Posted on Nov 21, 2014

Pro-Life Persecution.

It seems that in the Western world of  endless “choice” and personal freedom, pro-lifers are the only ones who don’t have those luxuries. In the US, Great Britain and Australia, supporters of abortion appear to be free to slander and ostracise pro-life people for  providing help to mothers in crisis, or even for something as simple wearing pro-life t-shirts. When the fundamental human rights of life-advocates are under threat, that translates to less choice for vulnerable mothers and their babies.

In Chicago, Illinois, abortion advocates are mounting regular protests outside a pregnancy help centre. A new feminist group called FURIE is targeting a CPC which is associated with the Pro-Life Action League. FURIE claims that CPC’s exist with ‘the sole purpose of coercing, tricking or intimidating women out of having abortions’, which is a blatant lie, and also labelled ‘anti-choice’ tactics as ‘malicious.’

A FURIE spokesman has unjustly accused the PLAL of harassing and intimidating pregnant mothers, and also of supporting violence against abortion centres. FURIE even went so far as to accuse the PLAL of being a terrorist organisation.

In Florida, a 68 year old man was asked to leave his gym on two occasions for wearing a pro-life t-shirt. Although the gym’s slogan states that it are a  “Judgement-Free Zone”, the man’s t-shirts were apparently offending another patron who felt free to judge a pro-lifer.

This comes only a few weeks after members of the Duggar family were prevented from promoting the pro-life message during an episode of their reality TV show. The slogans on their pro-life t-shirts were blurred by the broadcaster, TLC - unknown to the family at the time.

These incidents may not seem as significant as attempts by the Obama administration to force Catholic groups to provide abortion and contraception to their employees,  but nevertheless show an increasing hostility towards Christians in general and pro-lifers in particular.

In the UK, veteran Irish pro-lifer Bernadette Smythe  yesterday lost her case against Marie Stopes manager Dawn Purvis, who accused her of threatening and intimidating behaviour. Mrs Smythe will almost certainly face a restraining order, community service, or perhaps even jail time for offering help to mothers in crisis outside Ms. Purvis’ abortion centre. Although Ms. Purvis stated that she supports the right to peaceful protest, she obviously has no trouble with bringing trumped-up charges against a pro-lifer. Or with providing a service for killing unborn babies.

Also in the UK, a case is being heard by the Supreme Court regarding the rights of midwives to refuse involvement in abortions. The NHS is appealing a Scottish court ruling that two Catholic midwives are not obliged to supervise abortions at their Glasgow hospital; the NHS claims the nurses should be made to supervise because they are not directly involved in the procedure.

A spokeswoman for the British Pregnancy Advisory Service has a different slant on the midwives’ refusal to participate in abortion.  Ann Furedi, the chief executive of BPAS, said the body “supports the right of healthcare professionals to conscientious objection, not least because women deserve better than being treated with contempt by those who think they are sinners.” This statement itself shows contempt for pro-lifers: contempt for those who exercise their consciences on moral issues, contempt for religion and also makes the judgement that Christians will not be charitable towards those engaged in a morally objectionable activity.

The midwives do not refer to mothers seeking abortion as ‘sinners’, but have consistently objected to the immoral nature of the act of abortion.

Abortion is fast becoming a topic that cannot even be discussed in the UK. At Oxford University, an abortion-related debate was shut down after threats from abortion advocates to disrupt proceedings. Tim Stanley, one of the debaters, writes,

Many on the Left imitate the very authoritarian mindset of the people on the religious Right that they claim to hate, likewise trying to safeguard their definition of freedom by eradicating contrary ideas.

This is yet another attempt by abortion advocates to silence any opposition to their cause.

Here in Australia, retired abortionist Pieter Mourik enjoys support from the media who are unashamedly pro-abortion. Without providing any kind of proof, he freely derides the members of the Helpers of God’s Precious Infants; the Helpers are slanderously accused of harassment, lying, intimidation and dishonesty. All this from a man who claims that an unborn child is not a foetus until 20 weeks’ gestation, and therefore that early abortion is not murder.

Tellingly, Mourik claims that ‘harassment’ by the Helpers causes ‘more emotional damage than the procedure itself’ suggesting that abortion is not the ordinary medical procedure that abortion advocates claim it to be.

Mourik also accuses the Helpers of being Catholic extremists, while simultaneously holding the view that medical privacy is a sacrament.

His attempts to force the local Albury City Council to establish an exclusion zone around the abortion centre have so far been unsuccessful, but will possibly be influential in the upcoming state government election. Mourik is working with Greens MLC Mehreen Faruqi, who is moving to decriminalise abortion in the state and also opposes the Foetal Personhood Bill.

These are totalitarian tactics, designed to steal fundamental freedoms from pro-lifers while attempting to secure them for the abortion industry and its minions. In the short term, these tactics may have the effect of redirecting energy way from pro-life activity, but in the long term, they are doomed to fail. Culture has a way of balancing itself, and people are starting to see through the lies that the abortion industry tells to vulnerable mothers. All these attempts to silence pro-life activity indicate that abortion advocates are starting to lose the battle for the culture.

“….and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell; and great was the fall of it.” Matt. 7:27