‘reflexes’.
“I have been a nurse for a long time and I have seen a lot of death – people maimed in auto accidents, gunshot wounds, you name it. I have seen surgical procedures of every sort. But in all my professional years, I had never witnessed anything like this.
“The woman wanted to see her baby, so they cleaned up the baby and put it in a blanket and handed the baby to her. She cried the whole time, and she kept saying, ‘I’m so sorry, please forgive me!’ She screamed and prayed to God to forgive her, and for that baby to forgive her, and she held him and rocked him, and told him that she loved him.
“I was crying too. That baby boy had the most perfect angelic face I have ever seen. And I couldn’t take it. After all the years I’ve been a nurse, I lost it. I excused myself and I ran to the bathroom … I cried and I prayed.”
In addition to her powerful story, these images (in simple sketches) clearly show what actually takes place during this abortion: www.nrlc.org/abortion/pba/PBA_Images/PBA_Images_Heathers_Place.htm
So to have this diabolical abortion method no longer happening, at least at this one clinic, is terrific news, and a terrific victory for the pro-life cause. The truth is, there are very few doctors who want to perform these monstrous operations, and perhaps with Grundmann seemingly out of the picture, no one else is willing to do them, even though they are a real money-maker.
Of course all abortion kills an unborn baby, so all abortion is morally reprehensible. But the late-term abortion method is nothing other than infanticide. Thus while this decision is only a start, it is a very good start indeed. It is well worth some major celebration.
There are many who deserve credit for this, including those who have targeted the Croydon clinic with peaceful vigils, prayer marches, and so on. Well done to all the pro-life troops who have been involved in so many different ways with this over the years. You are true champions.
This story tells us that genuine success is certainly possible. Sure, it means a lot of hard work, time, effort and sacrifice. But it all pays off in the end. If Australia Day is meant to be a time of celebrating the birth of a nation, how fitting that this news should arrive today, with at least some unborn babies being allowed a chance at birth.
Great news. Another recent victory in Melbourne was the complete closure of the baby-killing centre in Carlton, after many years of peaceful and prayerful presence by the Helpers of God’s Precious Infants.
I encourage every Christian to devote some time to this action which has saved thousands of babies’ lives over the years and in many cases forces the closure of the abortary itself.
A great way to do this is to sign up for just a one-hour slot in the worldwide 40 Days for Life Campaign to pray and stand vigil with other pro-lifers. This year in Melbourne it runs from Feb 22 to April 1.
It is incredibly tragic that a practice as barbaric as “partial-birth” abortion is practised as “medicine”. My young adult son has autism. His life experience has brought us as a family into contact with other people with intellectual and developmental disorders. Such people may at times present challenges to “mainstream” society. However, to “eliminate” children with disabilities from the community before their birth is depriving us all of potentially unique and enriching relationships with unique, yet very human beings.
There is a very real freedom in choosing life – no matter how “frail” or “impaired” that life may be. Is the “pro-choice” abortion movement symptomatic of a society well on the way to embracing the Nietzschean will to power as the highest goal of personal freedom?
Nietzsche condemned as “bad” “All that proceeds from weakness.” For the disciple of Christ the weakness of God is stronger than men. It is the person without love who is nothing. When self-empowerment is the murder of compassion and love, mankind becomes the slave of new, terrifying and abysmal freedom.
John Wigg
Great News on AUSTRALIA DAY.
One day your efforts will be given the greatest honours in His eternal kingdom.
Graham McLennan
Bill, the Age article you mention says that the Royal Women’s and Monash Medical Centre offer non-surgical late-term abortion by inducing labor in case of foetal abnormality.
Does this mean they starve the child to death after it’s born, or is it only used in case like anencephaly, where there’s simply no chance of survive even in the case of the best medical intervention we can plausibly provide?
Felix Alexander
This is good news. It is great news actually, that the Croydon Clinic will no longer practice late term abortions.
I am concerned however that this is a clever move by Marie Stopes.
After so many hideous “accidents” at this clinic, Marie Stopes steps in to be seen as the “hero”…. as if they’re cleaning up the place for the benefit of women.
And in doing so, they will undoubtedly silence many.
