Womb Watching While Rome Burns
29 Jun 2008

Climate change, soaring petrol and food prices, one in seven Australian children living in poverty and catastrophic levels of violence in some indigenous communities. These are just some current issues of national importance that most Australians would see as legitimate topics for debate.

 Hating Gays is a Choice, Not a Biblical Dictate
22 Jun 2008

Their strength is waning, but there is still a depressingly large number of powerful men in the west, spread across a range of denominations, spewing raw hate and naked prejudice at gay people. All in the name of Christ.

 Feel Good, Do Good - The Merry Makers
15 Jun 2008

OK, I admit it. I cry easily. My eldest's grade 6 graduation ceremony provoked a flood. Even k.d. lang's version of Hallelujah can do it. When the face of the little fella in the Worksafe Victoria ad lights up because his Dad is safe and home, I break down in sobs.

 The Bill Henson Affair: Shame on Adults for Paranoia over Adolescence
1 Jun 2008

For a friend of mine, adolescence was no time of innocence. It was the worst and most confusing time of her life; made all the worse by the insistence of the adults she knew that the pain would be useful later.

 We Thirst for Justice, but Beware the Unforgiven
25 May 2008

What is unforgiveable? Are there some acts that cross the moral line in the sand dividing the venal from the inescapably evil? Are there some things, and some people, we cannot forgive?

 Why Parental Leave is a Moral Issue
18 May 2008

The government has ordered yet another inquiry into a paid leave scheme for working Australian parents. This one, by the Productivity Commission, follows two similar ones by HREOC and a Senate Committee in 2002. What is left to examine, for heaven's sake! It's a leave scheme, not the first signs of life on Mars.

 What We Don't Know Can Hurt Us All
11 May 2008

What does independent research, shield laws and whistleblower legislation have in common, and why should we give a rats?

 The Dubious Morality of Women
4 May 2008

My speciality area of ethics is reproductive technologies. What this means is that I spend much of my working life face-to-face with the suspicions that religious men, political leaders and journalists have about female morality.

 At 50, the Material Girl is Not to be Pitied
27 Apr 2008

Madonna turns 50 this year. Like every wheeze and fart in the entertainer's life, this one is attracting comment. From some, it sounds like this. "50? She looks 30! If she really was a taboo-breaker, she wouldn't have smooth skin and pert breasts. She'd be strutting her stuff on the cover of Vanity Fair with a wrinkled décolletage and baggy arms hanging out."

 There is an art to breaking bad news to children
20 Apr 2008

Last year, a girl at my son's school primary school - let's call her Susan - had a headache. The next day she collapsed and since then has been in a wheelchair from spinal damage caused by a benign tumour.

 We May Yet Avoid Frying from Global Warming
13 Apr 2008

You may not have heard of it, but my guess is, you will soon. Climate engineering-or global climate control-may soon be a fact of life.

 Cash is Always the Currency of Love's Labours Lost
6 Apr 2008

It's always about the money. Or is it?

 Why Parents Try to Avoid the Pain of Loving a Sick Child
30 Mar 2008

Imagine this. You've spent your childhood with a brother bound to a wheelchair by a disease that causes him immense suffering. The condition has haunted your family for generations, killing male children and putting the female ones at risk of passing the faulty chromosome on to their own kids.

 Stripped bare, Spitzer affair raises big question
23 Mar 2008

The facts are simple. Elliot Spitzer, who fought organised crime and corruption on Wall Street, resigned last week as New York's Governor after Federal wiretaps caught him arranging to meet an out-of-town hooker in his DC hotel.

 In Death We Don't Part from our Obligations
16 Mar 2008

Last week in New Zealand, Ivy May Ngahooro became the third body snatched after disputes about burial between non-indigenous and Maori relatives. The distress of Ms Ngahooro's family was extensively covered in the New Zealand press, with the will's executor, niece Trish Scoble, saying that the loss of the body made her feel both "sick" and "frightened". Scoble said that she would not stop until her Auntie May was laid to rest as she had wanted.

 Stand Up and Shoulder the Consequences
9 Mar 2008

The real test of our principles is when those with whom we disagree stand on them to justify doing something we hate.

