Emily's Voice

Toowoomba Seminar

Wed, 02 May 2012 13:21 +1000

Experts at Toowoomba seminar

Emily’s Voice is bringing two experts to Toowoomba to speak on the psychological effects of abortion on men and women. Dr Priscilla Coleman and Mr Greg Hasek, both from the USA, will speak at the free seminar on Wednesday, May 23, at Rangeville Community Church, 362 Mackenzie Street, from 7pm-9.30pm.

Dr Coleman is a Professor of Human Development and Family Studies at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. She has published more peer-reviewed articles on the mental health implications of abortion than any other researcher. She recently published in the British Journal of Psychiatry her alarming findings of a meta-analysis of 22 international studies on abortion.

She concluded that 20-30% of women who had an abortion suffered from serious, prolonged negative consequences.

Gregory Hasek is a licensed marriage and family therapist in Portland, Oregon and a professor in the graduate counseling program at George Fox University. He is also the executive director of a Christian non-profit agency called Misty Mountain Family Counseling Center. Mr. Hasek has spoken at numerous conferences and has provided training on how to understand and treat the unique symptoms of men wounded by “Lost Fatherhood” due to an abortion decision.

To register for the seminar, simply email Emily’s Voice at info@emilysvoice.com

My Husband Went to Jail This Week

Wed, 02 May 2012 12:37 +1000

By Liz Preston

If a child is about to be killed, everyone should try to save that child. Right? Now, hold that thought for a minute.

My husband went to jail this week. For eight months. His crime? Sitting down. Yes, I know, sitting down is not usually regarded as being a crime and especially not one you go to jail for eight months for. But it depends on where you do it and how often.

My husband, Graham, along with a few others at different times, has sat down on dozens of occasions in recent years in front of the doors of Brisbane abortion clinics, and refused to move. He has not been charged with "sitting down" of course, but with things like trespass. But sitting down and refusing to move is all that he actually does.

I know that at this point some readers, when they see that he is opposed to abortion, will say that being sent to jail for such sit-ins is just what he deserves. But let's try and think about this for a moment.
Graham, like myself and others, believes that when a woman is pregnant she is carrying a baby. There is surely nothing too controversial with that belief - I've carried a number of babies to term myself and I have no doubt that, yes, they really were babies that I was carrying.

Indeed, I would venture to say that every woman who is happily pregnant has no doubt that she is carrying a baby and there is always much delight in viewing the ultrasound images. If the baby should be lost through spontaneous miscarriage, then there is usually considerable grief at that loss.

Further, Graham, like myself and others, believes that abortion deliberately ends the life of the baby that is being carried in the womb. Again, this should hardly be a controversial claim: as noted above, pregnancy involves the carrying of a baby in the womb, so if an abortion is carried out, that means a baby's life is deliberately taken.

So back to where this article started: if a child is about to be killed, everyone should try to save that child's life. Right? Well, yes, normally, but apparently not if the child we are talking about saving is a child that is scheduled to be killed by abortion.

In the minds of some, if the mother or parents of a preborn child decide that they want to have an abortion, then their child loses absolutely all right to have their life protected. But not everyone is prepared to simply turn away and abandon such children to death. And not without good reason either.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to which Australia is a signatory, states in the opening paragraph of the Preamble: " . . . recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world" (emphasis added).

Article 3 of the Declaration reads: "Everyone has the right to life, liberty, and security of person." (emphasis added).

The Convention on the Rights of the Child (1990), to which Australia is also a signatory, reaffirms in the Preamble the following statement from the earlier Declaration of the Rights of the Child (1959): " . . . the child, by reason of his physical and mental immaturity, needs special safeguards and care, including appropriate legal protection, both before as well as after birth." (emphasis added)

However the reality in Australia today is that, regardless of Australia being a signatory to the above documents, there is effectively no legal protection given to the child before birth. If a woman wants to end her child's life by abortion, so long as she has the money to pay for it, she can visit an abortion clinic and readily get it done. About 90 to 100 000 babies are killed by abortion in Australia each year.