Many who will now say that “at least they’re not providing access to late term abortions, so leave them alone.”
I can’t help feel nervous about this move of theirs, but in saying this I am certainly rejoicing in the fact that no late-term procedures will be practiced here.
Thanks Bill
Helen Parker
Thanks guys
Yes there is some ambiguity here as to just what will keep taking place. And there is no real merit to the clinic’s decision. They have had a lot of problems of late, and fewer doctors want to do late-term abortions. So it all remains to be seen just how all this pans out, but it is still a good first step.
Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch
I’m not convinced about the accuracy of the H.S. statement that Croydon Day Surgery was “Australia’s only clinic” offering late term abortions.
Certainly, late term abortions are going to continue unabated at some of the public obstetric hospitals, eg. the Royal Women’s. So the statement is misleading. And I’d like to see some proof that there aren’t any other private clinics in other States which offer late term abortions.
Jereth Kok
While this is good news, babies are still being injected with poison and drowned in Formaldehyde at the Royal Women’s and Monash Medical Centre:
Yes as I said, abortion still continues in Australia, but at least a bit less so now. And yes, there may well be others still doing D&X abortions. Grundmann had around 5 clinics in Qld, NSW and VIc at one point where he was doing them. It seems Marie Stopes Int. is buying them up. So we still await how all this will progress. But still, we give thanks for small mercies and partial victories.
Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch
“He who hates Me, loves death.” Any and every culture that turns its back on the Lord Jesus Christ will sink into a suicidal tendency. Please, Lord, let this be one step closer to a consicious decision of our nation to choose Life again.
Lance A Box
Thanks Bill
For those who want to better understand the true horror of abortion I urge them to see The Silent Scream which was the film that stopped Dr Bernard Nathanoan, the former pro-abortionist who acknowledged responsibility for 70,000 abortions in the USA, from doing abortions and changed him into an anti-abortion campaigner.
Regards
David Grace
Thanks David
Yes I wrote up Nathanson several times, including here:
Another possibility is that this announcement is just a cynical measure by Marie Stopes to rehabilitate the awful reputation of this baby-killing clinic.
In reality late-term abortions could continue to be performed at this clinic just as before and it would be very difficult to find this out.
Mansel Rogerson
This is only good news if less abortions are carried out in Australia as a result of the Croydon clinic ceasing this abhorrent procedure.
Will this be the case? Or will it just mean more abortions at 22 weeks instead?
Regardless, I am happy that at there is one less place in Australia butchering unborn who are only 24 weeks old.
Marcus Anderson
Thanks again guys.
Yes we must not minimise the deceptive and sneaky nature of the pro-aborts. So this news must be greeted with a mixture of some joy and some caution. Hopefully it is a step in the right direction, but we need to keep monitoring all this.
Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch
May I commend Vishal Mangalwadi’s book “The Book That Made Your World: How the Bible Created the Soul of Western Civilization.” It will warm our hearts and stiffen our spines against the deadly pessimism that sometimes we Christians fall into, when faced with seemingly insurmountable situations, one of which is abortion. I have also blogged a summary of one key chapter of Mangalwadi’s book at http://hammeroffaith.blogspot.com/2012/01/book-that-made-your-world.html#!/2012/01/book-that-made-your-world.html.
Blessings on you Bill, this Australia Day!
Steve Swartz
Thanks Steve
Yes it is a great book. I did a review of it here:
Reading the nurse’s testimony brought tears to my eyes. I found it tragic that it was the ghastly murder of her child right in front of her eyes, with her approval, that caused her to cry out to God. Similarly the nurse cried out to God also.
Then of course, I wonder about the doctor’s reaction, just tossing the baby and instruments into the dish. How can someone do something so unbelievably barbaric, to a child, so helpless? It’s pure evil.
When people turn from God, anything is possible.
George Kokonis
Obviously, the Croydon Clinic came up with this business strategy after a string of adverse publicity. Sadly though it is likely that pregnant mothers, who want a late term abortion, will simply go else where, such as the Melbourne Women’s Hospital. No doubt the hospital’s killing squad would be more than willing to accommodate ending an unborn child’s life – at any stage of the women’s pregnancy.
Trevor Grace
George, I agree – it is pure evil.
