Abort!

I don't think that anyone would be surprised to hear that Fred Nile is anti-abortion.

After all, he heads a Christian political party, and such parties are nothing if not right wing, As the refrain goes, right wing parties are big on liberty except where it comes to sexual liberty or medical issues.

This trend has become endemic in the United States, where ones position on (in particular) abortion can define whether you are elected or whether you are made a judge.

On one hand, that makes some sense. If you believe that abortion is always, always, ALWAYS murder, then I suppose someone who even countenances allowing abortion must be stopped.

Of course, that ignores the fact that no one can say definitively that abortion is murder, or that is not. Pro-choice campaigners can use terms like "a bunch of cells" and pro-life campaigners can use terms like "an unborn human" all they like, but no one is going to win the argument.

Not that that stops people trying to force their views on each other. But I digress.

In the US, where Roe v Wade rules the roost, many Republican states have enacted measures that quite are transparently designed to make abortion as difficult and as unpleasant as possible for women.

The theory seems to be based on the presumption that if you make abortion more unpleasant for women, then they will desist. This would work, of course, only if women regarded abortion as being no more than a minor inconvenience  This sits thoroughly at odds with the innumerable accounts given by women about the sheer agony of the choice they are making.

I felt lucky to be over 10 000 km away from this foolishness - that was, until this appeared in my vision:

Full story in the SMH

Look, let's set aside whatever it is that you, dear reader, think about abortion.  It is legal in NSW (as long as you meet a few very broad criteria).

What exactly is this proposed bill meant to accomplish? In short, it is quite obviously designed to make the entire abortion process as unpleasant, distressing and traumatising as possible for the woman. It does so in the face of a law that makes abortion, in the aforementioned specific circumstances, legal.

It is, put simply, a cruel and vindictive bill. If there was any evidence that it actually reduced the rate of abortion, then it at least would make sense, given that I feel safe in assuming that Fred Nile views abortion as murder.

If that was the case, however, then Fred Nile and the Christian Democrats should introduce a bill banning abortion. If it is defeated (as I feel safe in assuming it would) then the CDP should leave the issue alone.

I just hope that the Coalition has the sense to recognize this bill for the vile piece of legislation it is, and dismiss it forthwith.