Following a television show depicting cruel treatment of cattle exported by Australia in Indonesian abattoirs, the whole industry has been shut down.

When will it get going again?

Nobody seems to know.

Senator Xenophon is introducing a private member’s bill to phase the industry out permanently.

He says this is in response to “thousands of representations from people who are concerned about the issue of animal cruelty”.

* * *

Back in 2008, the Brumby Labor government passed legislation making all abortion right up to full term legal in Victoria.

A number of amendments were suggested. All were rejected.

One amendment rejected was that some form of anaesthesia be used so that the baby being destroyed would feel no pain.

The answer given was that such babies feel no pain anyway because they are immature.

However that is a lie — as has been known since the 1980’s.

For example:

“Cutaneous sensory receptors appear in the perioral area of the human foetus in the seventh week of gestation . . . and to all cutaneous and mucosal surfaces by the twentieth week”. *

Connections between these receptors and the central nervous system (spinal cord and brain) develop stepwise.

It is not known for sure exactly when pain is first truly felt, but it cannot be later than twenty weeks.

Where such a doubt exists, any compassionate person would want to err on the conservative side.

But our politicians don’t do being compassionate.

Not if it means getting on the wrong side of the politically powerful feminist/pro-abortion types.

* * *

Australia, as a society, shows more concern about preventing pain in cattle than about preventing pain in members of our own human species.

*   (Anand & Hickey, NEJM, 19/11/1987)

The government of Chile is running a program called “Chile Grows with You” – described by TV commercials as “an invitation from the government to protect children”.

Chile seems to have a clearer idea of what a child is than, for example, Australia does.

One Chilean ad shows a baby moving its arms and legs inside the mother’s womb, with a voice-over saying, “My child hears and experiences the world just as I do. We’re connected . . . .”

And the program also emphasises that “the unborn child is a member of the family . . . .”

* * *

Chile has Latin America’s lowest maternal mortality rate.

Abortion was legal in Chile from 1931 until 1988 — then outlawed in 1989.

Will it stay outlawed?

The Bishops’ Conference of Chile is at present opposing a bill to legalise abortion in certain cases (to save the life of the mother, cases of rape and cases of foetal deformity).

 The bishops explain that it is never licit to take the life of the unborn even in these circumstances: “There is only one option . . . every effort must be made to save both lives, that of the mother and that of the child.”

While the mother’s feelings deserve care and respect, “no feeling must given more importance than the right to life of every human being . . . this is the first of all human rights, without which no others exist.”

 “The level of development of a community is measured by its capacity to care for the weak and the sick.”  

Otherwise it becomes “a dictatorship in which the strongest end up deciding the fate of the weakest. No one has the right to assume the power of deciding who deserves to live and who doesn’t,”

* * *

For centuries a Catholic nation, Chile is now targeted by the forces of secularism and atheism . . . .

 Also by “charismatic” and “pentecostal” breakaway groups . . . which draw would-be Christians away from participating in the Catholic Sacraments.

Contraception is now fairly freely available in Chile, which is never a good sign from a Catholic point of view.

Pregnant women should be told that having an abortion is safer than having a baby, according to new draft guidelines from the British Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.

The report is, of course, basically irrelevant.

It asks and answers the wrong questions.

Whether abortion kills mothers is not the only item of interest.

The doctor in charge of a pregnancy has two patients.

If the mother is having twins, there are three patients.

Abortion kills at least one patient every time.

* * *

The report also claims that most women aborting their baby will suffer no psychological problems.

Interesting to note that the report was compiled by a panel of 18 experts – including two from major abortion clinics — but not one psychologist or psychiatrist.

Best, perhaps, to ignore the report’s comments about psychological safety.

* * *

The whole draft report is subject to further revision – fortunate, as much of its statistical content is arguably wrong.

But the damage is done already.

The public are going to be left with the impression that abortion is medically trivial.

 Later developments, including factual corrections, will probably merit no headlines.

* * *

How far can one take the College’s baby-ignoring mentality?

If the College could prove that having an abortion every year prolonged a woman’s life-expectancy, would they encourage ladies to get pregnant and then aborted on a regular basis?

“Bad luck junior, but I do have to look after Number One. Thanks for existing . . . now we’re off to the abortion clinic and your little life is over, mate.”

Would that be a little bit too gruesome for the gynaecological boffins?

Perhaps not.

They seem to have strong stomachs.

And they seem able to split their statistics from their ethics when it suits them.

In 1965, the “Church of Scientology” was banned in Victoria, and later in other states.

One reason was evidence of the organisation using “command hypnotism” on vulnerable members.

Yet in 1983, it was recognised as a “religion” by the Australian High Court. Along with this went the bonus of tax-free status.

Complaints by ex-members still continue, but never seem to be followed up.

* * *

Scientology claims to be a fast-growing movement.

In 2005, they claimed 3.5 million members in the USA. But surveys revealed the real figure to be more like 55,000.

Subsequent surveys suggest that membership is now down to about 25,000.

