Against pro-abortion legislation
Tuesday 16 September 2008 12:04 PM
Text of a letter (e-mail) to members of the Legislative Council of the Parliament of Victoria (Western Metropolitan electoral district):
Greetings to you all in your capacity as Legislative Council members for Western Metropolitan,
I write as a concerned citizen from your electoral district, and as a Christian pastor who deals with the highs and lows of people and their lives. I wish to draw your attention to a letter I recently submitted to The Age, published on September 11th: http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/letters/a-moral-morass-20080910-4dsn.html . In reference to the case I make there, I also refer you to section 4(1) of the Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act of 1996, and to Proposal 7 of the Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Regulations shortly to come into force.
I make no secret of my own position on abortion, which would place me categorically in the "pro-life" camp. For me abortion at any stage in a pregnancy, other than in cases where the mother's life is clearly at risk, is unacceptable and I implore you to vote against the current legislation about to come before you. However beyond that statement of my clear position, and recognising that some or all of you will most likely disagree with me, I ask you to weigh up very carefully the case I make in the above letter, which I believe is supported by the legislation to which I refer. (There may well be other relevant legislation, but the above is all I can find.)
I would argue that, regardless of the dictates of your own consciences, this legislation in its current form is fundamentally flawed and should therefore be rejected by the Upper House. It is surely a nonsense to enact legislation which sanctions the termination of creatures whom other state legislation implicitly recognises as possessing human personhood. At the very least the proposed legislation should be amended to place the boundary of abortion on demand at 20 weeks rather than 24 weeks. This at least would bring it into line with the other legislation to which I refer, and which has formed a foundational part of our society's care for grieving families for a very long time. I submit that the passage of the legislation in its current form would amount to a betrayal of such families and those who care for them. If the legislation is passed I believe we will have a situation of moral confusion.
Please oppose this legislation. Thank you for reading my submission.