Lobbyist lobs in to Canberra
Early in July, ACTRTLA co-hosted with Right to Life Australia the visit of Lori Hougans to
Canberra. Lori is a dynamic young pro-life lobbyist who works for the National Right
to Life Committee in Washington. The USA has had legal abortion for 25 years and
Lori spoke on what this has brought and how prolifers have responded. (We hope to
have a more comprehensive coverage of her talk in a later newsletter.)
The essence of the talk was one of encouragement and hope for the future. Despite
President Clinton's veto of the bill that would have banned partial birth abortion (see
page 6 for an outline of PBA) the number of abortions in the US has dropped by 250,000 per
annum.
Importantly, American youth are taking an interest in the pro-life battle and are joining
forces on the side of life. The anti-life groups are, in general, aging and not
getting the support and membership they had hoped. There are two reasons for this:
they are aborting their replacement troops; and most young people realise they are lucky
to be alive -- especially if they have had brothers or sisters who were aborted.
Lori encouraged those in the Right to Life movement in Australia to get young people
involved because they usually are open to the truth (and have the energy to fight for it).
The language used by the anti-life forces is designed to downplay the reality of what they
are proposing. Language is important and Lori remarked that calling an abortion
'termination of pregnancy' is like calling the murder of your husband 'termination of
marriage'.
Lori ended by exhorting all Right to Life groups to work together because the stakes are
too high not to.
|
In Brief
ACTRTLA's schools education team is still working hard this year, having already visited
St Edmunds College in March and April, St Clare's College and Marist College in April and
May, and Covenant College in April. These visits were very successful. Team
Coordinator Frances McMahon is planning visits to a number of other schools before the end
of the academic year.
ACTRTLA co-hosted the visit of Lori Hougans to
Canberra to speak at the National Convention Centre on the evening of Monday, 6
July. Right to Life Australia had brought Ms Hougans to Australia for another
speaking engagement and kindly offered also to bring her to Canberra. Ms Hougans, a
lobbyist from New York Right to Life who also spends time working for the US National
Right to Life Committee in Washington DC, provided an interesting and entertaining
address.
The ACT Budget, delivered on 23 June 1998,
announced that Karinya House for Mothers and Babies would be receiving $70,000 funding to
expand its services "providing support and accommodation for pregnant women... for up
to three months". This funding will assist Karinya House with their work, which
is still largely supported and funded by the Canberra community. (See item on page 2)
Pauline Hanson MP has been reported as backing
abortion, with the Toowoomba Chronicle (30 May 1998) quoting her responding to an abortion
question saying "It is every woman's right to determine her body ... to decide her
body". Since that report, Ms Hanson has declined to comment further on the
issue. |
