But this is just too far.
Absolute bullshit.
Of course, all that crap about the 'breast cancer' and 'infertile' is false. SO WHY KEEP DOING IT?http://canberra.yourguide.com.au/detail.asp?class=news&subclass=general&story_id=503151&category=general&m=8&y=2006[/quote wrote:
Senators permit pro-life false ads
Danielle Cronin
Friday, 18 August 2006
A move to ban deceptive advertising by pregnancy counselling services has been rejected by a Senate committee because some members claimed it could lead to an increase in abortions.
The decision, effectively to allow false advertising by pro-life, anti-abortion counselling services to continue, was immediately branded by supporters of the Bill as hypocritical.
The Senate Community Affairs Committee handed down its report yesterday on a Private Member's Bill by Australian Democrats senator Natasha Stott Despoja to regulate advertising of pregnancy counselling services.
A "majority report", so-called because it was signed by committee chairman ACT Liberal senator Gary Humphries, supported only by fellow Liberal senator Guy Barnett and Labor senator Helen Polley, recommended the Bill be rejected.
In a "minority report", Labor senators Claire Moore, Ruth Webber and Carol Brown, Greens senator Kerry Nettle and Democrats senators Lyn Allison and Natasha Stott Despoja, supported the Bill.
"There is an urgent need for legislation to outlaw misleading and deceptive advertising by pregnancy counselling services to ensure anti-abortion services are upfront about their stance and women are not misled," Senator Stott Despoja said.
Women should be informed upfront if pregnancy support agencies advised on all three options - having the baby, adoption or abortion.
Women from all political parties had banded together to call for the ban.
Senator Humphries said there was nothing wrong with truth in advertising provided the same rules applied to agencies linked with pro-life groups and abortion clinics.
"Overall the Bill seeks, in the majority's opinion, to hamper the efforts of those pregnancy counselling services which do not refer for abortion by imposing specific requirements for transparency without imposing equivalent provisions on other services, such as those linked to abortion providers," the senators said.
"It appears that the effect of the Bill would be to increase the likelihood of ready referral for abortion."
Reproductive Choice Australia spokesman Dr Leslie Cannold said the hypocrisy was breathtaking.
"All the senators sat in hearings day after day and listened to the pain and confusion women were caused when they realised they had been duped by false advertising into ringing a pro-life counselling service," Dr Cannold said.
"Yet three are now saying the Federal Government should do nothing about it."
More than 15,000 Australians had signed the pro-choice group's petition to support a ban on misleading and deceptive advertising of pregnancy counselling services.
Senator Stott Despoja's Bill would have closed a legal loophole so counselling services were no longer exempt from regulations on advertising.
The Bill was referred to the Senate committee for inquiry, which involved four public hearings and consideration of close to 100 submissions.
Some women complained they had turned to pregnancy counselling services for help but were not informed upfront that the agency took a pro-life stance.
One woman was reportedly told she would be "killing the baby" if she had an abortion and another claimed that she felt bullied by a counsellor who was "really pushing and pressuring me [into] having the child". "They told me I was at increased risk of breast cancer later in life and that I was also at risk of being more infertile," the woman told the committee.
Health Minister Tony Abbott said he would wait and see the contents of the report before commenting.
Absolute bullshit.
The paradox is only a conflict between reality and your feeling what reality ought to be.
~ Richard Feynman
~ Richard Feynman