The founder of Planned Parenthood, Margaret Sanger was also driven by evil. She once stated; “The most merciful thing that a family does to one of its infant members is to kill it.”
Annette Nestor
George,
“The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can know it?” The sooner we restore the preaching of the old doctrine of total depravity the better. Way too much preaching of psychological bilge for our own corporate good. A.W Pink’s “The Total Deparavity of Man” is a great start. Available free on the net at:
Bill, do you have any suggested resources to open up this subject for us?
Lance A Box
Good to see the description “Pro-Death”, Bill; I wish everyone would always tell it like it is! And abortion-as-contraception (as it mostly is, these days) is just selfish “convenience killing”. One day, this evil will end … one day …
John Thomas, UK
Thanks for the good news Bill, measured though it is.
I can’t read through a mere description of the procedure – let alone see images of it – without feeling ill. What kind of person is it that can so clinically carry out this murder?
Thank God another of these death clinics is stopping this procedure.
Duane Proud
Thank you Lord. Well done all the pro-life campaigners.
Whatever the reason, this is great news even if only one baby is saved, but more so because one more abortion clinic operator is rolling back some of the death that is being dealt on a daily basis. The more pressure (prayer & action) is brought to bear against this the faster it will be the retreat from the horrible practice of abortion.
Every mother who is turned from aborting their baby, and every clinic which is convinced to offer fewer abortion services, is changing lives and aiding in defending the defenseless.
Garth Penglase
I was an operating theatre nurse and i saw my share of abortions. I wonder if the Downs Syndrome Association would protest re the late term abortion that Dr Haskell performed. After all it sends a message of devaluation regarding people living who have Downs syndrome.
Dr Haskell would have performed this procedure under the euphemism of being compassionate.
Wayne Pelling
Thanks guys
More pro-life victories – 2 in 2 days! Former Victorian Labor Attorney-General Rob Hulls who in 2008 introduced one of the worst abortion bills in the world, has resigned from politics!
Thanks Bill, just discovered your blog through ACL – excellent.
I wonder if the connection between the high rate of abortion in Australia and the low numbers of children available for adoption has ever been made in the media.
Whilst I don’t advocate taking children away from their mothers, there are many infertile couples who want to be parents. Often they undertake costly IVF. What about the idea of open adoption where the mother is supported by the potential adoptive parents throughout the pregnancy and beyond and she is also has a role in the child’s life? It’s only 9 months inconvenience for the mother and would alleviate the guilt and pain of abortion. Potential parents would not have to fork out money for the endless, emotional roller-coaster that IVF can be. And there would no longer be a market for abortion clinics, IVF clinics – (saving taxpayers money) and overseas adoption ‘agencies’ would also be out of business.
Megan Pyne
Yes quite right Megan. I speak to the problems of IVF here:
In the year that we started the process of trying to adopt a child in Australia, the number of children being murdered in the womb equalled the number of parents wanting to adopt. We eventually gave up trying to adopt in Australian, because at that time, the minimum waiting time was thriteen years. After six years of waiting, we went for an overseas adoption. I would guess the wait is maybe longer now, for an Australian adoption.
We went to a seminar on IVF, and asked the question, “What do you do with the remaining fertilised eggs that are in excess of what is needed for an implant?” The answer we were told was, “We flush them down the sink, but we don’t tell anyone that, because it would cause some problems for some people.”
We adopted two boys from an overseas country, but feel very sad about the millions of babies we could have and would have adopted if the process was not so onorous and costly; and it is only that because so many of the children that could have been adopted are butchered and burned alive in their mother’s womb.
Lance A Box
Of a certainty, God’s justice, which is equal to His mercy, will be a necessary but terrible outcome here. No doubt the appalling, longterm, social outcomes – which demographers are already documenting – will be part of that.
If we sit on our hands and moan and do nothing we share in the culpability. If we’re not actively “with Him” in even some small way, as circumstances permit, then – tragically – we are against Him and will be called to account for it one day. Even the old,the frail and the sick must help. Their prayers and patience in suffering provide a mighty powerhouse of support for those called to more visible roles.
So, as one parish priest used to always tell our lot, let’s all “get on board and grab a piece of the action!”
