Public shift on abortion

HEALTH Minister Tony Abbott believes there may be growing community support for banning late-term abortions.

In a speech in Queensland, he claimed leading feminists were starting to express concern about the "downstream consequences of sexual freedom" and to question the abortion culture.

"When leading feminists such as Wendy McCarthy and Eva Cox are calling for a rethink about abortion, the moral wheel might not have come full circle but the times are certainly changing," Mr Abbott told a closed conference at Coolum on the weekend.

His comments referred to reports in The Australian last month in which they both said it was time to reconsider Australia's average legal limit of 20 weeks for an abortion, although the law varies across the states.

"Thoughtful feminists are starting to grieve over the downstream consequences of sexual freedom," he said.

"The legacy of a permissive society - broken families, mental illness and entrenched welfare dependency - suggests that the old social taboos might have had some point."

He is taking advantage of the debate over the ABC's planned screening next Sunday of the documentary My Foetus to further the debate.

The minister earlier this year expressed his personal concerns as a Catholic who was in charge of a health system that carried out 100,000 abortions a year.

Addressing the Centre for Independent Studies, Mr Abbott said the film, which features the dismemberment of a foetus, had spurred some activists to question abortion on demand as "one of the great totems of liberation from authority".

"Perhaps a political constituency may even be starting to emerge to ban abortions after 20 weeks," he said.

I am seeing signs of this shift on attitudes toward abortion all over. There are more and more articles which carry hints of this shift, even if pro-"choice" overall. Recent polls confirm that more and more people favor tighter restrictions on abortion (and abortion related issues like parental notification) even if they do not favor an outright ban.

Baby steps in the right direction. The pro-Life campaign of incrementalism seems to be working.

2 posted on 08/02/2004 12:04:59 PM PDT by Conspiracy Guy (They are where you least expect. Look around and you'll see them too.)

"The legacy of a permissive society - broken families, mental illness and entrenched welfare dependency - suggests that the old social taboos might have had some point."

DUH!

3 posted on 08/02/2004 12:29:28 PM PDT by Paleo Conservative (Do not remove this tag under penalty of law.)

I don't know if it's the pro-life campaign as much as it's science like this. It's getting harder and harder for abortionists to maintain the "it's just a blob of tissue" argument.

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