As I write this there is a raging debate going on in my State of new South Wales on legislating and legalising ABORTION.
Here is a bit from Wiki on ABORTION
The abortion debate is the ongoing controversy surrounding the moral, legal, and religious status of induced abortion.[1] The sides involved in the debate are the self-described "pro-choice" and "pro-life" movements. "Pro-choice" emphasizes the right of women to decide whether to terminate a pregnancy. "Pro-life" emphasizes the right of the embryo or fetus to gestate to term and be born. Both terms are considered loaded in mainstream media, where terms such as "abortion rights" or "anti-abortion" are generally preferred.[2]Each movement has, with varying results, sought to influence public opinion and to attain legal support for its position.
For many people, abortion is essentially a morality issue, concerning the commencement of human personhood, the rights of the fetus, and a woman's rights over her own body.
The debate has become a political and legal issue in some countries with anti-abortion campaigners seeking to enact, maintain and expand anti-abortion laws, while abortion-rights campaigners seeking the repeal or easing of such laws while expanding access to abortion.
Abortion laws vary considerably between jurisdictions, ranging from outright prohibition of the procedure to public funding of abortion.
Availability of safe abortion also varies across the world.
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News articles on abortion
SBS:
'Party to a crime': AMA says NSW abortion clause is a threat to doctors
Here is a bit from Wiki on ABORTION
The abortion debate is the ongoing controversy surrounding the moral, legal, and religious status of induced abortion.[1] The sides involved in the debate are the self-described "pro-choice" and "pro-life" movements. "Pro-choice" emphasizes the right of women to decide whether to terminate a pregnancy. "Pro-life" emphasizes the right of the embryo or fetus to gestate to term and be born. Both terms are considered loaded in mainstream media, where terms such as "abortion rights" or "anti-abortion" are generally preferred.[2]Each movement has, with varying results, sought to influence public opinion and to attain legal support for its position.
For many people, abortion is essentially a morality issue, concerning the commencement of human personhood, the rights of the fetus, and a woman's rights over her own body.
The debate has become a political and legal issue in some countries with anti-abortion campaigners seeking to enact, maintain and expand anti-abortion laws, while abortion-rights campaigners seeking the repeal or easing of such laws while expanding access to abortion.
Abortion laws vary considerably between jurisdictions, ranging from outright prohibition of the procedure to public funding of abortion.
Availability of safe abortion also varies across the world.
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News articles on abortion
SBS:
'Party to a crime': AMA says NSW abortion clause is a threat to doctors
AMA NSW says introducing an amendment to the Reproductive Health Care Reform Bill banning sex-selection abortions could make doctors "party to a crime".
NSW's peak medical body has told an inquiry into a bill to decriminalise abortion that introducing an amendment banning sex-selection terminations could make doctors party to a crime.
The upper house parliamentary committee examining the draft legislation held its first hearing on Wednesday and continued with some 22 witnesses on Thursday.
The private member's bill, which passed the lower house last week, allows terminations up to 22 weeks and also later if two doctors, considering all the circumstances, agree the termination should occur.
Berejiklian open to gender selection abortion ban
Australian Medical Association NSW's vice president Dr Danielle McMullen argued against introducing an amendment to the bill banning sex-selection abortions.
Such an amendment could make any doctor providing abortion services after nine weeks "party to a crime" as technology allows the sex of a baby to be identified from about this time, Dr McMullen told the inquiry.
"Therefore if a woman seeks termination of pregnancy after this point, any laws prohibiting gender selection as a reason would require doctors to be mindreaders of sorts to ensure no crime was being committed.
"This would have the effect of delaying or preventing the delivery of care."
There is no evidence of women approaching their doctors seeking terminations on these grounds, Dr McMullen added.
"If there was evidence that this was happening we're confident ... doctors would be within their rights to refuse a termination."
New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian supports the decriminalisation of abortion. AAP
Premier Gladys Berejiklian has opened the door to explicitly banning abortions based on gender if it will help ease community concerns.
Ms Berejiklian said the state's chief obstetrician had advised her that sex selection terminations were "not an issue in NSW".
"But if there is more we need to do to actually allay concerns of the community we will," she said this week.
