Something that happened on Facebook yesterday made us long for a time when crusty old bigots didn’t know how to use the Internet and were wary of its mysterious white-magical powers.
It made us almost nostalgic for when their idea of activism was a pitiful rain dance at the Sydney Gay And Lesbian Mardi Gras’ starting line.
It made us pine for the moment before the Reverend Fred Nile discovered the hashtag.
Because yesterday, on AFL Grand Final day, this popped up on Facebook.
For the blissfully unaware , the Reverend Fred Nile is a Member of the NSW Legislative Council, the leader of the Christian Democratic Party, and a man who, for many decades, has never been anything other than upfront about his beliefs – homosexuality is Wrong, abortion is Wrong and all religions other than his are Wrong.
He is an extremist. And he has been a significant figure with a hefty amount of influence in the NSW Parliament for 33 long years.
Yesterday’s provocative post, tagged to pop up in the feed of anyone following the nation’s biggest sporting event, is offensive on so many levels it’s difficult to know where to start.
There’s the number, which is in the ballpark of many national estimates of the numbers of terminations, but given the complex reporting procedures between of different states, is not qualified as the guess that it undoubtedly is.
There’s the language. Clearly designed to shock and inflame. Ninety-thousand “babies” did not “go missing” in the past year. Perhaps as many as 90,000 medical procedures to terminate pregnancies were carried out.
So, if we’re going with that number, that’s 90,000 stories. Ninety-thousand women’s serious, difficult decisions, made for 90,000 different reasons.
Would Fred and his friends like to address the social impact of 90,000 more unwanted children in the country, born to parents who are ill-prepared to care for them?
And how, exactly, do the CDP plan to “change this”?
In a week when some downright inexplicable legislation is before the Senate around abortion, the CDP must sense that there’s something in the air, and that perhaps, in this climate, with this Government and this Senate, they might get some traction with their insulting and simplistic assault on a woman’s right to choose.
Please put your #teamnile hashtag back in your pocket, Reverend. Pushing this divisive nonsense into our media feeds is not smart and it’s not clever.
Top Comments
Sorry to remain anonymous but you'll see why...
IT DOESN'T MATTER WHAT YOU BELIEVE FRED!! You're more than welcome to have those beliefs. But what you're not welcome to do is attmpt to shove them down other people's throats. If abortion had have been legal, I would've had to look into the eyes of my rapist's child every day, or risk sterilisation or death via an illegal abortion. O top of that, my baby would have had a terrible life as I am a low-income earner who would have and is still suffering sever PTSD and anxiety... looking after MYSELF is hard enough!!! DO NOT tell me it is wrong 'Leah'. Or that YOU would've had the baby (as the pro-life campaigner outside the clinic did). Because untill you have been so tremendously disempowered and had everything you were sure of uprooted, YOU ARE IN NO PLACE TO COMMENT ON MY HEALING PROCESS, AND THE DECISIONS INVOLVED IN THAT.
And given that there is NO current ant-rape campaign in Sydney, maybe that would have been a more useful topic for advertising.
I don't like Fred Nile but I tend to hold similar beliefs to him - I just don't feel the need to be as rude as he is about them. But if you accuse him of manipulating language to suit his agenda, you do exactly the same thing. He sais 90,000 'babies' go 'missing' - you say 90,000 'pregnancies' are 'terminated'. Same thing, different words for different reactions. It is a fact that we live in a world where 'termination' is far too easily viewed as an easy option out, both by women and medical staff. I currently live in the UK and have a friend who, at about 11 weeks pregnant, had had quite a bit of bleeding for a few days. She wasn't concerned because her research told her if there was no pain associated with it everything was fine. After a few days though she decided to call the hospital as a precaution and they told her to come in. After monitoring her for a while they basically told her she should have a termination. I wasn't told details of why, but that is what she was told. As Christians with strong convictions on termination there was no way she and her husband were going to agree to this without very good evidence that her own life was at a very serious risk. Fortunately they waited much of the day for her OB/GYN to become available to come and see her. When she arrived, she was horrified that they had been pressured to have a termination. As far as she was concerned, there was basically nothing wrong with mother or baby. Apparently the medical team just defaulted to 'termination' as soon as there was a hiccup in a pregnancy so new. Imagine if she was a young inexperienced mother, unsupported without a partner, who had taken the medical team at their word and not waited for her OB/GYN? Obviously this would not happen at most hospitals (I hope) in Australia but if it happens here I'm sure it happens at some places in Australia.
I also find it really sad that babies with such relatively benign conditions such as Down's Syndrome are also considered ill enough to terminate. A Down's kid can still lead a happy and successful life. I think that's a terrible reason for a termination.
You don't know what circumstances a woman is in that would lead her to terminate a pregnancy, healthy or not.