Anthony Perez of Pro-life Philippines
asks how far will a man’s convictions take him?
In the case of Graham Preston,
56, he will have to spend the next 8 months locked up because of his
convictions. Preston was convinced that abortion is murder, and he did his
best in order to live up to his pro-life beliefs. What he did was to stage
non-violent protests in front of abortion clinics around Brisbane.
He was then
faced with a difficult decision: pay the fines he incurred for those protests,
or face time in prison. For Preston, the choice is
obvious: imprisonment it is.
Preston refuses to pay the
fines on principle, arguing that trying to save the innocent from harm should
not be regarded as criminal behavior.
Nor was it an easy choice to
make. Two years ago, Preston wrote on his website: “Going to jail is of course
not a desirable thing, either for the person who does so, or for their family
who may be very directly negatively affected. Yet our conviction is that this
is probably an unavoidable part of seeing the value of all human lives given
proper recognition. When anyone pays a very high price for something, it makes
everyone ask the question, is it worth it? That is what we want our society to
be asking, what are preborn babies worth? We want to say that babies’ lives are
worth a person’s, or even many persons’, freedom.”
This is not Preston’s first
time to be imprisoned. Ten years ago, he started a group called Protect Life
and has endured more than ten months in jail over five separate jail-terms ever
since – mostly in Brisbane’s maximum security Arthur Gorrie Correctional
Centre.
His family, though distraught
over Graham’s imprisonment, is proud of him nonetheless. His wife Liz says of
him: “I have immense respect for Graham. He is a very courageous person who has
my full support in these actions. Facing the prospect of having Graham in jail
for eight months is quite daunting - however we have always realized that
challenging the abortion culture would be costly and we have tried to not allow
the potential cost prevent us from doing what we believe is right.”
Graham’s daughter Frances, 18,
said: “I have a lot of respect for my Dad and how he takes his convictions
seriously; I hope I can live as consistent a life as his. Of course I will miss
him, and I will visit him as often as possible.”
Courageous as Graham is, this
is also a lesson for all Pro-Lifers in the Philippines to always be vigilant
against anti-life legislation. As it is with the other countries who have
adopted an anti-life stance and have espoused contraception and abortion, our
government, once it legalizes abortion, will do all it can to protect this ‘right’
to terminate one’s own child. Will we put to prison our own countrymen for
fighting for the rights of those who cannot fight for themselves?
The RH Bill, once legalized,
will open the floodgates to such abnormities like abortion and the legalization
of same sex unions. Let us just say NO.
