Voice For Life opposed to `abortion conveyer-belt’

Catherine Gillies, National President of Voice For Life, today expressed the organisation’s total opposition to the application by Family Planning Hamilton to the Abortion Supervisory Committee, to carry out abortions at their clinic.

``If approved, this means that women who turn to Family Planning for advice and information at a time of crisis pregnancy, are likely to be offered instead a `conveyer-belt’ to medical abortion and a future of unacknowledged loss and hidden trauma that often accompanies this procedure,’’ she says.

``There is no way around it. Abortion ends the life of a real, unique human being and has life long consequences for the mother’’, she says. ``Those involved in post-abortion counselling can already recall chilling descriptions from women who have followed the referral process into an abortion in order to end a crisis pregnancy, only to discover that they now have the consequences of that decision to deal with. The sad fact is that a decision made in a time of crisis which offers an immediate, short-term solution cannot be considered `informed consent’. What is worse, the moment these women sign the papers, they effectively sign away their right to redress if they later experience any of medical or psychological problems associated with crisis, trauma and loss.’’

Instead of promoting an `abortion conveyer-belt’, Voice For Life would like to see real acknowledgement given to the lives that are lost and the cost to those who are changed forever through abortion. ``It is even more disturbing to note that the deliberate ending of a person’s life through medical abortion will become the duty of the clinic nurses, a step further removed from the current legal requirement for a qualified doctor to perform abortions,’’ says Miss Gillies. ``Whichever way you look at this issue, it is a disastrous precedent,’’ she says.

How does Early Medical Abortion (EMA) using RU486 work?

An EMA is carried out to kill a young human life at up to 63 days gestation.
The embryo is starved to death after a nurse has given the women the steroid drug Mifegyne, also known as RU486.

After 1-3 days, Misoprostol is administered to expel the `corpse’. This drug can be administered in the clinic or at home. Bleeding and the expulsion of the dead fetus can occur anytime in the next few hours or days and may be accompanied by a range of symptoms such as severe cramping, depending on the age of the fetus.

Both drugs can have adverse side effects such as severe bleeding, life threatening infection and occasionally death.

The inventor of RU486, Dr Baulieu has stated that using the drug was not a simple procedure and was, ``An appalling psychological ordeal for women.’’

ENDS

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