One means of getting publicity has been Scientology’s recruitment of entertainment industry “celebrities” as members, e.g. Tom Cruise, John Travolta, Lisa Marie Presley (and, in Australia, Kate Ceberano).

The latest news is that Scientology has a new Melbourne office which was opened the other day by Lord Mayor, Robert Doyle.

Premier Ted Baillieu has criticised Mr Doyle for agreeing to do it.

“I’m not a great fan (of Scientology), to be frank,” he said, “. . . it isn’t something I would have done. I, like many Australians, have concerns about the role Scientology has played in the past.”

It will be nice if Mr Baillieu had more than just concerns, but went further and actively supported the movement being properly investigated – and stripped of its tax-free status for starters.

* * *

In 2009, Senator Nick Xenophon reported to Federal Parliament about numerous complaints he had received regarding pressurisation on Scientology members to have abortions — plus other acts of violence, false imprisonment and intimidation.

He described Scientology as, not a religious movement, but “a criminal organisation”.

Senator Xenophon was not asking parliament to ban it, but investigate it.

Neither the ALP nor the opposition Coalition supported him. He has accused them of cowardice.

* * *

This blog is totally opposed to abortion. For this reason alone, Scientology is something not to support.

Likewise Scientology’s belief in Reincarnation makes a mockery of the Catholic Faith.

Words of Saint Paul: “As it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this the judgment: so also Christ was offered once to take away the sins of many . . . .”  

More than 50 babies are born alive each year in Victoria following botched late term abortions.

They are given no care, but left to die.

In at least one case, such a baby’s death is said to have been hastened by dropping him into a bucket of formaldehyde.

When one Member of Parliament (Mr Kavanagh) moved in the Victorian Legislative Council that these deaths should be made the subject of a formal investigation, his fellow MP’s voted it out.

Three also insulted him, saying he was “disgusting” . . . .

They say that if you throw a rock into a pack of dogs and hear a yelp, you know you’ve got one.

It seems Mr Kavanagh managed a score of three.

Perhaps some who felt so perturbed were Catholics, and knew that they should be supporting the motion, but lacked the fortitude.

* * *

Likewise, in the Synod of the Anglican Church, when Rev Mark Durie moved that the church put questions to the Victorian government about the indications for late term abortions — and the government’s policy regarding management of those “accidentally” born alive . . . .

The motion was never put, thanks to a further motion (put by guess who? yes, by the Rev Ray Cleary) that the subject be not discussed.

Mr Durie told the meeting how that nurse who had to kill the baby with the formaldehyde was very upset.

The law in this perverse, filthy, nauseating state of Victoria is such that if she had not done that homicidal deed she could have been sacked or even locked up — at least in theory.

There is no provision for conscientious objection for non-medical hospital staff in Mr Brumby’s enlightened abortion “reform” legislation. Mr Baillieu hasn’t changed anything.

In the USA there is a Born Alive Infant Protection Act, which requires that any baby born alive in whatever circumstance be legally considered a person, and receive medical attention as needed.

But not here.

* * *

The excuse is sometimes given that late term abortions need doing when the baby is abnormal and is going to perish anyway.

However, the fact is that more than half of such abortions are done for “psychosocial reasons” – in other words, for no reason at all . . . .

Except the baby’s existence being an inconvenience.

At the time of writing, Gabrielle Giffords, the US Congresswoman shot in the head by a deranged gunman the other day, is showing signs of recovery.

She is reportedly able to obey simple commands and squeeze somebody’s hand.

That is wonderful news and so encouraging.

But of course she has a long way to go, and nobody can guess whether her physical and mental powers will recover partially or completely.

We can pray for her – for her physical wellbeing and for her soul.

And likewise for the others shot in the same rampage.

* * *

The world seems to be getting increasingly violent.

Respect for human life is decreasing.

Why?

There are, doubtless, numerous factors involved.

* European studies have shown that domestic violence in unmarried couples living together has increased by 45 percent in recent years. In married couples it has decreased.

* in the western world most people spend leisure hours watching violence-filled action films.

* our governments send troops overseas to impose by violence our kind of government on people of other cultures.

* we take seriously the arguments of those who would legalise euthanasia — the extermination of old, infirm, incurable and/or depressed persons.

All that, on top our desensitisation to the atrocity of abortion . . .  no wonder killings are becoming more and more common.

* * *

It seems both ironical and tragic that this unlucky lady politician should be a victim of such a violent crime.

Gabrielle Giffords, paradoxically, is a believer in killing the vulnerable — in the context of the abortion issue.

According to the National Right to Life Committee, Giffords had a 100% pro-abortion record during the 2009-2010 session of Congress.

There is plenty of evidence that those directly involved in the abortion industry are disproportionately likely to murder and maim other people. (check: www.prochoiceviolence.com).

* * *

Perhaps the rest of us — bystanders under indirect pressure to accept as “normal” the abortions going on in our communities – are drifting towards accepting violence as normal.

Perhaps some of us, under stress, will become that much more likely to snap and to actually commit murders ourselves.