Tell The Truth are on TV now

Thanks to a heads up from a reader I discover that Tell the Truth are televising their misinformation.

At ten to twelve this morning channel nine aired an add from the Tell the Truth Coalition.

You can view it here. Click on the "Life" TV commercial. Note that there are NO women pictured. Even when the voice over, full of syrupy concern, says that the new laws will not protect women, the picture is of a pregnant belly hugged by a child. The woman, as usual, is portrayed as an incubator (if she could be said to be portrayed at all). Also note that the written component of the add is from the viewpoint of the foetus: "My heart, my limbs..". As usual, the foetus is portrayed as something that is capable of a viewpoint. The sentient cows most of us consume regularly have viewpoints, a foetus is not capable of a viewpoint until months after birth, that is, after it has become a baby. Also note the church organ background music (I thought of dracula, anyone else?)



Seen it? Let's see what ol' Ronny would have you believe this time. (I'm sorry if this is a bit rough, it's late...)

"3 Weeks My heart is beating."

The general consensus of my texts (below) is that it begins to beat at four weeks. The heart begins to develop at three weeks.

"7 weeks I have fingerprints."

No, no and no no no. Finger and foot prints begin forming at week 16 according to Visible Embryo. According to MedlinePlus they are not forming until week 24. They are not set in stone until much later. At 7 weeks PADS form on the hands. These are bumps that eventually become fingerprints, but fingerprints they are not indeedy. No no no no no.

"12 weeks My limbs and organs have formed."

Not this again... here, I'll just cut and paste from the last time with a few edits...

As I am doing a thesis on foetal pain I knew immediately that this is patently untrue. For example, skin keratinisation (where the skin becomes more like skin on a full term baby) does not begin until week 16, thalamocortical structures in the brain (important connections for pain perception) are not laid down until 26 weeks, 22 at the very earliest. Scalp hair patterning begins at 16 weeks, bone formation (calcification of bones) begins at week 14. Limbs do not reach their final relative proportions until week 17, and the uterus in females is not complete until week 18. So, the skeletal structure is yet to ossify (or become hard bones), the foetus might have nerves but the central nervous system has barely begun to resemble that of a full term baby. The 12 week old foetus does not have fingernails, hair, certain reproductive organs, skin as we know it, functioning lungs…. … I could go on, but I think I have made my point. This sentence is, again, incorrect and emotive. The idea is to paint a picture of a miniature fully formed baby at 12 weeks. If it were truly equivalent to a baby, we could put it in a pram and walk it around the block.

"I am a human being."

This can be a tricky one. A foetus is human and alive, no doubt about either. (Yey! They got something right!) However, conscious? Nope. Sentient? Not until at least week 26. Self aware with desires and interests? Not until some months after birth. It is my position that a human being in the foetal state should not have rights that trump the rights of a human being in the adult state. These rights include the right to refuse to lend your body to save the life of another. For example, it is possible for most of us to live with only one kidney. Yet we do not make our citizens hand over their second kidneys in order to save another citizen's life. In our society we get to choose whether or not to use our bodies to help other people to live. Women must be able to choose whether or not they will use their bodies to turn a potential human life into a fully fledged human life.

"I need your protection."

Now this last one made me spit out my rather yummy Red Back beer. What do they think happens to unwanted babies? What do they think would happen to 30,000 extra unwanted babies in Victoria per year? There are plenty of CHILDREN out there already who need protection from their own PARENTS (350,000 reports of child abuse in Australia per year for those who did not watch Andrew Denton...). Anti-Choicers want to make more of these miserable beings? Argh! I have no more words...

Now for the dialogue:

"Human life is precious."

Uhuh. It's weird that given the preciousness of human life we're so keen to keep a thriving military and tolerate a third world in our own back yard. Next?

"Yet the Victorian Government is considering removing all legal protection for children until the moment of birth."

Note the use of the word "children" and the assumption, that I mentioned in a previous post, that women are satanic harpies who will willy nilly demand abortions the moment they go into labour. Also the assumption that the current situation is protective.

"This will not help protect children..."

Okeee, I didn't think it was supposed to. Or did I miss something? Actually, I've just realised that freely available abortion does protect children. It protects them from poverty, overcrowding, and the pain of being blamed for the unhappiness of their parents and consequently being abused or killed.

"...or women."

Notice that we're an afterthought?

"Say NO to legalising abortion in Victoria."

*sigh* because keeping it illegal was doing a great job of protecting the children wasn't it?

I've had enough. Sorry peeps, it's 1am and hours past my bedtime. This post will probably end up being edited for clarity tomorrow... refs below.





An atlas of human prenatal developmental mechanics : anatomy and staging, by Jan E. Jirásek, London : Taylor & Francis, c2004
The developing human : clinically oriented embryology, by Keith L. Moore, T.V.N. Persaud. 7th ed, Philadelphia, Saunders, c2003.