Yet here in Queensland, if a person should assault a pregnant woman and subsequently her child dies, the assailant can be punished with life imprisonment - the same penalty that is given for killing a born person.

So we have a situation where a preborn child's life is regarded as being as valuable as anyone else's life - if the mother wants the child - but if the mother does not want the child, then somehow the child, apparently, loses all value and rights and can be killed by abortion.

But it is a well-recognised injustice for the value and rights of one human being to be made dependent upon the say-so of one or more other human beings. At other times and places sub-sections of humanity, such as those who are Jewish or who have dark-coloured skin, have been deemed by others to be less than fully human and so could be made subject to death and enslavement.

Those attitudes are now almost totally rejected in our society, yet, incongruously, we live with the greatest of discriminations being openly practised against another sub-section of humanity - the preborn children. (Not to mention the harm that abortion can do to women.)

Well, not everybody is prepared to just live with such double standards.
Yes, my husband and the others have been found to be breaking the law in their efforts to come to the defence of children who are scheduled to be aborted. It is clearly no small thing for them to defy the law and do so over and over again. Yet laws, which allow for the wholesale destruction of innocent human life, cannot be taken to be absolute.

As Martin Luther King Jr. wrote in his famous letter from Birmingham jail, " . . . there are two types of laws: just and unjust. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws."

Yes, if a child is about to be killed, all of us should try to save the child - even if we are sent to jail for doing so.

Written by Liz Preston

Abortion is not the only choice: a response to Lee Rhiannon

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 22:43 +1000

It is interesting that Lee Rhiannon is able to infer that people praying with Rosary beads must have disturbing images and engage in guilt-making rhetoric.

I am the director of the Sydney 40 Days for Life campaign and am also the executive director of Family Life International Australia, who are the campaign organisers. I wonder if I made a claim about environmental activists as prejudiced as her statement is, what the outcry would be like or, if indeed it would be printed anywhere.

I also find it interesting that people of Ms Rhiannon's ilk like to refer to pro-lifers as "anti-choice." I have spoken to thousands of women entering abortion clinics and without exception they all say they have no choice. We are in fact the ones offering choices to women. The next time a woman tells me she has no choice and tells me she would have her child if she was given financial and emotional support, do you think I could refer her to Lee Rhiannon's office for that support, since she is the pro-choice champion?

She then goes on to try and link pro-lifers with arson, bombings and shootings. I'd like her to document for me any instances where pro-lifers have been engaged in such acts. Before the howls of protest start, I know there have been instances of those events, but NONE have been linked to mainstream pro-life organisations. They have been lone operators usually with some other grudge to settle. Even then over the last 15 years there have been about six instances in the US and one here in Australia. During the same period, Dr Brian Clowes documented over 30,000 instances of violence against pro-lifers by abortionists or their staff with 33 cases involving death. Why doesn't she tell us that?

I would also like to know what Ms Rhiannon would say to the women who have kept their babies because we were there to offer help? What would she say to the mother with tears in her eyes, holding the baby in her arms, thanking us for being there to help them? Or perhaps that is not the particular "Choice" that she is after? The Greens policy of de-population is well known to anyone who has bothered to read their policies or listen carefully to what they say.

Ms Rhiannon is good at mouthing platitudes but substance, like all her policies, is sadly lacking. She supports the right to free speech except when it doesn't suit her cause it seems. It was okay for the "women's movement" to protest and raise Cain when she was involved without using bubble zones! Catholics, on the other hand, praying the Rosary and offering free help to people to keep their babies and save themselves the agonising grief that many women experience post abortion for the rest of their lives, is in her 'wisdom', definitely not allowed and we need to introduce "bubble" zones to stop them!

How about all these bloggers who are good at proffering opinions on right and wrong; and who can and cannot speak about what people should say and do, come down and actually speak to us (rationally and calmly) about what we are doing? You might find the opinions of Lee Rhiannon and others who promote a particular ideology are biased and based on myths and innuendo. Why don't you ask the staff of Preterm about how much they "fear" us? Have we ever attacked them or even abused them?