Representatives from Rape and Domestic Violence Services Australia, Women's Health NSW and Family Planning NSW say the organisations fully support the bill in its current form.
Sinead Canning from NSW Pro-Choice Alliance told the inquiry she'd worked alongside women who've had terminations and want abortion removed from the Crimes Act.
READ MORE
MPs receive death threats after voting against NSW abortion bill
"These women have spent the past few weeks being called murderers, being called flippant in their decision making, being told they don't have the capacity to make their own decisions and they've been disrespected time and time again by opponents of this bill," Ms Canning said.
She asked upper house MPs due to debate the bill next week to "please reflect on what they intend to say".
"There has to be compassion on this issue and I feel that's been absent in this debate."
Uniting Church moderator Simon Hansford - who addressed the inquiry alongside other faith leaders from the Uniting and Anglican churches - said abortion was a health and social issue and shouldn't be a criminal one.
"When abortion is practised indiscriminately it damages respect for human life," Rev Hansford said.
"(But) the parliament resolving that this is not a criminal matter would open the health community and the wider community to better care, better support and better options for women and unborn children."
Obstetrician and gynaecologist Simon McCaffrey believes women will be worse off if the bill passes the upper house.
"To me, pregnancies terminated without specialist oversight between 14 to 22 weeks, abrogates our duty of care to women, and this bill will ensure that's exactly what will happen," he said.
When questioned by Nationals MP Trevor Khan, Dr McCaffrey revealed he was also an office-holder with the anti-abortion organisation Right to Life.
"Is this relevant?" he asked.
Since the matter was referred to the upper house on 6 August some 13,000 submissions have been made to the inquiry. The committee must report back their findings by Tuesday.
SOURCE AAP - SBSxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I have put my Thinking cap on:
My off the cuff thoughts
Never bring religion into Politics and governance. Religion has no place in Governance.
Men and women, boys and girls have the same desire and weakness for love and sex. This has to be accepted.
Women alone bear the responsibility for unplanned and accidental pregnancies and the men don't want to know about it and virtually take off from the scene and disappear. It is not necessarily the males fault as he did not have babies in mind during the encounter that was bliss.
TYPES OF UNWANTED PREGNANCIES
Rapes: Pregnancies as a result of Rspe
One Night Stands : We then have adult women who have one night stands with strangers without taking necessary precautions and find out they are pregnant with no one to be the father.
Married women having affairs: The third Category is perhaps married women having indiscreet relation ships outside marriage with a work colleague or a neighbour etc and suddenly the find out they are pregnant. They panic and want to have an abortion ASAP before the husband finds out as that would destroy or even end the marriage
Unplanned Pregnancies : Fourth Category would be a married woman who has had babies and an accidental unplanned pregnancy happens and there are heated arguments between husband and wife on whether to keep the child or not. Some men want the baby and others don't and the same is true for the wives same want to keep the baby and others don't want to give birth to one more.
Medical Reasons: Fifth Category in My Opinion is a woman who is ill, has some awful sickness and is scared of transmitting the disease to the baby or passing some genetic defect and hence wishes to abort..or the pregnant mother is Terminally Ill
Politicians and legislators world wide are trying to come up with a legislation on Abortion that fits all. This is where the mistake is and just that a govt has a small majority does not make the legislation right.
NSW's peak medical body has told an inquiry into a bill to decriminalise abortion that introducing an amendment banning sex-selection terminations could make doctors party to a crime.
The upper house parliamentary committee examining the draft legislation held its first hearing on Wednesday and continued with some 22 witnesses on Thursday.
The private member's bill, which passed the lower house last week, allows terminations up to 22 weeks and also later if two doctors, considering all the circumstances, agree the termination should occur.
Berejiklian open to gender selection abortion ban
Australian Medical Association NSW's vice president Dr Danielle McMullen argued against introducing an amendment to the bill banning sex-selection abortions.
Such an amendment could make any doctor providing abortion services after nine weeks "party to a crime" as technology allows the sex of a baby to be identified from about this time, Dr McMullen told the inquiry.
"Therefore if a woman seeks termination of pregnancy after this point, any laws prohibiting gender selection as a reason would require doctors to be mindreaders of sorts to ensure no crime was being committed.
