Faith-based advice

Remember how a few years back, Bush wanted to take the government’s responsibility to care for its citizens and offload it onto religions? I remember seeing that and thinking, “Hmm, more money for charities, that’s nice.” Then I thought, “Wait a minute, this is Bush we’re talking about — what’s he playing at?” Then I realised that he was a) funneling Federal money to religions, and b) preparing for a phase-out of welfare. Bush called this a ‘faith-based’ approach.

Well, it’s happening here, and it’s being worked by Liberal Minister for Health and Ageing Tony Abbott.

He’s vocal in his opposition to abortion, which is fine. Too bad he’s not some guy in a bar, and is instead the federal health minister, and was in a position to decide whether Australian women got to have RU-486 or not. Cooler heads prevailed, and the Senate removed Abbott’s veto powers.

The Liberal government was down, but not out. Having lost that battle, PM John Howard is now advocating ‘faith-based’ counseling services using church organisations.

That isn’t so strange. Lots of counseling services are religiously-affiliated (e.g. Anglicare), and they do some good work. My concern is that doctors will be gagged when giving professional advice.

DOCTORS with links to abortion clinics will be banned from providing taxpayer-funded counselling to pregnant women, under the Government’s $51 million plan to cut the abortion rate.

But Prime Minister John Howard hasn’t ruled out allowing church-affiliated groups to offer counselling to women with an unplanned pregnancy, insisting the advice will be “non-directive”.

But won’t the faith-based services be hesitant to recommend abortion?

Mr Howard said the counselling helpline would not be set up to provide a specific viewpoint on pregnancy or terminations. “The referral process will not be cooked in favour of a particular attitude,” he said.

I don’t see how you could not have any bias there. I’d steer people away from abortion if I were on the phones, and I believed that abortion were a moral evil (instead of what I actually think, which is that abortion is a horrible thing that is sometimes necessary, and ought to be safe and legal for women who need it).

And so Australia shuffles bit by bit toward ‘faith-based’ solutions. I’m for religions acting in a helping capacity — it’s one thing they do really well. But in this case, religion is being used by government to accomplish its ends, and women are the losers.