The facts are that women are never better off for having had an abortion. They do, despite the refusal of the Cancer Council and others to tell the public the facts, have a significantly increased risk of breast cancer. They do have an increased risk of inability to carry a subsequent child to term. They do suffer from post-abortion syndrome in varying degrees. All these problems are well documented in various peer reviewed literature in medical journals and magazines, despite the widespread attempts to either refute it or cover it up. Why is this so Lee Rhiannon? What have you got to hide if abortion is a moral choice? Why not at least admit the facts and own up that abortion has consequences for women?

Of course the fact is, that if in 21st century Australia the best we can offer young women in a crisis pregnancy is an abortion, then we are failing badly. Maybe, we could take some of the funding from Lee Rhiannon and the Green's pet projects and put them to better use and help women raise these beautiful babies who are completely innocent and who want nothing but to see the light of day. These babies will love their mothers unconditionally and when Mum is holding that same little baby in her arms, she would die for her!

Paul Hanrahan is the executive director of Family Life International Australia.

They kill babies, don’t they?

Sat, 03 Mar 2012 16:39 +1000

Emily's Voice CEO Paul O'Rourke comments on a recent academic paper advocating the killing of newborn babies:

The latest scary but not new assertion that we should have the right to kill newborn babies is troubling enough, but equally abhorrent and disturbing is that 12% per cent of Australians agree with the vile claims of the two ethicists responsible for the latest attack on children.

A News Ltd poll of 2219 readers on March 2 showed 11.99% agreed with Monash University’s Alberto Giubilini and the University of Melbourne’s Francesca Minerva that “killing a newborn could be ethically permissible in all the circumstances where abortion would be”.

The peer-reviewed paper, After-Birth Abortion: why should the baby live? has been published in the prestigious British Journal of Medical Ethics, and caused outrage among life-affirming groups, people of faith and other reasonable-thinking people. The authors have even received death threats.

The academics say that a foetus and a newborn both lack a sense of life and aspiration.

They argue this justifies “after-birth abortion” on the proviso it is painless. The article goes on to say that children can be “an unbearable burden for the psychological health of the woman or for her existing children”.

The authors repeat the often-quoted line of pro-abortion proponents that the rights of the mothers supersede those of the children, although the argument that newborn babies are potential people as distinct from “actual people” takes the reasoning typically applied to unborn babies to even more disturbing lengths.

To justify their outrageous views, the ethicists cite The Netherlands’ Groningen Protocol of 2002, “allowing to actively terminate the life of infants with a hopeless prognosis who experience what parents and medical experts deem as to be unbearable suffering”.

The Australian Christian Lobby sent out a media release saying the slippery slope of cultural decline had descended into “moral free fall”.

The push to kill newborn babies is not new. In his condemnation of the latest academic paper, leading columnist Andrew Bolt, who has been vilified for his previous comments on the number of abortions in Australia, pointed to the writings of other prominent ethicists such as Peter Singer, Michael Tooley and John Harris.

Killing newborns is only a relatively small step beyond the late-term (beyond 20 weeks) and partial-birth abortions routinely practised in most States and Territories of Australia.

Government figures confirm that 52 babies who survived 181 late-term abortions in 2007 in Victoria were left to die. News reports quoted medical staff in Victoria who confirmed that healthy children and those with minor disabilities such as a cleft palate were left to die. Anglican Church minister, theologian and author Dr Mark Durie, said a hospital trainee in Victoria was traumatised when told to drop a living baby into a bucket of formaldehyde.

There are at least 80,000 surgical abortions each year in Australia. This represents about one in every four pregnancies. While Australians would prefer there were fewer abortions, and that women should make an informed decision after appropriate counselling, various polls confirm that more than 60 per cent of Australians are generally in favour of abortion.

Last year a Victorian couple who conceived twin boys through IVF aborted them because they wanted a girl. The couple previously had a daughter who died in infancy.