God bless us all — we’re on the winning team!!
Anna Cook
Great to see AG Rob Hulls go.
I’m continually amazed at the obvious connection between the culture of death widely propagated throughout Australia, and the small numbers of children available for adoption.
“If we sit on our hands and moan and do nothing we share in the culpability. If we’re not actively “with Him” in even some small way, as circumstances permit, then – tragically – we are against Him and will be called to account for it one day.”
Too true Anna Cook, too true. I’m convicted by this statement, and not only about abortion. We must share in His battle is we wish to share in His victory.
I have just found another article on this here:
http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/clinic-will-cease-lateterm-abortion-20120125-1qhqh.html
Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch
More Lives Saved! Thank you God.
Judith Bond
Hi Bill,
Great news. Another recent victory in Melbourne was the complete closure of the baby-killing centre in Carlton, after many years of peaceful and prayerful presence by the Helpers of God’s Precious Infants.
I encourage every Christian to devote some time to this action which has saved thousands of babies’ lives over the years and in many cases forces the closure of the abortary itself.
A great way to do this is to sign up for just a one-hour slot in the worldwide 40 Days for Life Campaign to pray and stand vigil with other pro-lifers. This year in Melbourne it runs from Feb 22 to April 1.
To sign up: http://www.vigilcalendar.com/melbourne
More info: http://www.40daysforlife.com/about.cfm
Mansel Rogerson
It is incredibly tragic that a practice as barbaric as “partial-birth” abortion is practised as “medicine”. My young adult son has autism. His life experience has brought us as a family into contact with other people with intellectual and developmental disorders. Such people may at times present challenges to “mainstream” society. However, to “eliminate” children with disabilities from the community before their birth is depriving us all of potentially unique and enriching relationships with unique, yet very human beings.
There is a very real freedom in choosing life – no matter how “frail” or “impaired” that life may be. Is the “pro-choice” abortion movement symptomatic of a society well on the way to embracing the Nietzschean will to power as the highest goal of personal freedom?
Nietzsche condemned as “bad” “All that proceeds from weakness.” For the disciple of Christ the weakness of God is stronger than men. It is the person without love who is nothing. When self-empowerment is the murder of compassion and love, mankind becomes the slave of new, terrifying and abysmal freedom.
John Wigg
Great News on AUSTRALIA DAY.
One day your efforts will be given the greatest honours in His eternal kingdom.
Graham McLennan
Bill, the Age article you mention says that the Royal Women’s and Monash Medical Centre offer non-surgical late-term abortion by inducing labor in case of foetal abnormality.
Does this mean they starve the child to death after it’s born, or is it only used in case like anencephaly, where there’s simply no chance of survive even in the case of the best medical intervention we can plausibly provide?
Felix Alexander
This is good news. It is great news actually, that the Croydon Clinic will no longer practice late term abortions.
I am concerned however that this is a clever move by Marie Stopes.
After so many hideous “accidents” at this clinic, Marie Stopes steps in to be seen as the “hero”…. as if they’re cleaning up the place for the benefit of women.
And in doing so, they will undoubtedly silence many.
Many who will now say that “at least they’re not providing access to late term abortions, so leave them alone.”
I can’t help feel nervous about this move of theirs, but in saying this I am certainly rejoicing in the fact that no late-term procedures will be practiced here.
Thanks Bill
Helen Parker
Thanks guys
Yes there is some ambiguity here as to just what will keep taking place. And there is no real merit to the clinic’s decision. They have had a lot of problems of late, and fewer doctors want to do late-term abortions. So it all remains to be seen just how all this pans out, but it is still a good first step.
Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch
I’m not convinced about the accuracy of the H.S. statement that Croydon Day Surgery was “Australia’s only clinic” offering late term abortions.
Certainly, late term abortions are going to continue unabated at some of the public obstetric hospitals, eg. the Royal Women’s. So the statement is misleading. And I’d like to see some proof that there aren’t any other private clinics in other States which offer late term abortions.
