Right To Life Attempts A Guilt Trip For Pro-Choice Women Who Have An Abortion

Wayne Berry - Member for Ginninderra

Media Statement - 22 March 2001

The Right to Life Association's launch of statistics on abortion under the banner "Missing Children, Damaged Mothers" should be viewed as a disgraceful attempt by the association to make women who have had an abortion and the Pro-Choice community feel guilty, Labor MLA and Pro-Choice campaigner Wayne Berry said today.

The association today launched statistics collected under legislation which attempts to force women to see pictures of foetuses when considering an abortion. The legislation has its origins in a failed attempt to block access to abortions in the ACT.

"I don't have any difficulty with the collection of statistics if they are used to provide better outcomes for the community generally or women in particular. But as I suspected when the legislation was passed, the collection of these statistics was always going to be misused by the Right to Life Association and their launch today confirms my suspicions.

"When the Right to Life Association includes in its principles on abortion:

• No woman should ever be forced to continue an unwanted pregnancy
• No woman should be denied access to a full range of contraceptives
• No woman should ever be made to feel guilty about terminating a pregnancy

then I'll know that the Right to Life is serious about the social effects of abortion.

"Abortion should be safe and legal, but the Right to Life Association will never accept that," Mr Berry concluded.