Pakenham mother Leanne Carmichael was horrified to receive this leaflet from anti-abortion group Tell the Truth Coalition on Tuesday morning. The images on the leaflet have been blurred by the News so as not to offend readers.Picture: Melissa Grant.By Melissa Grant
A MOTHER is outraged that an anti-abortion group put a graphic leaflet in her Henty Park letterbox featuring pictures of unborn foetuses.
Leanne Carmichael says she was horrified on Tuesday when she opened an envelope only to find a flyer – one of more than 200,000 distributed across Victoria – from pro-life group Tell the Truth Coalition.
The hand-delivered envelope, with the leaflet enclosed, was addressed: To the adult householder, viewer discretion advised.
“It’s just disgusting,” Ms Carmichael said. “At first I thought it was a drug campaign.
“I didn’t need that first thing in the morning.”
The leaflet contains graphic images of eight-week, 11-week and 24-week aborted foetuses and lists the “psychological and physical risks” of having an abortion.
Ms Carmichael was concerned that the leaflet could fall into the wrong hands.
“What if kids open it?” she said. “I have a 15-year-old son and I wouldn’t want him to open that.”
She said the leaflet could also upset women who had gone through pregnancy issues or who had gone through an abortion.
“People that have gone through IVF or had an abortion or miscarriage, they don’t need that,” she said.
Tell the Truth Coalition spokesman Ben O’Brien said the leaflets were distributed by hundreds of pro-lifers who wanted to make people aware that abortion could soon be totally legalised under state law.
“We’re tyring to raise awareness of this issue of abortion which we believe the Brumby Government is trying to cover up,” he said.
“Men and women are suffering from abortion.
“Where’s the concern?”
Mr O’Brien said people needed to be more aware of abortion.
“People are against killing. When people see abortion and see that the baby is killed they’ll be against it,” he said.
But Ms Carmichael said people were in different circumstances and the leaflet was oversimplifying the issue in a repulsive manner.
“Life’s not that black and white,” she said. “Everyone’s entitled to their own opinion, but not in such a graphic way.”
