IF WE'RE SO BACKWARDS WHY ARE THEY FOLLOWING US?:

Public shift on abortion: Abbott (Dennis Shanahan, 02aug04, The Australian)

HEALTH Minister Tony Abbott believes there may be growing community support for banning late-term abortions.

In a speech in Queensland, he claimed leading feminists were starting to express concern about the "downstream consequences of sexual freedom" and to question the abortion culture.

"When leading feminists such as Wendy McCarthy and Eva Cox are calling for a rethink about abortion, the moral wheel might not have come full circle but the times are certainly changing," Mr Abbott told a closed conference at Coolum on the weekend.

His comments referred to reports in The Australian last month in which they both said it was time to reconsider Australia's average legal limit of 20 weeks for an abortion, although the law varies across the states.

"Thoughtful feminists are starting to grieve over the downstream consequences of sexual freedom," he said.

"The legacy of a permissive society - broken families, mental illness and entrenched welfare dependency - suggests that the old social taboos might have had some point."

First the Brits, now the Aussies...maybe there's hope for the whole Anglosphere, not just us.

Posted by Orrin Judd at August 5, 2004 2:44 PM