Logbook

The Rights of the Born (a reprint of an editorial by Anne Lamott, originally printed in the LA Times)

But as a Christian and a feminist, the most important message I can carry and fight for is the sacredness of each human life, and reproductive rights for all women is a crucial part of that: It is a moral necessity that we not be forced to bring children into the world for whom we cannot be responsible and adoring and present. We must not inflict life on children who will be resented; we must not inflict unwanted children on society.

cf
Abortion will lead to Muslim nation: MP from the Sydney Morning Herald.

"I have read … comments by a certain imam from the Lakemba Mosque [who] actually said that Australia is going to be a Muslim nation in 50 years' time," said Mrs Vale, MP for the southern Sydney seat of Hughes.
"I didn't believe him at the time. But … look at the birthrates and you look at the fact that we are aborting ourselves almost out of existence by 100,000 abortions every year … You multiply that by 50 years. That's 5 million potential Australians we won't have here."

Quite appart from the religeous phobias being played upon... Brood mares, stock, two for replacement and one for the country... Sprog for your country and baby bonus and the potential tax cuts should you earn enough...

And the later definitely doesn't answer the question of whether you let some elected representative* of the people (and hence "accountable" to the people, but we will ignore the potential for biased ignoramuses potentially filling the job) decide on a drug. Or, let the Theraputic Drugs Administration (the board you set up to establish the safety and acceptability of all other drugs, life threatening or not, the board with the appropriate medical backround to access such situations, the board which is accountable to the government (and hence you would have thought, the people)) decide.

Amazingly enough, this appears to be one of the few subjects where I agree with Amanda Vanstone**. Scary... [Edit: SMH article here]

* Elected by the people to Parliament, not elected by the people to the Minister of Health position.
**"Liberal" Minister for Immigration over here and we all know how wonderful the immigration policies are over here...