Abortion
Reverend the Hon. Dr GORDON MOYES: Last year 100,000 mature trees were destroyed and no-one said a word. Last year 100,000 whales were harpooned and boiled down for oil and no-one said a word. Last year 100,000 kangaroos were shot and cut up for dog food and no-one said a word. How can our society remain so silent when such destruction takes place? Of course, we cannot even imagine such destruction being allowed to take place in silence. On each subject there would be massive public outcry and protest. But last year 100,000 women had their babies aborted and few people said a word.
Yesterday, when the Federal Minister of Health and Ageing raised the issue at Adelaide University, he was booed and hissed, and venomous letters fill today’s newspaper columns. He raised an issue about 100,000 medical procedures under Medicare, for which taxpayers pay. Tony Abbott would be condemned if he chopped down trees, harpooned whales and shot kangaroos, yet it is demanded he remain silent on the deaths of 100,000 unborn humans. The Minister for Health and Ageing said:
Why isn’t the fact that 100,000 women choose to end their pregnancies regarded as a national tragedy? No-one wants to recreate the backyard abortion clinic (or to stigmatise the millions of Australians who have had abortions or encouraged others to do so). But is it really so hard to create a culture where people understand that actions have consequences and take their responsibilities seriously?
As a measure of the moral health of our society, 100,000 terminated babies is a statistic that offers no comfort at all.
This is not the first abortion war. Two previous periods saw protracted contests over whether abortion would be accepted or proscribed. The first was in the early centuries of Christianity, when faith spread within a Greco-Roman culture, which considered abortion and infanticide routine. The second was in America during the mid-nineteenth century, when abortions became widespread and were freely advertised in virtually every newspaper. The third abortion war, of the late twentieth century, is now approximately thirty years old.
People commonly suppose that abortion is an invention of modern, technological medicine. In fact, it was well known in Greco-Roman society. Plato’s Republic made abortion or infanticide obligatory if the mother was over 40 years of age. In Aristotle’s ideal society, abortion would be compulsory for families that exceeded a certain number. Both Plato and Aristotle believed that a child had life long before birth; it was just that the welfare of society and family were more important to them than the rights of a child. Christians discarded all pagan definitions of the foetus as merely part of the mother’s body. To Christians, the foetus was an independent living being.
From the first, Christians were opposed to abortion on the basis of the child’s right to life. The Didache, a second-century document summarizing Christian beliefs and practice, declares, “Thou shalt not murder a child by abortion.” Then the greatest of the fathers—Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, Jerome, Basil the Great, Ambrose—all spoke against abortion. Not long after Constantine legalised Christianity, it was made illegal for a father to kill his children. Christian theologians, Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox, have condemned abortion in the clearest terms. Protestants, and even many Catholics, had also historically recognised the validity of what is called therapeutic abortion. Many denominations supported their cause.
Facing the issue of abortion in Australia today, we should be able to discuss it without being condemned for thinking. This is censorship at its worst. Christians must think through these issues, and change the attitudes of people in society. We need to have good alternatives for pregnant women and non-judgemental support for them and their babies. The demand for children for adoption, as just one means of supporting young Australians, has never been higher than it is at the moment. The answer lies in changing people’s attitudes, not just in changing the law. That is what the Hon. Tony Abbott is seeking to do: change attitudes. That is what Christians in the first three centuries managed to do. They changed the attitudes of the world, not just the law. So I commend the Federal Minister for Health, the Hon. Tony Abbott, for what he had to say yesterday to make us think more. 18 March 2004.