"This would have the effect of delaying or preventing the delivery of care."
There is no evidence of women approaching their doctors seeking terminations on these grounds, Dr McMullen added.
"If there was evidence that this was happening we're confident ... doctors would be within their rights to refuse a termination."
New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian supports the decriminalisation of abortion. AAP
Premier Gladys Berejiklian has opened the door to explicitly banning abortions based on gender if it will help ease community concerns.
Ms Berejiklian said the state's chief obstetrician had advised her that sex selection terminations were "not an issue in NSW".
"But if there is more we need to do to actually allay concerns of the community we will," she said this week.
Representatives from Rape and Domestic Violence Services Australia, Women's Health NSW and Family Planning NSW say the organisations fully support the bill in its current form.
Sinead Canning from NSW Pro-Choice Alliance told the inquiry she'd worked alongside women who've had terminations and want abortion removed from the Crimes Act.
READ MORE
MPs receive death threats after voting against NSW abortion bill
"These women have spent the past few weeks being called murderers, being called flippant in their decision making, being told they don't have the capacity to make their own decisions and they've been disrespected time and time again by opponents of this bill," Ms Canning said.
She asked upper house MPs due to debate the bill next week to "please reflect on what they intend to say".
"There has to be compassion on this issue and I feel that's been absent in this debate."
Uniting Church moderator Simon Hansford - who addressed the inquiry alongside other faith leaders from the Uniting and Anglican churches - said abortion was a health and social issue and shouldn't be a criminal one.
"When abortion is practised indiscriminately it damages respect for human life," Rev Hansford said.
"(But) the parliament resolving that this is not a criminal matter would open the health community and the wider community to better care, better support and better options for women and unborn children."
Obstetrician and gynaecologist Simon McCaffrey believes women will be worse off if the bill passes the upper house.
"To me, pregnancies terminated without specialist oversight between 14 to 22 weeks, abrogates our duty of care to women, and this bill will ensure that's exactly what will happen," he said.
When questioned by Nationals MP Trevor Khan, Dr McCaffrey revealed he was also an office-holder with the anti-abortion organisation Right to Life.
"Is this relevant?" he asked.
Since the matter was referred to the upper house on 6 August some 13,000 submissions have been made to the inquiry. The committee must report back their findings by Tuesday.
SOURCE AAP - SBSxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I have put my Thinking cap on:
My off the cuff thoughts
Never bring religion into Politics and governance. Religion has no place in Governance.
Men and women, boys and girls have the same desire and weakness for love and sex. This has to be accepted.
Women alone bear the responsibility for unplanned and accidental pregnancies and the men don't want to know about it and virtually take off from the scene and disappear. It is not necessarily the males fault as he did not have babies in mind during the encounter that was bliss.
TYPES OF UNWANTED PREGNANCIES
Teenage Pregnancies: There is no shortage of single mothers in NSW all due to unplanned pregnancies of mostly teen age girls who did not fully understand the consequences and at the same time did not want to destroy a child's life.
Rapes: Pregnancies as a result of Rspe
One Night Stands : We then have adult women who have one night stands with strangers without taking necessary precautions and find out they are pregnant with no one to be the father.
Married women having affairs: The third Category is perhaps married women having indiscreet relation ships outside marriage with a work colleague or a neighbour etc and suddenly the find out they are pregnant. They panic and want to have an abortion ASAP before the husband finds out as that would destroy or even end the marriage
Unplanned Pregnancies : Fourth Category would be a married woman who has had babies and an accidental unplanned pregnancy happens and there are heated arguments between husband and wife on whether to keep the child or not. Some men want the baby and others don't and the same is true for the wives same want to keep the baby and others don't want to give birth to one more.
Medical Reasons: Fifth Category in My Opinion is a woman who is ill, has some awful sickness and is scared of transmitting the disease to the baby or passing some genetic defect and hence wishes to abort..or the pregnant mother is Terminally Ill
Politicians and legislators world wide are trying to come up with a legislation on Abortion that fits all. This is where the mistake is and just that a govt has a small majority does not make the legislation right.
