Right to Life, or life with no rights? : Melbourne Indymedia

Recently, the morally conservative group ‘Right to Life’ have been out in spades. Right to Life, seem to see themselves as the moral crusaders of this country—and with a large percentage of their support coming from the Catholic Church, it’s not hard to figure out what those morals might be. It’s all well and good for people to have their own opinions, and to make their choices based on what they believe, but when these groups attack others who wish to make a different choice, a choice they do not approve of, we must defend those who are attacked.

People must be able to have control over their own lives
and bodies, and should not have to abide by the decisions of a church, the conservative right, or have the government dictate to them what is or is not ’right’ for them to do. Recently, the Right to Lifers have been
hitting out at abortion, IVF and euthanasia. While this might seem like a bit of a pun at first - declaring that women shouldn’t abort, that they should be
having children, but the next minute telling people they shouldn’t be creating life - it’s far more serious than any of us would like. These zealots harass women outside of abortion clinics and try to bully them (or ‘counsel’ as they would put it) out of their decision. Many women have
already had to confront their own fears, family and lives to make this decision, and the Right to Lifers make it
significantly harder. They spread lies about conditions of aborted fetuses, and often cite the welfare of the mother as a reason for doing so. If these groups cared at all about the welfare of women, they would not actively encourage Parliament to further criminalize abortion in Victoria and the rest of Australia - they would not
be sentencing women to the horrors of backyard abortions all over again. Women will continue to make their own
choices, and they should be able to make them with safe outcomes.

The Right to Lifers have also spoken out against IVF treatment , a treatment that allows women unable to have children for whatever reason, the possibilities of having a child. It seems the reason Right to Life protest against this, is that the procedure uses a number of embryos and as a matter of course, there are some
embryos rejected after the treatment is complete. Is an embryo a life? According to Right to Life, yes. According to our own common sense, no. If we see a living, breathing human, then that’s a life. If we see a bunch of cells, then no, it’s not. It makes us wonder how Right to Lifers can grow common garden vegetables and other such things
involving seeds or a growth cycle. Remember, every lost carrot seedling is a potential carrot that will never become
tasty soup.

Also astounding, is their take on euthanasia. Well, Right to Life, if you are ever to appear on your deathbed with a terminal illness, or to be retrieved out of a carboot in a hopeless coma like Maria Kopp, rest assured that we will support your right to die, even if you don’t.

Revolution supports people’s choices. We respect the right to die with dignity, we support a womans right to choose her fate, and we support the right of everyone to have access to reproductive technology. We also support peoples rights to not make these decisions; but do not support their ‘right’ to impose these morals as laws onto others.