Abortion and overseas aid

Campaign:

First listed: 18 March 2009.
To ask the Liberal Party and The Nationals to commit to re-introduce the ban on allowing Australian government overseas aid money to be spent on abortion and abortion services when they are re-elected to government.

Overview
The decision by the federal Labor government to lift the ban on providing overseas aid funding to perform abortions marked a sad day forAustralia.
[Click here for our Campaign page opposing the lifting of the ban.]

Some people, such as Labor's Bob McMullan, said it would help improve 'maternal health' in the developing world and thus help to achieve the UN Millennium Goals. He said NGOs had told him "they not only were constrained by the letter of the guidelines but they felt that they couldn't even provide other family planning services that might have been within the guidelines because of the risk of breaching the guidelines unwittingly."

Which NGOs does he mean?
Those providing abortions. The two NGOs interviewed in the same Radio National interview - and the ones applauding the decision - are involved in providing abortions!

In the UN Millennium Goals, Goal 5 is "improve maternal health" - after listing the Target of reducing the maternal mortality rate, the Goal goes on to list 'Target 2' as "Achieve universal access to reproductive health". The UN's Fact Sheet for Goal 5 lists "unsafe abortions" as a factor in poor maternal health - they want to see improvements in this area.

Back in 2005, Democrats Senator Lyn Allison drafted a motion with Labor MPs to endorse the Millennium Goals and "call upon governments to ensure universal access to reproductive health services and to see recognises that access to sexual and reproductive health."

Ron Boswell, a Nationals Senator, opposed the motion because of the possible link to abortions. (SMH Article)

ACTION NEEDED -
The next federal election is only 18 months away. Now is the time to ask the Opposition - the Liberal Party and The Nationals - to adopt a policy to re-instate the ban on the funding of abortion by Australia's overseas aid.
More details in the ACTION section below...

What developing countries REALLY need . . .
Women in developing nations need assistance in delivering their babies SAFELY! They need maternal health nurses in the villages who will help with deliveries; they need trained midwives. They need assistance in preventing and repairing obstetric fistulas.

That's what our precious overseas aid dollars should be spent on.

I'm currently reading Catherine's Gift, the story of Dr Catherine Hamlin, a Christian obstetrician/gynaecologist from Sydney who went to Ethiopia , with her husband Reg, when she was 35. Catherine is now 83 (Reg dies some years ago) and still lives in Ethiopia , operating on 'obstetric fistulas' (holes in the bladder and rectum caused by a difficult birth. The baby is usually stillborn and the woman leaks urine etc, making them an outcast in their villages.

The Australian government has given several million dollars to assist in the development of the Fistula Hospital, and new smaller hospitals in Ethiopia. Find out more about the Fistula Hospital and Dr Hamlin's work - on the website of the Australian Trust that supports their work.
A previous book, Hospital by the Riverdetailed the establishment of the hospital.The books are also available at Koorong.

ACTION
We need to ask the Liberal Party and the Nationals Parties to commit to adopting a policy of re-instating the ban on providing overseas aid for abortions when they are re-elected to government.

Please write a short letter to
Leader of the Liberal Party: Malcolm Turnbull - This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Leader of the Nationals: Warren Truss - This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

If your local federal MP is a member of the Liberal Party or The Nationals - please write to them - click here for links to MP details.

Then write to your state's Liberal Party and National Senators.
Click here for a State list of Senators - check each name to find out their party if you don't already know!