Quoting Mahatma Gandhi "In matters of Conscience, the law of Majority has no place". I fully agree with the Mahatma
IMHO we need a Legislation that suits the pregnant woman's particular situation
1- Under Aged Pregnancies. Girls under the age of 18 abortion has to be legal if that is what the girl wants not whether parents want because of religious beliefs of the shame it would bring the society. If the girl wants to abort it should be accepted and agreed and legal. If the girl wants to keep the baby, then some nominated Govt Body should make sure the mother and child are cared for and not left to the mercies of family and society
2- Adult Pregnancies
IMHO when it comes to abortion for adult women, we may need a TRIBUNAL of three women, a Lawyer, a Doctor/Psychologist and a Mother but no religious fanatics who oppose Abortion altogether. Each Council in the State can have a TRIBUNAL of vetted and appointed volunteers perhaps.
The TRIBUNALs should follow legislative guide lines in making their determinations case by case.
1- Rape: Pregnancies from Rape can be terminated if a rape case has been lodged. This will prevent adult women from claiming they were raped and became pregnant but do not want to lay charges.
2- One Night Stands: if the woman wants to terminate the pregnancy she should be entitled to it but should provide a statuary declaration to the tribunal to say she was not in a relation ship and who she believes the father could be. It is up to the tribunal to believe what she says or contact the partner named by the adult lady only if found necessary
3- Extra Marital Affairs: This is a difficult one considering it is an adult straying outside marriage breaking the mutual trust. But then a woman is also human and perhaps strayed as she felt unloved or did not love the man she married any longer. The question arises if the husband has the right to know ? What is the child is his and she is lying to get rid of the baby ? It may be necessary to do a paternity test as is the baby is from the husband, he has a right to keep that baby.
4-Unplanned Pregnancies: Both husband and wife have to be interviewed by the tribunal and a decision made by the Tribunal based on facts established and not a one sided story.
5-Medical Reasons: This is where the doctor comes in to see if the concerns are genuine or ill founded and if the woman is terminally ill etc etc.
What ever it is RELIGION and religious beliefs should have no place in the final outcome,
TRIBUNALS perhaps should function after hours to expedite as and when a case comes up as Time is of Essence here
IMHO we need a Legislation that suits the pregnant woman's particular situation
1- Under Aged Pregnancies. Girls under the age of 18 abortion has to be legal if that is what the girl wants not whether parents want because of religious beliefs of the shame it would bring the society. If the girl wants to abort it should be accepted and agreed and legal. If the girl wants to keep the baby, then some nominated Govt Body should make sure the mother and child are cared for and not left to the mercies of family and society
2- Adult Pregnancies
IMHO when it comes to abortion for adult women, we may need a TRIBUNAL of three women, a Lawyer, a Doctor/Psychologist and a Mother but no religious fanatics who oppose Abortion altogether. Each Council in the State can have a TRIBUNAL of vetted and appointed volunteers perhaps.
The TRIBUNALs should follow legislative guide lines in making their determinations case by case.
1- Rape: Pregnancies from Rape can be terminated if a rape case has been lodged. This will prevent adult women from claiming they were raped and became pregnant but do not want to lay charges.
2- One Night Stands: if the woman wants to terminate the pregnancy she should be entitled to it but should provide a statuary declaration to the tribunal to say she was not in a relation ship and who she believes the father could be. It is up to the tribunal to believe what she says or contact the partner named by the adult lady only if found necessary
3- Extra Marital Affairs: This is a difficult one considering it is an adult straying outside marriage breaking the mutual trust. But then a woman is also human and perhaps strayed as she felt unloved or did not love the man she married any longer. The question arises if the husband has the right to know ? What is the child is his and she is lying to get rid of the baby ? It may be necessary to do a paternity test as is the baby is from the husband, he has a right to keep that baby.
4-Unplanned Pregnancies: Both husband and wife have to be interviewed by the tribunal and a decision made by the Tribunal based on facts established and not a one sided story.
5-Medical Reasons: This is where the doctor comes in to see if the concerns are genuine or ill founded and if the woman is terminally ill etc etc.
What ever it is RELIGION and religious beliefs should have no place in the final outcome,
TRIBUNALS perhaps should function after hours to expedite as and when a case comes up as Time is of Essence here
