JUDGING by the number of letters to The Catholic Leader the abortion debate is again becoming a burning issue for some Catholics at least.
It is an unpalatable fact that anti-abortion argumentation by our Church and pro-life groups is failing to sway public opinion.
It is now becoming easier to destroy an unborn potential child or, even worse, a fully developed unborn child.
Is it not time to move away from arguments based on religious morality and so-called compassion stakes?
Religious morality cuts no ice these days when very large numbers of Catholics do not consider Catholicism superior to any other religion and consider it wrong to impose one’s Catholic religious ethics onto others.
Relying on compassion arguments is counter-productive as both sides claim superiority.
Abortion legislation in all states and its associated Medicare funding is intended broadly “to preserve the pregnant woman from a serious danger to her life or to her physical or mental health”.
Nothing wrong with that intention.
At a guess the number of abortions annually is about 100,000.
The actual number is unknown as apparently abortion is mixed up with other gynaecological procedures to mask the true incidence.
Accurate statistics are published regularly on gynaecological diseases, female mental illness, genetic disability incidence of the new born and finally crime incidence statistics on rape and incest.
It is impossible to reconcile these with the 100,000 estimated abortions.
The one conclusion out of all this is that the original legislative intent of extending compassion to desperate women traumatised by their unwanted pregnancy has long been rorted similarly to the rorts in the present Federal Government’s insulation batts program and the program of building school halls.
This does not mean there are no tragic women traumatised by their unwanted pregnancy but that, for every such tragedy, there are, 50, 100, who knows how many, whose motivation for abortion is social, economic, or non-medical lifestyle such as is applied to voluntary cosmetic surgery.
Medicare does not cover, lifestyle chosen, cosmetic surgery.
So why not build a campaign to collect accurate data on the true incidence of abortion followed by a Royal Commission to try to understand the underlying causes of so many desperate, traumatised and suicidal women seeking salvation from torment through the destruction of their unborn child?
GEORGE SZYLKARSKI
Graceville, Qld
