Victorian MP, Georgie Purcell, has understandably drawn criticism from the public for including a promotion of abortion during her pregnancy announcement. She recently made the announcement via a lengthy post on the social media platform, Instagram. Her prominence as a politician as well as her large social media following mean she is well-placed to push her pro-choice agenda onto impressionable Australians. Ms. Purcell represents a new wave of abortion advocates who make no attempt to hide their discrimination against the unborn or against the pro-life community.

A former stripper and topless waitress, Georgie Purcell is no stranger to controversy, initially positioning herself as an advocate for sex workers and as a role model for young Australian women. After joining the Animal Justice Party and being elected to the Victorian parliament, Ms. Purcell drew on her own abortion experience to lobby for increased abortion access for all Victorian women, especially in rural areas.

A Political Pregnancy Announcement

When Ms. Purcell recently made public her latest pregnancy, initially announcing it to her 212,000 Instagram followers, it included the following reference to her abortions:

“If you’ve followed my work for a while, you’ll know that this isn’t my first pregnancy. But it’s the first I’ve chosen to continue. As I prepare for motherhood (beyond cats, dogs, horses and sheep) I carry with me the stories of my abortions. They are not only part of my advocacy as a politician, but also part of who I am. I am more grateful than ever before that I have had access to choice so that I could do this on my own terms and timeline, and will always fight for everybody to have the same.”

Rather than expressing regret for aborting her first two children, Ms. Purcell seemed to relish the fact that she possessed the power to have them killed.

Elsewhere on the social media account, Ms. Purcell unironically states that Gaza is “currently the most unsafe place in the world for a child”. Without playing down the humanitarian crisis occurring in Gaza. it must be said that the most unsafe place for a child these days is in its mother’s womb. This fact seems lost on Ms. Purcell even though her own experience provides ample evidence.

Public Backlash

Understandably, members of the pro-life community responded to Ms. Purcell’s post by pointing out the inconsistency of joyfully welcoming some children while unashamedly disposing of others. This backlash was met with an article on the feminist website, Women’s Agenda, in which Ms. Purcell attempted to justify her position.

The article, entitled, Abortion will always be part of my journey, reiterated the content of her social media post and included her latest statements from the Victorian Parliament. Ms. Purcell told Parliament that her pregnancy “has only solidified [her] belief in reproductive choice” and went on to explain her gratitude for “access to options”. She decried the “anti-choice”, “anti-women activists” who criticised her promotion of abortion, saying that their comments renewed her passion for advocating for “reproductive rights”.

Yet, the backlash wasn’t only from the pro-life quarter: others, perhaps more closely aligned ideologically with the Animal Justice Party, have also criticised Ms. Purcell’s cavalier attitude to abortion. Ms. Purcell herself notes that many who believe in a woman’s “right to choose” one abortion may balk at the thought of two, considering that to be irresponsible.

Blaming Pro-Lifers

Ms. Purcell’s new-wave abortion advocacy includes laying the blame for any abortion-related inconvenience at the feet of the pro-life community. Despite being criticised by people who identify as pro-choice, Ms. Purcell prefers to aim her barbs at pro-lifers.

When speaking about the so-called “Safe Access” zones that operate in Victoria. Ms. Purcell openly states that her first abortion took place before the 150m exclusion-zones were introduced, and claims to have been “severely harassed” by pro-lifers as she entered the abortion business. Although that ‘harassment” allegedly consisted of being told she was “killing her baby”, was that not precisely the purpose of her visit? Is stating a fact synonymous with harassment?

No-one who is about to commit a grave error likes to be reminded of the fact, and experience shows that being told that one is about to kill one’s own baby has, in some cases at least, led mothers to re-evaluate their decision to abort their children. Unfortunately for Georgie Purcell’s first two children, that was not the case in her situation. Rather, she went ahead with her abortions, preferring to paint pro-lifers as the villains.

In an article she wrote in 2022, Ms. Purcell continued the blame-game, going so far as to accuse pro-lifers of forcing regional GP’s not to prescribe the abortion pills. She wrote that because there are fewer GP’s in the country they are “more vulnerable to being targeted by anti-choice activists.”

For someone who is so concerned about “choice”, Ms. Purcell seems reluctant to admit that some doctors live out their choice not to be a party to abortion. It is also doubtful that any doctor would appreciate being characterised as a weak, malleable personality who capitulates his or her pro-choice principles in the face of pro-life opposition.

Pro-life Hospitals Deny Care?

The discrimination by Ms. Purcell against conscientious objectors to abortion continues on the issue of abortion provision in hospitals. Like other abortion zealots, Ms. Purcell repeats the narrative that some hospitals, in refusing to perform abortions, are thereby denying women ‘lifesaving” care. She cites her own experience of needing a hormonal birth control device removed as it has dislodged and was in danger of perforating her uterus. She claims this led her to seek help at a non-religious hospital because “all over Victoria, there are hospitals conscientiously objecting to all reproductive healthcare services…”

It is difficult to believe that any hospital – even a Catholic one – would refuse to remove an IUD that threatened to perforate a woman’s uterus. Additionally, Ms. Purcell does not make it clear if she was actually turned away from a private hospital or whether she merely assumed she would not be helped. In any case, there is certainly no shortage of facilities where this kind of removal can be done and it seems polemical to suggest that religious hospitals should be accused of putting women at risk.

Dehumanisation is complete

It is Ms. Purcell’s references to animals that most blatantly indicate the direction in which abortion advocacy is now heading. By claiming that caring for cats, dogs and so on is no different from caring for children, the dehumanisation of the unborn is complete. In fact, the new narrative is that animals are actually superior to children in the womb.

For example, if an animal is too sick to continue treatment or is deemed to be unwanted, it is gently put to sleep, usually caressed lovingly in the arms of its owners or animal shelter staff as it passes away. Such an animal is assisted by caring, sympathetic veterinarians who do their utmost to provide a quiet atmosphere for the animal’s last moments.

Contrast this with the intentional death of a child in utero: it is either unceremoniously dismembered without sedation, as is the case with a first trimester surgical abortion, or it is starved via chemicals then violently expelled into a toilet. A baby in this situation is not held nor comforted and dies alone, surrounded by fear, rejection and cold calculation.

When it comes to the decision itself, of having an animal put down, this is usually the result of weeks or even months of consideration by a pet’s owner. Owners are usually grieved at the thought of having to make such a difficult choice. By contrast, an abortion, which we are told is “never an easy decision” is in reality often made without much hesitation or even forethought. Indeed, Ms. Purcell admits that as soon as she discovered her unplanned pregnancy at the age of 21, she “knew what she wanted to do.”

She explains, “I got an abortion because I didn’t want to have a child. I think that is important to say, because too often, we defend abortion by using the most extreme examples of why they’re necessary – such as sexual assaults and unviable pregnancies. But when it comes to making the decision to have an abortion, no one needs a justification or an excuse.”

Next-generation abortion zealots like Georgie Purcell are to be greatly pitied, since their lives eventually become one continuous justification of their abortions. They do untold damage to their living children who grow up knowing that they are lucky to be alive, yet are forced into imitating their mothers’ zeal for abortion. We must hope that Ms. Purcell soon realises the grave damage her example is inflicting on impressionable young women and men and that she somehow acknowledges her errors and finds a way to make up for her moral crimes – something that is never out of the scope of God’s mercy.

by Kathy Clubb