Black Friday

The 10th of October was Black Friday in the Victorian State of Australia. The day saw the biggest crash in the Australian share market since the 1987 crash, losing more than 8% of their value. Much less known by the public was that on the same day the Abortion Law Reform Bill 2008 was passed by the Victoria State's Parliament with 23 votes to 17 after endless hours of debate.

The bill means that: In Victoria abortion is now 'decriminalised', which is a fancy term for 'not being considered in the eyes of law as a crime'. Specifically the bill stipulates that abortion up to 24 weeks gestation is now legal in Victoria. After 24 weeks, a woman must have the approval of two practitioners to receive an abortion. Doctors who object performing abortion under the legislation must refer a woman seeking one to another practitioner who doesn't have that objection.

The Victorian Premier was quoted by local paper The Age as saying to the effect that decriminalising abortion was a positive step forward for the state and for women. "They welcomed this change. I believe it's a positive step and the parliament and its conscience has now made this decision."

I am not sure which part is positive in the so-called "positive step", especially after one considers the following matter of fact about abortion aptly captured in this Abort73.com clip.



We need to remind ourselves that hard cases ("what about a victim of rape who needs abortion") are insufficient grounds for legislation for abortion. These are exceptions rather than the norm, and should be treated as such. Otherwise, the unintended consequences are the following horrible statistics on Abortion in the US alone (Source: Abort73.com):

- From 1973 through 2005, more than 45 million legal abortions have occurred in the U.S. (AGI).
- In 2005 (the most recent year for which there is reliable data), approximately 1.21 million abortions took place
- 75% of all abortions are to women under 30 (Median age = 24).
- Nearly 1 in 5 abortions are performed on teenagers. 1 in 3 are performed on women between ages 20 and 24.
- Most women who have abortions are unmarried. (Less than 1 in 5 are married.)
- When a teenager becomes pregnant, abortion is a likely result. (For girls under 15, there are 8 abortions to ever 10 live births. For girls 15-19, there are 4 abortion to ever 10 live births.)

The following clip from John Piper highlighted the truth that abortion is eventually about God.



Today I led the public prayer in the church about this sad news in Victoria, pleading for God's mercy for those who voted for, asking for God's strength and wisdom for those who will continue to fight against inside and outside the government including all sorts of medical practitioners, and petitioning for God to awaken the conscience of those who are considering abortion. I also prayed for the church to be able to function according to its nature as salt and light to stop the decay of the society, and for every Christian to not lose its saltiness by responding to God's call in obedient gratitude to actively use their talents in all walks of life.

May God have mercy on Victoria.