A few months later a Melbourne hospital aborted the “wrong’’ twin, resulting in the deaths of two unborn children at 32 weeks. Only the “sick foetus’’ was meant to die. The parents, and presumably many other Australians, were outraged at the death of a perfectly healthy baby at 32 weeks gestation, yet that’s what happens in around 96% of all abortions in Australia each year – the life of a perfectly healthy child is ended.

Now, two leading ethicists have taken the extraordinary but obvious next step of further marginalising the most vulnerable of humanity by advocating the death of any newborn infant who doesn’t measure up.

Killing newborn babies advocated by Aussie ethicists

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 16:22 +1000

It is frightening, and I really mean frightening, that making lawful the murder of newborn babies is now openly recommended by professional “ethicists”:

Alberto Giubilini of Monash University and Dr Francesca Minerva of Melbourne University write in the ironically named Journal of Medical Ethics:

Abortion is largely accepted even for reasons that do not have anything to do with the fetus’ health. By showing that (1) both fetuses and newborns do not have the same moral status as actual persons, (2) the fact that both are potential persons is morally irrelevant and (3) adoption is not always in the best interest of actual people, the authors argue that what we call ‘after-birth abortion’ (killing a newborn) should be permissible in all the cases where abortion is, including cases where the newborn is not disabled.

On so many ifs is the case for baby-killing built:

If criteria such as the costs (social, psychological, economic) for the potential parents are good enough reasons for having an abortion even when the fetus is healthy, if the moral status of the newborn is the same as that of the infant and if neither has any moral value by virtue of being a potential person, then the same reasons which justify abortion should also justify the killing of the potential person when it is at the stage of a newborn.

And when you go so far, suddenly you no longer know where the boundaries of your new dispensation lie. Can you murder a perfectly healthy baby after two days? Two weeks? Two months? And can the excuse of a few pressing bills to pay really justify such horror?

Two considerations need to be added.

First, we do not put forward any claim about the moment at which after-birth abortion would no longer be permissible, and we do not think that in fact more than a few days would be necessary for doctors to detect any abnormality in the child. In cases where the after-birth abortion were requested for non-medical reasons, we do not suggest any threshold, as it depends on the neurological development of newborns, which is something neurologists and psychologists would be able to assess.

Second, we do not claim that after-birth abortions are good alternatives to abortion. Abortions at an early stage are the best option, for both psychological and physical reasons. However, if a disease has not been detected during the pregnancy, if something went wrong during the delivery, or if economical, social or psychological circumstances change such that taking care of the offspring becomes an unbearable burden on someone, then people should be given the chance of not being forced to do something they cannot afford.

And all neatly peer reviewed.

Julian Savulescu, editor of the JME, defends the article’s publication in a way that startlingly illustrates how slippery is that slippery slope that progressives so self-servingly dismiss. In fact, Savulescu has slipped so far down that slide that his defence is barely more sophisticated than that “they’re all doing it anyway” excuse that can licence any mass barbarity:

The arguments presented, in fact, are largely not new and have been presented repeatedly in the academic literature and public fora by the most eminent philosophers and bioethicists in the world, including Peter Singer, Michael Tooley and John Harris in defence of infanticide, which the authors call after-birth abortion.

The novel contribution of this paper is not an argument in favour of infanticide – the paper repeats the arguments made famous by Tooley and Singer – but rather their application in consideration of maternal and family interests. The paper also draws attention to the fact that infanticide is practised in the Netherlands.

What really shocks Savulescu is not a defence of the killing of healthy babies, but that people should be angry about it:

What is disturbing is not the arguments in this paper nor its publication in an ethics journal. It is the hostile, abusive, threatening responses that it has elicited. More than ever, proper academic discussion and freedom are under threat from fanatics opposed to the very values of a liberal society.

What monstrous self-absorption that Savulescu is more offended by a threat to the self-esteem of an ethicist than a threat to the life of a child.

And how liberal is a society that permits the murder of inconvenient babies? Once every school child was taught to value Athens above Sparta on this very point, but now the anti-humanists hold themselves up as the true defenders of our Athenian and Judeo-Christian heritage.

