From the Countries

Foreign Minister Wants to Fund Abortion

The question of supporting abortion services in other countries, particularly Third World countries, is not a moral concern only here in the U.S. Australian taxpayers are also under pressure to fund baby-killing around the world. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Australia’s Foreign Minister Alexander Downer has asked that the government’s ban on funding for abortion services in other countries be reviewed. No doubt part of this push is a result of President Bush reducing our taxes being spent to fund abortion services worldwide.

Since 1996, AusAID, Australia’s foreign assistance agency, has been prohibited from funding programs providing abortion services or training or medical abortion drugs. And of course the anti-lifers are working hard to restore abortion funding, suggesting that an increase in abortion funding will solve maternal mortality problems worldwide.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that Health Minister Tony Abbott supports the current policy and likely will oppose any changes. The health minister is not alone in standing against funding abortion, The Australian Nationals’ Senate Leader, Senator Ron Boswell, also stands firm against abortion, “Reported proposals from a Parliamentary Group on Population and Development to apply Australian foreign aid funding to abortion related services do not have my support.

“Suggestions that Australia change its overseas funding arrangements to support abortion are provocative and divisive. It is not government policy and I would strongly oppose it ever becoming policy.

“Maternal mortality is an important issue that deserves our support hut it is not helped by increasing abortions in third world countries.

“There also seems to be some confusion over the Figures used in today’s reports that suggest a 13 percent chance of death from illegal abortions in the developing world, when the actual figure is 0.33 percent according to evidence given to the Parliamentary Population and Development Committee roundtable.

“There are a thousand positive ways to increase maternal health and the social and economic conditions of living in third world countries without resorting to abortions.”

See the Source: “No support for foreign abortion funding from Nats Senate Leader,” Senator Ron Boswell, RonBoswell.com, 30 May 2007, http://ronboswell.com/?p=387; “Australia’s Foreign Minister to review ban on foreign abortion services funding,” 13 September 2006, News-Medical.net, http://www.news-medical.net/?id=20102

Britain’s Abortion Woes

Britain’s moral compass seems a bit askew in recent years, again proven by official records showing that in 2006, over 200,000 abortions, including the highest number ever on teenagers, were carried out in that country.

The figures also show a rise in abortions being carried out by using the chemical abortifacient RU486, as it was used in 30 percent of abortions, up from 24 percent in 2005.

According to Department of Health figures, nearly one-third of those having abortions already had at least one before. The first full year of legal abortion in Britain was 1969; in that year there were just under 55,000 abortions; last year there were 193,737 in England and Wales, up 4 percent from 2005.

Some 7,436 abortions were performed on women not living in England and Wales, coming primarily from the Republic of Ireland, where abortion is still illegal. Scotland’s physicians performed 13,081 abortions, totaling 214,254 abortions performed in the whole of the United Kingdom last year.

Girls aged 19 had the highest number of abortions, 35 per 1,000 girls. Some 18,691 abortions were performed on girls under 18, up 4 percent since 2005; 3,990 abortions were performed on girls under 16.

Labor party MP Jim Dobbin, chairman of the all-party pro-life group, said: “The figures have been on an upward trend for many years .… We are getting to the stage where some individuals are treating abortion as a form of birth control.”

Even anti-lifers, while blaming a lack of tax money for free contraceptives, are appalled. Tory MP Nadine Dorries said: “The figures are both disappointing and depressing .… Of every four babies conceived, one is aborted — this is not a good state of affairs within a civilized society.”

While the anti-life forces see spending more on contraceptives as a cure-all for increased abortion rates, pro-lifers know better and see the need to help pregnant women. Michaela Aston, of the pro-life group Life, said: “We know from experience and from the findings of public opinion surveys that in many cases women do not want abortion, but feel that they have no other choice.

“There is a real need for constructive solutions to crisis pregnancy, solutions that try to tackle the issues that make their pregnancy problematic, whether they are to do with housing, financial worries or lack of family support.”

See the Sources: “Leap in use of ‘abortion pills’ brings record,” 19 June 2007, TimesOnline, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/health/article1956354.ece; “Teen Pregnancy Fuels Record Abortion Rates,” The Evening Standard, thisislondon.co.uk, 20 June 2007, http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23401262-details/Teen+pregnancy+fuels+record+abortion_rates/article.co

Never miss an update!

Get our Weekly Briefing! We send out a well-researched, in-depth article on a variety of topics once a week, to large and growing English-speaking and Spanish-speaking audiences.

Subscribe to our Weekly Briefing!

Receive expert analysis every Tuesday morning.
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.