Trinity College, Melbourne
University 9 - 10th July 2005
Sunday, just before lunch, was when I spoke. The time allocated was only
15 minutes and there was a lot to cover, so before my introduction was
finished, I ran to the front from the back. First I told a joke to break
the ice. Then I mentioned how I loved Melbourne, that I lived there for
four years, (I grew up in Cairns and left when I was 24), that I met
Michelle there, that we got married there and that our first child, Isaac,
was born there.
I was angry, it was obvious. I told them my story, how I found this
website and how that night the world I lived in changed. As I talked, I
was pacing up and down, throwing my hands up in the air and sometimes
talking through clenched teeth, trying to control the rage I was
feeling. Occasionally, I punched the whiteboard, lightly. I later found
out from two different people that they thought I was going to pull a gun
out ! Hhmm . . . I reckon they've been watching too much telly.
. . . However, I did pull out a coathanger and explained I was unable to
find a rusty one. I told them how naive I was, that I thought "backyard"
abortions were done in the backyard, on a sheet, by the boyfriend with a
coathanger and that legal abortions were safer for women. I was going off.
I told them that as stupid as it sounds, there would be a lot of people
who would think like that also. I told them how AbortionTV set me
straight, how angry I was to find out I'd been lied to all these years and
that everyone else was being lied to. The truth is that "backyard"
abortions were done through the "backdoor" of a doctor's surgery. To make
abortions legal, figures were put out saying 10,000 women a year in
America were being killed by abortion while the truth was that in the year
before abortion was legal, forty died. See
"Illegal
Abortion Myth."
I told them not to refer to babies as "fetuses". I held my foot up and
said, "That's a fetus"! Then I pointed to a baby and said, "That's a baby.
It has a fetus, a headus, a bodyus, a legus, etc." I told them the other
mob weren't pro-choice but that they were pro-death.
Angrily, I spoke about pictures of defenseless
babies with their heads cut off and ripped off, babies in bins, babies
that had been slowly ripped apart inside their mother, babies that were
hacked to death, babies being stabbed in the back of their heads as they
were being born, babies being bludgoned to death after being born, babies
being drowned after they were born or babies being left to die, sometimes
gasping for breath for hours. I spoke of the rage and immense anger I felt
and how helpless I was to do something to stop the slaughter. I told them
that my life changed that night and it's never been the same since.
Confidently, I told them there was a way to let everyone know the
truth. Asking Burke to come out and help me, I pulled out an
AbortionTV banner. Everyone laughed, clapped and cheered. Pointing to some
black plastic ties on the banner, I explained how it had seen action the
night before over the Monash Freeway. I pointed to the tomato stains,
(They were from the protesters on Friday night).
I talked about the testimonies, about lives
saved and attitudes changed. About how AbortionTV is an effective name to
create curiosity. I told of the layout of the site and the content it
contained. I mentioned how I was unaware that abortions were dangerous and
sometimes fatal to the ex-mother or that they
often led to drug and alcohol abuse, suicide and other medical and
emotional problems.
Afterwards, people gathered around talking about "righteous anger",
passion and how they had been inspired. Margaret Tighe told me after lunch
that a doctor from Western Australia was talking about getting
bumper-stickers printed. She told me that, "We need to plaster Australia
with them". You should have seen her face when I told her they were for
sale out on the table for $2.
Following the Melbourne conference, I was asked
to give the same presentation to the Brisbane Right To Life Australia
association.
Things are looking good for Australian women and children.
Peter Erbacher