Horrific.

Matthew Archbold:

Here’s the thing - they’re right. If you accept their premises, they’re absolutely right.

The second we allow ourselves to become the arbiters of who is human and who isn’t, this is the calamitous yet inevitable end. Once you say all human life is not sacred, the rest is just drawing random lines in the sand.

Galaxy poll shows ads working

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 10:03 +1000

Our television advertisements have been successful in changing community attitudes to abortion, according to a Galaxy survey conducted in February.

Emily’s Voice CEO Paul O’Rourke said the poll showed only 36 per cent of residents in the Toowoomba local government area were in favour of abortion, compared with the State and national averages of more than 60 per cent.

“This is a remarkable result and is testimony to the influence of not only Emily’s Voice but the churches of Toowoomba who have long sought to love and serve the city in practical ways,’’ he said.

The Galaxy poll also showed Toowoomba residents are aware of the Emily’s Voice advertisements and believe they are credible. The ads have stimulated discussions about abortion and, importantly, have changed people’s views on abortion, particularly those in the 16-24 age group.

The Not Born Yet campaign primarily shows women and couples who continued with an unintended pregnancy despite being single, under financial pressure, or who discovered they were having a child with a disability. One features a young woman who speaks of her pain and regret at having had an abortion.

“Seventy-one per cent of women said they were aware of the ads (sixty per cent of all respondents), 83 per cent of all respondents said the advertisements were credible, 65 per cent said the advertisements made them think about the human consequences of abortion and 7 per cent said the advertisements had changed their views on abortion, most saying they were more opposed to abortion or less in favour than they had been.

“Another pleasing aspect of the poll is the influence our ads are having on the 16-24 age group. Forty-four per cent of this age group said they had spoken to friends and family about abortion and 22 per cent had changed their views on abortion."

Emily’s Voice commissioned the Galaxy poll to determine the effectiveness of its advertising which has aired locally for the past few years.

The strategy has been to use a combination of television advertisements, billboards and bus-backs to influence culture.

“We have been determined to present a positive message of hope, using real local people who share their personal experiences," Paul O’Rourke said.

“We are delighted that the advertisements are viewed so positively and have made people think about the consequences of abortion, both for women and their unborn children."

Hard to Reconcile Society's Attitude to Unborn Children

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 16:11 +1000

Pubished Toowoomba Chronicle, 19 December 2011

I find it difficult to reconcile our often contradictory attitudes and behaviours towards children, particularly, the unborn.

We run advertisements telling people never to shake your baby, ban smoking in cars when children are present and demand background checks on adults working with children, yet we equally defend the inalienable and seemingly irrevocable right of any woman of any age to have an abortion.

We seem to care more about the rights and best interests of whales and dolphins than of children in the womb who have no rights and whose value is relative.

Last year a Victorian couple who conceived twins through IVF aborted them because they wanted a girl.

A few weeks ago a Melbourne hospital aborted the wrong twin, resulting in the deaths of two unborn children at 32 weeks. Each year in Australia there are about 80,000 abortions, yet less than 400 local adoptions. I say about, because we don’t actually keep an accurate count of abortions. I can tell you with more certainty how many new cars were sold this calendar year.

In Victoria, late term abortions are legal and have become more common while in contrast, more increasingly premature babies are surviving as a result of medical technology.

Similarly, while we end the life of a child in the womb through medical or surgical means, we are saving the lives of babies of the same age through keyhole surgery performed while babies are still inside their mothers. In 2007, a Melbourne Herald Sun investigation revealed that several high schools were taking students to clinics to get the morning-after pill without parents’ permission or knowledge.

The head of Parent Victoria Gail McHardy said at the time it seemed ludicrous that children needed a permission note to go on a school excursion to the zoo, but not to access the morning-after pill.

There is a cooling-off period for a home purchase, but not for an abortion - you can decide and discard the same day.