 Threat to Choice Leaves Bitter Taste in GM Debate
2 Mar 2008

Some moral questions reduce to empirical ones. Where you stand and what you'll stand up for turns entirely on the facts.

 Women, vote for yourselves - no one else will
24 Feb 2008

I don't like her, and it ain't the hair. It's the annoyingly wooden affect, and her obeisance over the years to the demands of the American public that she change her name and hair, but stand by her man. But when I mailed in my absentee ballot for the Democratic primaries several months ago (I'm an American citizen as well as an Australian one) the tic was next to Hilary Clinton's name, not Barrack Obama's.

 Shameful Apology Proves Sorry Shame
17 Feb 2008

Talk about giving with one hand and taking with the other! There, in Parliament House, with members of the Stolen Generations looking on and thousands more bearing witness via video link on the adjacent lawns. One man, representing the nation, validating the painful experiences of Aboriginal Australians and by so doing, reminding us of what we as Australians have the potential to be. The other - his literal shadow - excusing, justifying, insisting on his version of the truth and in so doing, painfully reminding us why progress on race relations in this country have been stalled for so long.

 Full Disclosure Necessary in Abortion Law
15 Feb 2008

Many people think that the State government's commitment to the decriminalisation of abortion guarantees a good outcome for women, no matter what model ultimately makes it into law.

 Let's Get Rid of the Cloak and Dagger
10 Feb 2008

Transparency. In recent years, journalists, politicians and medical researchers have joined lawyers and judges in accepting formal obligations to either disclose personal or financial links they have with those they report on or serve, to divest themselves of those links or to recuse themselves.

 Education Ethics bigger than public versus private
3 Feb 2008

There are 17 selective high schools in New South Wales, and 10 schools offering selective classes for academically gifted students.

 Breastfeeding: differing advice flows oh so freely
27 Jan 2008

What's a Baby-Friendly hospital? If you don't know, you may soon because if the Australian Government's House Standing Committee Inquiry into Breastfeeding has its way, the three that currently exist in NSW are set to mushroom.

 One-Size-Fits-All Marriage Model Fails to Bind
20 Jan 2008

It's built into our psyches. How could it not be, with marriage - and the implied happy-ever-after - concluding every literary and cinematic romantic tale? And then there's the return of the elaborate, often white wedding, costing on average (based on 2004 figures) $36,234. Social research shows it, too. We, as a nation, particularly those in our dotage, and those in our thirties, believe in the institution of marriage.

 Look at Yourself, Before It's Too Late
6 Jan 2008

How many of us are not living our dreams? What's stopping us? And what does dedicating ourselves to closing the gap between what we wanted for our lives and how we are actually living them have to do with ethics?

 Insults Deter Quality Debate
5 Jan 2008

Something worrying is happening to column readers. They are becoming rude. Menacingly rude - and just plain mean - when they don't agree with you.

 The Futility of Treatment: Who Decides?
31 Dec 2007

Blink and you'd miss it. That's the fate of stories in the lead-up to Christmas, even explosive ones about the questionable withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment from unconscious patients like Paulo Melo.

 A Man Worth Emulating
24 Dec 2007

In our society, who best reflects Jesus' compassion and sense of justice?

 Education is not about being a good or bad parent - it's about the children
19 Nov 2007

Everyone's heard of the Mummy Wars. The debate that flies out of the box like a bat out of hell every time some dry academic study appears about centre-based childcare. Behind all the shouting about sample size, confidence levels and expert bias is a shrillness that can only come from women who feel accused of being "bad" mummies, or are defending their status as "good" mummies.

 I Feel Guilty, My Son is at Public School
5 Nov 2007

Ive been wanting to write this column all year, but dreading it, too. Because I don't want to be misunderstood and I don't want to offend. But the truth is that there is something horribly rotten going on in my personal world and _ because the personal is political _ this nation. The rot comes from the way we fund our schools. And it is making me so angry (or is it so grief-stricken and guilty?) that I can hardly breath.

 Book Review - In Viro Fertility Goddess by Jodi Panayotov
28 Oct 2007

Infertility sucks and IVF is worse. Yet women rarely talk about either, or make jokes, a truth Jodi Panayotov found out the hard way when aged 37 she struggled to get pregnant and to stay that way.

