THE battle for the hearts and minds of Queenslanders on the decriminalisation of abortion has entered a new phase with accusations of deceptive and unethical behaviour from both sides.
Cherish Life Queensland president Teresa Martin has accused pro-abortion lobby group GetUp! of “shouting from the rooftops the results of a poll which lacks any credibility”.
GetUp! has accused groups opposing abortion of funding “graphic billboard advertising campaigns with pictures of fetuses” and accused the Australian Family Association (AFA) of producing “inaccurate and emotionally weighted results” in its recent survey What Queenslanders Really Think About Abortion.
GetUp! and Children by Choice last month organised a lobbying day at Queensland Parliament with 20 people approaching parliamentarians claiming a Newspoll survey organised by GetUp! showed 72 per cent of Queenslanders want abortion decriminalised.
This contradicted AFA figures in a Galaxy poll showing a more or less even split with 48 per cent of Queensland voters in favour of decriminalisation and 50 per cent against.
Ms Martin said “GetUp! needed to ‘get down’ to the facts and put them on the table”.
“Curiously they don’t have the results of their recent poll on their website – merely a few brief lines in their blog unsubstantiated by anything else,” she said.
“Plus the AFA Galaxy poll was comprehensive with 13 probing questions while the GetUp! poll had only four very superficial questions.
“However, what really takes the cake is the scare campaign about graphic billboards being erected in electorates… around Queensland one assumes, as they don’t state where.
“It would be unlikely that any billboard company would agree to put up ‘graphic’ billboards.
“In the meantime GetUp! has organised their own ‘scare tactics’ billboards even though no woman has gone to jail for procuring an abortion.”
GetUp! in a recent online communication called on supporters to change Queensland’s 111 year-old law which makes abortion a criminal act.
It called for donations to help fund huge billboards to overturn Queensland abortion laws.
Meanwhile, Brisbane pro-life activist and member of Protect Life Graham Preston is still in limbo after a communication from the State Government in July this year said he would be jailed if he failed to pay fines totalling about $7500 for his sit-ins in front of abortion clinics.
Mr Preston has now been waiting for nearly five months since being informed a warrant was going to be issued for his arrest because of unpaid fines arising from his protests in front of Brisbane abortion clinics.
He said some people were suggesting the police probably wouldn’t go out of their way to act on a warrant for such an offence.
“However, if I was stopped for a traffic offence or had my license checked at an RBT, it was suggested then I would be picked up.
“Since I had my license suspended because of these fines back in mid-May, that at least shouldn’t happen.”
Mr Preston said he was continuing to picket “abortion death houses”.
He and wife Liz have issued an invitation to meet and discuss and pray about these actions on January 29 from 2pm at their Annerley home, contact number (07) 3892 5349.
The combined pro-life groups’ Rally for Life will be held on Saturday February 12, Queen’s Park, Brisbane.