The press widely reported this month the story of an Australian woman who says she was bullied by doctors into aborting her baby six years ago. She has suffered depression and her marriage ended as a result of her decision to abort. She said doctors strongly advised her to terminate the baby girl she named Lillie at 16 weeks because she had Down Syndrome.

Toowoomba television has been running a series of advertisements, one of which features a Dalby couple who chose to continue their pregnancy despite learning their son had Down Syndrome. Dan and Veronica Laffy said their lives were “richer, fuller and clearer” as a result of having Jimmy. Other advertisements in the series run by the organisation of which I am CEO, Emily’s Voice, feature local people with unplanned pregnancies who chose to keep their unborn children. One also features a young woman who lives with the regret of having had an abortion.

Motivated by love for both the mother and child, our goal is to help people fall in love with the unborn and highlight the potential pain and regret of a decision which may be made in haste, sometimes under duress and ill-informed. We believe every child is valued and wanted by someone, regardless of gender, disability or circumstances of conception.

Hopefully we can all agree there are too many abortions in Australia.

Paul O’Rourke is the CEO of Toowoomba-based organisation Emily’s Voice, and the former CEO of child sponsorship organisation Compassion Australia. He is an author, speaker and former newspaper editor and journalist.

US Life Advocate Speaks at Emily's Voice Lunch

Wed, 15 Jun 2011 13:12 +1000

Emily's Voice together with other local prolife groups is supporting a lunch time visit to Toowoomba of Abby Johnson, former director of a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic, now a leading voice for life and women in crisis. Abby speaks with clarity and compassion from her unique position of having been on both sides of the 'abortion clinic property line.' Hear her true story and keen insights into the abortion industry at 12 noon, Tuesday 28th June at the Neil St Centre. Cost $10 including light lunch. RSVP for catering purposes ph 46382399 or info@emilysvoice.com

Positive response to adoption ad

Wed, 27 Jul 2011 13:11 +1000

The adoption ad featuring James and Donna Poole and their family has been showing on commercial TV stations In the Toowoomba region throughout July. The response from this ad has been very positive, with one viewer saying, “My wife and I after viewing your commercial and visiting your website are deeply moved by the compassion and kindness shown.” Visit notbornyet.com to read the special adoption stories that people have sent in or to view the ad again.

Emily's Voice Gala Dinner 2010

Wed, 31 Aug 2011 13:05 +1000

Following the great success of last year’s dinner, you are warmly invited to share in the very special Emily’s Voice Gala Dinner 2011. The evening will showcase the work of Emily’s Voice, as well as feature inspirational guest speaker, Paul O'Rourke.

Paul is an Australian author and child advocate and describes himself as a relentless, screaming voice for children. As the former CEO of child development and advocacy ministry Compassion Australia, Paul is keenly aware of the needs of children across all situations, born and unborn.

Rumours International, at 323 Ruthven Street, Toowoomba, with its convenient inner-city location and classic décor, will provide an ideal setting for the 2 course meal and the evening's programme.

Individual tickets are available for $35 per person, or why not gather some family and friends to join you in making up a table of 8 at the discounted price of $260 per table or a table of 10 at $320? Hosting a table of 8 or 10 is an excellent way to encourage those you know to be inspired and motivated towards life affirming issues and the work of Emily’s Voice.

An opportunity to commit financial support to Emily’s Voice will be given on the night.

Table and individual tickets can be purchased through the Neil Street Centre office, ph 4638 2399, or online at https://www.registernow.com.au/secure/Register.aspx?ID=4450 before Wednesday, October 12th.

During the evening exciting news for 2012 will be announced. This is an occasion you won’t want to miss!

Appointment of First, Full-time CEO

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 13:04 +1000

Emily's Voice is excited to announce the appointment of Paul O’Rourke as its first, full-time CEO. Paul is the former CEO of Compassion Australia and has also worked for the Australian Christian Lobby as project manager for their Best Interests of the Child campaign, as well as editor of their public policy magazine, Viewpoint. Paul is a passionate advocate for children, both born and unborn, and is looking forward to growing the work of Emily’s Voice across Australia, seeing the social consciousness of our nation change in regard to abortion.

