Recent events in Austria are causing grave concern to pro-lifers:
- A pro-life march of 1000 crosses held in Salzburg on July 24th was targeted by pro-abortion vandals wearing black masks and 50 law enforcement officers were necessary to protect the marchers..
- The offices of Human Life international (HLI) had windows broken causing up to 10,000 euro damage see Gloria TV Video of the march and the damage caused to the HLI offices on this LINK
In another incident
- A judge in Graz convicted pro-lifers of stalking an abortionist despite evidence to the contrary
- The same judge also fined Austrian HLI Chief Executive Dietmar Fischer, whose offices are in Salzburg, 7,200.00 Euro (about $10.000) for stalking the same abortionist despite the fact that he had never been near the abortionists premises in Graz. See Gloria TV footage about this incident on this link
Human Life International (HLI) also report that Austrian Health Minister Alois Stöger recently announced plans to expand abortion services in Austria, saying that state-funded hospitals across the country should provide abortions to women.
Stöger complained that there are no public hospitals that perform abortions in the provinces of Tyrol and Vorarlberg. He said that state-sponsored abortion clinics in these regions would be important assets, as they would supposedly “help” women to choose abortion by making it free of charge, rather than their having to pay a private abortionist.
“A whole group of people, ie. women, is not being taken seriously if in all of western Austria this option (of abortion) does not exist,” according to Stöger
Stöger said he would press the issue of abortion availability when talks about a reform of the Austrian health system continue in the Fall, and hinted that financial pressure could be used against clinics that refused to offer abortions.
Pro-lifers are being urged to vehemently condemn the Health Minister’s proposal which will only further the demographic crisis in Austria.
Austria according to the report already has the second lowest birthrate in the EU, and Stöger’s proposal will undoubtedly reverse what little gains have been made to return Austria’s fertility rate to a sustainable level. People outside Austria should realize how abortion even entered the picture, and the effect it has had. When the Social Democrats introduced abortion to Austria in 1975, the total fertility rate (TFR) was hovering just above replacement level, at 2.1 births per woman. Since then, more than two million children have been killed by abortion in Austria alone. In 2011, the TFR is expected to be 1.4 and is second lowest even in the demographically failing EU, and 200th in the world Our country’s demographic crisis confirms that abortion is a social suicide mission.
Salzburg, where Human Life International’s (HLI) European regional office is located, is often referred to by pro-lifers as a prime example of abortion promotion in Austria. Gabi Burgstaller, the Governess of the province of Salzburg, made it one of her first decisions to install an abortion clinic at the hospital in the City of Salzburg in 2005. Abortions have since been performed there every Saturday.
The Austrian Penal Code (Penal Code § 97) states that no physician is required to perform an abortion. At the same time, however, those who perform abortions or assist in doing so must in no way be discriminated against.
