Fittingly, on the American National Day of Appreciation for Abortion Providers, Foreign Affairs minister Stephen Smith announced that the Australian government would finally lift a 13-year-old ban on foreign aid being used to fund safer abortions for women in poor nations.
Prehaps following Barack Obama's lead in lifting a similar ban in the US, the Foreign Minister announced the lifting of the ban, while stating that the focus of Australia's foreign aid would remain on avoiding abortions by providing better family planning education. He said it was a tragedy that an estimated 68,000 women die each year from unsafe abortions - leaving 220,000 children without mothers.
The ban was imposed by the infamously conservative former Howard Government in 1996 in order to appease senator Brian Harradine, who held a poltically important Senate vote.
However, the Christian right in Australia have challenged the decision, with the Australian Christian Lobby and conservative Family First Senator Steve Fielding campaigning against the Labor Party move.
Prime Minister Rudd, exhibiting his usual tendency to pander to the Christian right, has stated that he does not personally support the decision and has "long-standing conservative views" on the issue, but said a clear majority of Labor MPs backed a change.
Rudd's acceptance of the lifting of the ban has been labelled a "cop out", with Family First senator Steve Fielding stating that "When it comes to the crunch on values issues, the Prime Minister wimps out". It is interesting to note that when the Prime Minister appears to support womens' rights, he is portrayed as weak and a 'wimp'.
The Catholic Church branded the move "a cause for great sadness" and "very bad news for women and unborn children in the developing world". It urged Mr Rudd to reverse the decision.
Show your support for Stephen Smith and his pro-choice Labor colleagues by emailing the Foreign Minister here:
And while you are at it, remind Kevin Rudd that a majority of people in Australia and beyond support the right for women globally to receive accurate information on their family planning choices.
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About bloody time!
This comment just really angered me. Not only during this whole thing was Kanye West just so full of himself (like usual) but he was basically excusing domestic violence. What it sounded like IMO was that Kanye didn't think Brown bedroom furniture should be punished for his actions at all. Not by the media, the public or the police.
And I hate when people use the term "mistake" when describing a horribly violent crime. It's like WTF?