Changing Hearts and Minds

Thu, 24 Nov 2011 12:59 +1000

At least four women have continued with their pregnancies as a result of the award-winning, life-affirming advertisements you have helped support through your prayers and finances. Thank you! Together we are changing hearts and minds.

The specific stories about women who decided to choose life for their babies have come from people close to Emily’s Voice board members or their families. One involved a woman who became pregnant as a result of rape.

No doubt many other children have, or will be born, as a result of the advertisements designed to help people fall in love with the unborn and shine a bright light on the dark side of the womb.

One of the television advertisements in the current notbornyet series featuring Madeleine Wiedemann has won an award for the best television commercial under $3000 in the recent Queensland Multi-Media Awards. See the ad series at www.notbornyet.com.

In Someone’s Missing, Madeleine talks of the grief and shame she felt as a result of having an abortion as an 18-year-old. She said she made an uninformed choice at a difficult time in her life.

Madeleine helped write the script for the advertisement as part of the Emily’s Voice campaign committee. The winning advertisement was shot and produced by Shayne Cantly from Evolution Studios in Toowoomba. Congratulations to everyone who has contributed to the series.

Projecting Emily’s Voice beyond Toowoomba

I said at the recent celebration dinner that it was time for Emily’s Voice to be heard beyond Toowoomba, and for the volume to be turned up from a whisper to a shout.

We are only able to look beyond Toowoomba because of the firm foundation laid within Toowoomba in the past few years.

Hundreds of individuals, businesses and churches have helped establish Emily’s Voice within the region. We have moved slowly and deliberately to shape our message, always careful to be positive and passionate in representing the cause of children, while also supporting and honouring women.

I have spent my first two weeks on the job meeting supporters, attending the campaign committee meeting and my first board meeting to consider our future strategy.

There is much to do, but we can change how people think, drawing on the strategy and experiences of the Cancer Council and Health Departments as they expose the risks and dangers of smoking.

Who would have thought even 10 years ago that we would ban smoking in pubs!

Paul O’Rourke, CEO

Queensland Government must reject abortion law push

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 12:45 +1000

The Australian Christian Lobby has called on the Queensland Government to retain the remaining protections for the unborn in Queensland law, and to reject the calls of those who would seek to liberalise abortion law in the state[i] without first taking this as policy to an election.

ACL’s Queensland Director Wendy Francis does not expect that the government would push such a contentious view through Parliament in the absence of a mandate, however said, “We have already seen, with the recent civil unions debate, the willingness of the Government to force controversial legislation through the Parliament with scant regard for public consultation and for seeking the view of the electorate,” said Mrs Francis.

“It would be intolerable if such anti-democratic actions were repeated on the abortion issue given how passionately people felt about it, and the impact that any change would have on vulnerable women and their children.”

Current Queensland laws do still provide support for some women who feel pressured into having an abortion such as the story reported in The Daily Telegraph just this week[ii].

Mrs Francis said that it was a troubling time to be discussing changes to Queensland abortion law just two weeks after a healthy twin boy was accidentally terminated instead of his brother at 32 weeks in a botched abortion at the Royal Women’s Hospital in Melbourne.

“This is the same hospital which featured in a 2010 Channel 7 news[iii] report showing a marked increase in the number of late term abortions following the legalisation of abortion up to birth even where there is a healthy mother and a healthy baby,” she said.

The Channel 7 news report focussed on the increased trauma experienced by the medical staff as a result of an increase in the number of late term abortions performed at the facility from one a fortnight to around three a week as a result of the relaxed Victorian law.

“Given the mental health consequences of abortion for women, and the clear consequences for the unborn, it is inhumane to put in place legislative changes that could increase the number of abortions in Queensland,” said Mrs Francis.

“As sonogram technology has advanced to such a state that it is impossible to deny the humanity of the unborn child, any remaining legal protection for the unborn was far from ‘obsolete’, as claimed, but in keeping with the fundamental human right to life.”

