An Australian father of seven will spend 8 months in gaol, starting today.

Has he done something really bad? Many criminals get deferred sentences, fines or community service, not gaol.

Graham Preston’s crime was an unusual one — refusing to pay $8000 in fines following arrests for non-violent picketing of abortion clinics.

He won’t pay the fines because he believes that trying to save the innocent from harm shouldn’t be considered criminal behaviour.

His 18-year old daughter commented: “I have a lot of respect for my Dad and how he takes his convictions seriously. I hope I can live as consistent a life as his.”

Well said.

Santorum and Gingritch have withdrawn as prospective Republican candidates.

The media now talk in terms of a Romney/Obama race.

They are probably right.

They are doing everything possible to make it right.

They never mention Ron Paul, who has not, so far, pulled out of the Republican nominee race.

* * *

Paul is a medical graduate, who has practised for decades as an 0bstetrician having, he claims, delivered over 4000 babies.

He calls himself  “an unshakable foe of abortion” — his career as an obstetrician having forced him to acknowledge that human life begins at conception.

Dr Paul’s economic policies are unusual, but are consistent.

He believes in small government — believes it, not just talks it.

In his own medical practice he never accepted government money (via Medicaid or Medicare) but charged private fees — for the poor, charging reduced or no fees.

* * *

Obama is stridently pro-abortion.

Romney contradicts himself on the subject.

In the US, voting is not compulsory.

For many thinking Americans the only possibilities must be to vote Paul or not vote at all.

Monash University bioethicists, Alberto Giubilini and Francesca Minerva, in an article in the Journal of Medical Ethics (February 23), argued that if there is nothing wrong with abortion, there can be nothing wrong with infanticide.

Their article sparked debate world-wide — including in the US Congress.

Yet the basic argument is not new. We’ve all heard it before.

It goes:

because a foetus (or newborn infant) doesn’t have self-awareness, it isn’t fully human – and so may be killed if its existence is inconvenient.

It’s a favourite argument of ex-Australian philosopher Peter Singer, a friend of Senator Bob Brown.

When Professor Singer has his afternoon nap, he has no self-awareness.

A good time, perhaps, to cut his throat?

Maybe not.  Even though asleep, his potential to have self-awareness (if allowed to wake up un-murdered) remains.

* * *

Everybody knows that, from the moment the sperm enters the ovum and their DNAs contact, a new, unique fully-genetically-equipped-to-develop-self-awareness human life has started.

This is reality, i.e. the way God sees it.

Destroy one of God’s innocent children in cold blood and you’ve signed your spiritual death-warrant.

And ceased being a civilised human being.

In 2008, Victoria’s Labor government passed its “Abortion Law Reform Act” (ALRA) legalising late-term abortions up to, and including, nine months.

Plus abolishing a doctor’s right to exercise a conscientious objection to involvement in abortion:

“If a woman requests a registered health practitioner to advise on a proposed abortion, or to perform, direct, authorise or supervise an abortion for that woman, and the practitioner has a conscientious objection to abortion, the practitioner must . . . refer the woman to another registered health practitioner . . . who the practitioner knows does not have a conscientious objection . . . .” (Section 8, ALRA 2008)

* * *

What about Victoria’s Charter of Human Rights (VCHRA) — doesn’t it provide that:

“Every person has the right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion and belief . . . .” ? (VCHRA section 14)

Keep reading . . . .

VCHRA section 48 says: “Nothing in this Charter affects any law applicable to abortion or child destruction . . . .”

Snookered.

The Coalition parties, in government in Victoria for 15 months now, still haven’t bothered to restore doctors’ freedom of conscience.

Judith Wright’s book “Cry for the Dead” describes a drought in outback Queensland during the early 1800s.

Water-courses dried up.

Only one lagoon remained to supply water to the settlers’ cattle.

A party was sent out to shoot the local aborigines camping by the lagoon, so that the cattle would not be deprived of that water.

* * *

How could those settlers have been so heartless?

Easy.

They were comfortable in their belief that certain human beings are not real persons.

A person is someone who, if you shoot them, it is murder.

But to those settlers you weren’t a person unless you were white.

* * *

Unborn babies are alive. They are human.

Yes, they are human beings.

But in 2012 Australia being a human being isn’t enough . . . ask any member of the Greens Party . . . or almost any member of the Australian Labor Party.

A community which doesn’t treat abortion as murder has made no progress since that Queensland massacre of the 1800s.

Watch this video:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_C-jBMOJaI

Last year a technician employed by the Canterbury District Health Board in New Zealand refused to assist in preparing surgical instruments to be used in performing abortions.

She was called before a disciplinary board and given an ultimatum – do your job or be dismissed.

She sought legal advice and discovered that NZ law states that “no registered medical practitioner, registered nurse, or any other person, shall be under any obligation . . . to perform or assist in the performance of an abortion . . . .”

The lady was NOT sacked.

Since then, two of her co-workers have joined in refusing to assist in abortion.

* * *

This couldn’t happen in the state of Victoria, Australia, where there is no such conscience clause.

And the Queensland government is now preparing similar legislation.

Why do something so controversial just before a state election?

What little hope the Queensland government has of being re-elected will depend on getting each and every single Greens Party preference with no leakage.

The guaranteed way to get the Greens onside is to have policies which undermine the sanctity of human life.