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1054 Thu 19 Jul 2001

I get two papers delivered each morning, "The Age" and "The Australian". Particularly on Thursday "The Age" was worthwhile because of the TV program called "The Green Guide" which I have been using for 20 years. But today highlights the different coverage on abortion, and protests against it, by the two papers.

On page 4 of "The Age" there are photos of a group in front of the Melbourne Parliament House with signs: "Abortion, Women's Right to Choose, Socialist Alliance". Its editorial says comments by Margaret Tighe, chairwoman of the "Right to Life" organisation were "particularly inappropriate and insensitive". The editorial ends: "Public good cannot sensibly be based on what some people hold to be moral absolutes."

On page 11 of "The Australian" there is an article by Margaret Tighe. The editorial concludes with a call for "reasoned debate about a vexing public and social question." Its letters headline has "What about the thousands of unborn citizens?" One of the letters is by someone called Gordon Drennan who wrote: "I don't have much truck with the ratbags at either end of the abortion debate, but I was impressed at the generous statements made by the protesters about the dead guard. It indicated either a superb instinct for good public relations, or real compassion towards someone they could very easily have viewed as a bitter enemy."

So well done by the people involved. Perhaps I won't renew my subscription to "The Age".