My Oma was born in a little village near the town of Hadamar. Hadamar sits in the shadow of a tall hill called Mönchberg – Monk’s Mountain. On top of that hill stands an old Franciscan monastery, which was converted into a state hospital and nursing home in 1803. In 1940, however, that hospital was […]
Melinda Tankard Reist Rosie became pregnant at 17 last year. She was labelled a slut. Melissa, 14, ran away from home so her parents couldn’t force her to have an abortion. Jackie, 33, had a violent partner who didn’t want their baby. There was no public housing available and refuges were full. She […]
‘I just wish that people had more of an open dialogue about what pregnancy really means to you as a woman’ Dear Senator Bernardi, There has been a lot of talk in the media about your recent comments about abortions. I thought I would share my story with you. Being in a toxic relationship and […]
Advocates obliged to put an end to misconceptions Recent publicity for abortion drug RU486 has given women assurances of its safety. The drug is promoted as do-it-yourself, easy, private and ”more natural”. In this pro-RU486 spin, the voices of women harmed by the chemical cocktail have been drowned out. ”Rose”, 27, from South Australia, shares […]
WHEN Melbourne sonographer Jane (not her real name) told the young Afghani Muslim bride that she was expecting a girl, she felt she had just handed out a death sentence. “It was the worse scan in my 15 years in the profession,” she told me. “My patient came in recently for a routine 20-week obstetric […]
DO yourself a favour. Stop what you are doing, log on to YouTube and watch a short film called Be My Brother. Starring Gerard O’Dwyer and created by 20-year-old Genevieve Clay, Be My Brother took out the award for best film at the 2009 Tropfest. Gerard was named best actor. Gerard is a young man […]
By Renate Klein and Susan Hawthorne Since the publication of Rachael Hills’s article “Who’s Afraid of Melinda Tankard Reist” (and see her reflections two weeks later) at least ten on-line and print media articles have joined in a public dissection and commentary along the lines of, “she’s a conservative religious fundamentalist” and “she’s pro-life and […]
Suffering unlimited Recently, Xinran, the Chinese-English journalist and author of Messages from an Unknown Chinese Mother: the lives of women in contemporary China, visited Australia to talk about her new book. It is a collection of real life stories told by Chinese women forced to abandon their babies for social, political and historical reasons. You […]
With a big scarlet letter on the back as a sign of their shame In the US, teen fashion chain ‘Forever 21’ has launched what has been labelled a “controversial” maternity line called Love 21 Maternity. The range can be found in Forever 21 stores in five states. Apparently, three of these states have the […]