ACL believes a priority for any law reform on abortion should be to provide assistance to women with unsupported pregnancy, enhance the protections for the unborn including banning partial birth abortion and to gather accurate statistics, as recommended by a 2008 Senate Inquiry[iv].

Senior members of the ALP have today contacted Wendy Francis, appalled that there is even a discussion of this issue at this point in the electoral cycle.

The Australian Christian Lobby calls on the Queensland Government to retain the current protections for the unborn in Queensland law and make no move for such radical change before the up-coming election.

Ads start on Ch 10

Thu, 15 May 2008 13:00 +1000

'Discover Emily' - the first Emily's Voice media campaign - has commenced on Channel 10, in the Toowoomba region.

The television advertisements encourage the viewer to discover the beauty of a 12 week year old unborn baby.

The Discover Emily television advertisements are currently screening in May and June and will continue into July pending further finances raised through Emily's Voice child sponsorships.

Ads now on WIN TV as well!

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 12:59 +1000

Child sponsorships for Emily's Voice have started to come in and as a result of the funds raised we are now advertising on WIN TV as well as Ch 10.

The 'Discover Emily' campaign is currently being aired on high rotation in the local 6pm News and throughout the day.

As Child Sponsorship numbers grow, we trust that Emily's Voice will be heard on all television stations and on all radio stations. We are also planning for billboards and internet advertising to appear soon.

Watch this space!

Over 100 unborn children already sponsored!

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 12:57 +1000

Much is happening at Emily's Voice! Child sponsorships are over 100 and increasing weekly. This is a wonderful response for so short a time. Television ads continue, weekly newspaper ads commenced this month in The Chronicle and Toowoomba Mail and internet advertising has started.

You can see the internet advertisment with its 'Discover Emily' message at www.thechronicle.com.au

Christmas is coming

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 12:56 +1000

Emily's Voice Christmas Campaign is in full swing! If you are in Toowoomba, have you heard or seen the beautiful advertisements with their Christmas theme?

Brochures are being letterbox dropped all over Toowoomba city and also distrubuted through a number of churches. They contain milestones in the life of a tiny unborn, alongside attractive art work, and invite the reader to "discover emily."

Television ads have temporarily ceased and been replaced with radio ads on 4GR and CFM. The uplifting message begins, "This Christmas, inside the wrapping of a mum's tummy.."

Newspaper ads have been updated to include the Christmas wrapping theme with new words and art work.

Large, illuminated posters in two large Shopping Centres complete our exciting Christmas campaign. These are high exposure advertisements, very similar to the newspaper ads, placed near entrances to the centres.

Sponsorships are also increasing and we are well on the way to reaching the target for our first region!

What's New in 2009?

Wed, 04 Feb 2009 12:55 +1000

The new year is starting with a new campaign! Called "Not Born Yet", this campaign will include new television and newspaper ads, plus a new website in addition to the existing one. Part of the message of this campaign will be linking the beauty and joy of a young baby with the beauty and mystery of an unborn throught the eyes of mothers in differing situations.

The new website will emphasize the humanity of an unborn, countering the myths that he/she is "just a ball of cells" or a "worm" or any other false description that people choose to give. There will be some nice surprises on this new site - watch for the announcement of when it becomes live!

New Campaign up and running

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 12:54 +1000

Not Born Yet, our new campaign for 2009, is live on the internet at www.notbornyet.com. See the TV commercials that are running in Toowoomba, view the photo album of the unborn and read the stories! You can even contribute your own or a loved one's pregnancy story.

Large Numbers visit Not Born Yet website

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 12:52 +1000

The first Not Born Yet Ad ran successfully during late April and May on 3 commercial television stations in Toowoomba. We had more advertising than a national retailer who advertises very heavily! In the ad, people were invited to visit 'notbornyet.com' and they obviously did! There were over 2000 direct hits in just a few weeks.

The second ad in the Not Born Yet campaign features a family who has a child with a disability. It will run in July. The TV ad can be viewed on www.notbornyet.com at the same time.