Jereth Kok
While this is good news, babies are still being injected with poison and drowned in Formaldehyde at the Royal Women’s and Monash Medical Centre:
http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/aborted-babies-being-left-to-die-20101006-167u0.html
Richard Bath
Thanks guys
Yes as I said, abortion still continues in Australia, but at least a bit less so now. And yes, there may well be others still doing D&X abortions. Grundmann had around 5 clinics in Qld, NSW and VIc at one point where he was doing them. It seems Marie Stopes Int. is buying them up. So we still await how all this will progress. But still, we give thanks for small mercies and partial victories.
Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch
“He who hates Me, loves death.” Any and every culture that turns its back on the Lord Jesus Christ will sink into a suicidal tendency. Please, Lord, let this be one step closer to a consicious decision of our nation to choose Life again.
Lance A Box
Thanks Bill
For those who want to better understand the true horror of abortion I urge them to see The Silent Scream which was the film that stopped Dr Bernard Nathanoan, the former pro-abortionist who acknowledged responsibility for 70,000 abortions in the USA, from doing abortions and changed him into an anti-abortion campaigner.
Regards
David Grace
Thanks David
Yes I wrote up Nathanson several times, including here:
https://billmuehlenberg.com/2011/02/23/bernard-nathanson-rip/
Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch
Another possibility is that this announcement is just a cynical measure by Marie Stopes to rehabilitate the awful reputation of this baby-killing clinic.
In reality late-term abortions could continue to be performed at this clinic just as before and it would be very difficult to find this out.
Mansel Rogerson
This is only good news if less abortions are carried out in Australia as a result of the Croydon clinic ceasing this abhorrent procedure.
Will this be the case? Or will it just mean more abortions at 22 weeks instead?
Regardless, I am happy that at there is one less place in Australia butchering unborn who are only 24 weeks old.
Marcus Anderson
Thanks again guys.
Yes we must not minimise the deceptive and sneaky nature of the pro-aborts. So this news must be greeted with a mixture of some joy and some caution. Hopefully it is a step in the right direction, but we need to keep monitoring all this.
Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch
May I commend Vishal Mangalwadi’s book “The Book That Made Your World: How the Bible Created the Soul of Western Civilization.” It will warm our hearts and stiffen our spines against the deadly pessimism that sometimes we Christians fall into, when faced with seemingly insurmountable situations, one of which is abortion. I have also blogged a summary of one key chapter of Mangalwadi’s book at http://hammeroffaith.blogspot.com/2012/01/book-that-made-your-world.html#!/2012/01/book-that-made-your-world.html.
Blessings on you Bill, this Australia Day!
Steve Swartz
Thanks Steve
Yes it is a great book. I did a review of it here:
https://billmuehlenberg.com/2011/09/28/5981/
Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch
Reading the nurse’s testimony brought tears to my eyes. I found it tragic that it was the ghastly murder of her child right in front of her eyes, with her approval, that caused her to cry out to God. Similarly the nurse cried out to God also.
Then of course, I wonder about the doctor’s reaction, just tossing the baby and instruments into the dish. How can someone do something so unbelievably barbaric, to a child, so helpless? It’s pure evil.
When people turn from God, anything is possible.
George Kokonis
Obviously, the Croydon Clinic came up with this business strategy after a string of adverse publicity. Sadly though it is likely that pregnant mothers, who want a late term abortion, will simply go else where, such as the Melbourne Women’s Hospital. No doubt the hospital’s killing squad would be more than willing to accommodate ending an unborn child’s life – at any stage of the women’s pregnancy.
Trevor Grace
George, I agree – it is pure evil.
The founder of Planned Parenthood, Margaret Sanger was also driven by evil. She once stated; “The most merciful thing that a family does to one of its infant members is to kill it.”
Annette Nestor
George,
“The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can know it?” The sooner we restore the preaching of the old doctrine of total depravity the better. Way too much preaching of psychological bilge for our own corporate good. A.W Pink’s “The Total Deparavity of Man” is a great start. Available free on the net at:
http://www.pbministries.org/books/pink/Depravity/index.htm
Bill, do you have any suggested resources to open up this subject for us?
Lance A Box
Good to see the description “Pro-Death”, Bill; I wish everyone would always tell it like it is! And abortion-as-contraception (as it mostly is, these days) is just selfish “convenience killing”. One day, this evil will end … one day …
John Thomas, UK
Thanks for the good news Bill, measured though it is.
I can’t read through a mere description of the procedure – let alone see images of it – without feeling ill. What kind of person is it that can so clinically carry out this murder?
Thank God another of these death clinics is stopping this procedure.
Duane Proud
Thank you Lord. Well done all the pro-life campaigners.
Whatever the reason, this is great news even if only one baby is saved, but more so because one more abortion clinic operator is rolling back some of the death that is being dealt on a daily basis. The more pressure (prayer & action) is brought to bear against this the faster it will be the retreat from the horrible practice of abortion.
Every mother who is turned from aborting their baby, and every clinic which is convinced to offer fewer abortion services, is changing lives and aiding in defending the defenseless.
Garth Penglase
I was an operating theatre nurse and i saw my share of abortions. I wonder if the Downs Syndrome Association would protest re the late term abortion that Dr Haskell performed. After all it sends a message of devaluation regarding people living who have Downs syndrome.
Dr Haskell would have performed this procedure under the euphemism of being compassionate.
Wayne Pelling
Thanks guys
More pro-life victories – 2 in 2 days! Former Victorian Labor Attorney-General Rob Hulls who in 2008 introduced one of the worst abortion bills in the world, has resigned from politics!
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/more-news/labor-deputy-rob-hulls-quits-politics/story-fn7x8me2-1226255046693
Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch
Thanks Bill, just discovered your blog through ACL – excellent.
I wonder if the connection between the high rate of abortion in Australia and the low numbers of children available for adoption has ever been made in the media.
Whilst I don’t advocate taking children away from their mothers, there are many infertile couples who want to be parents. Often they undertake costly IVF. What about the idea of open adoption where the mother is supported by the potential adoptive parents throughout the pregnancy and beyond and she is also has a role in the child’s life? It’s only 9 months inconvenience for the mother and would alleviate the guilt and pain of abortion. Potential parents would not have to fork out money for the endless, emotional roller-coaster that IVF can be. And there would no longer be a market for abortion clinics, IVF clinics – (saving taxpayers money) and overseas adoption ‘agencies’ would also be out of business.
Megan Pyne
Yes quite right Megan. I speak to the problems of IVF here:
https://billmuehlenberg.com/2007/08/30/concerns-about-ivf/
Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch
In the year that we started the process of trying to adopt a child in Australia, the number of children being murdered in the womb equalled the number of parents wanting to adopt. We eventually gave up trying to adopt in Australian, because at that time, the minimum waiting time was thriteen years. After six years of waiting, we went for an overseas adoption. I would guess the wait is maybe longer now, for an Australian adoption.
We went to a seminar on IVF, and asked the question, “What do you do with the remaining fertilised eggs that are in excess of what is needed for an implant?” The answer we were told was, “We flush them down the sink, but we don’t tell anyone that, because it would cause some problems for some people.”
We adopted two boys from an overseas country, but feel very sad about the millions of babies we could have and would have adopted if the process was not so onorous and costly; and it is only that because so many of the children that could have been adopted are butchered and burned alive in their mother’s womb.
Lance A Box
Of a certainty, God’s justice, which is equal to His mercy, will be a necessary but terrible outcome here. No doubt the appalling, longterm, social outcomes – which demographers are already documenting – will be part of that.
If we sit on our hands and moan and do nothing we share in the culpability. If we’re not actively “with Him” in even some small way, as circumstances permit, then – tragically – we are against Him and will be called to account for it one day. Even the old,the frail and the sick must help. Their prayers and patience in suffering provide a mighty powerhouse of support for those called to more visible roles.
So, as one parish priest used to always tell our lot, let’s all “get on board and grab a piece of the action!”
God bless us all — we’re on the winning team!!
Anna Cook
Great to see AG Rob Hulls go.
I’m continually amazed at the obvious connection between the culture of death widely propagated throughout Australia, and the small numbers of children available for adoption.
“If we sit on our hands and moan and do nothing we share in the culpability. If we’re not actively “with Him” in even some small way, as circumstances permit, then – tragically – we are against Him and will be called to account for it one day.”
Too true Anna Cook, too true. I’m convicted by this statement, and not only about abortion. We must share in His battle is we wish to share in His victory.
Garth Penglase