 Laws on Sex Work Must be Framed to Protect Women's Choice
1 Oct 2007

Sex work is back in the news. Having hardly been broached in polite conversation since the state government's "tolerance zone" policy for street sex work went down in flames five years ago, the West Australian government's decision to descriminalise and regulate indoor prostitution has refocused minds around the country on the best way to manage the world's oldest profession.

 Prevention is One Thing, But Take Care with the Cure
28 Sep 2007

Ingrates. That's the word that keeps coming to mind when the Canberra lesbian case is raised. That, and some vital misapprehension of what parenting - at its core, and in its specifics - is all about.

 Balancing public interest and the right to privacy
5 Sep 2007

It's far from over, with many still shouting. But as the conga line of those condemning Channel 7 for broadcasting the news that two AFL players had been referred for illicit drug use grows, we need to ask ourselves: are we shooting the messenger?

 Does she or doesn't she? And why does she always lie?
20 Aug 2007

There's always a moment of truth. For me, it came a few weeks ago, on my return from the States. "You look wonderful!" an acquaintance gushed as we watched our sons tumble across the football field. "Rest and sunshine really suits you."

 Support and Respect - Not Coercion Gives - Parents the Time to Tell
8 Aug 2007

It's Time to Tell. The slogan is back, along with the second phase of the Infertility Treatment Authority's campaign to inform parents of how Victoria's infertility laws may affect their lives, and parenting choices.

 High price to be paid if abortion reform bid fails
20 Jul 2007

I love Right to Life President Margaret Tighe. After years of dealing with anti-choice activists who pretend their feminists, researchers, and medical ethicists - anything but foot soldiers for God - her straight-talking misogyny is like a breath of fresh air. With Margaret, women who seek abortions know just where they stand.

 There is racism, and then there is the glory of multiculturalism
30 May 2007

The government is in trouble in the polls and the Prime Minister claims there's no rabbits in the hat. Maybe, but I'm skeptical. Both history and early policy signs - the reduction of benefits available to new migrants, the Federal government's consideration of a ban on HIV positive migrants - suggests that as polling day draws closer, there will be rabbits. The same ones that have been stewed before.

 Catch Leslie on the Catch-Up Online
25 May 2007

The Catch-Up is a weekday talk show premiering early in 2007. Covering news, entertainment, lifestyle, beauty, fashion and gossip, the show is pitched at Australian women. Leslie chatted about her book What, No Baby? with hosts Libby Gore, Ita Buttrose and Lise Oldfield.

 Australian Government's Pregnancy "Helpline" - Help or Hindrance?
1 May 2007

Leslie talks to Richard Aedy on ABC Radio National's Life Matters about the Federal Government's "Pregnancy Support" measures.

 What is so wrong with having truthful advertising?
1 May 2007

The removal of the Federal Health Minister's veto over RU486 last February was hailed as a victory for women, and a portent of what could be accomplished if politicians and grass roots activists worked together across party lines. In the wake of the conscience vote, female politicians suggested the victory was a taste of things to come. In the future, they would join hands to deliver women things like paid maternity leave, accessible and affordable childcare and a more equitable tax system for families where both parents worked.

 Safe Sex Means Just That
10 Apr 2007

It is important we don't miss the forest for the trees. As the Michael Neal scandal rolls on, with the Health Minister Bronwyn Pike now admitting that the health department "bungled" the case, we need to consider whether the "better protocols" being mooted as the answer for protecting public health in the future are really the answer. Or does officialdom need to dig deeper to discover why transmission rates of HIV in Victoria are high and rising.

 The Magill children finally speak
20 Mar 2007

In an exclusive report in the Bulletin, Julie-Anne Davies speak to Meredith Magill and her three children about life on the other side of a paternity suit. Leslie gets to make a comment too.

 Catch Leslie on the Catch-Up Online
2 Mar 2007

The Catch-Up is a weekday talk show premiering early in 2007. Covering news, entertainment, lifestyle, beauty, fashion and gossip, the show is pitched at Australian women. Leslie spoke about The Abortion Myth with hosts Libby Gore, Mary Moody, Lise Oldfield and Zoe Sheridan.

 There is a Case for Staying the Course
15 Feb 2007

I marched on the streets of Melbourne to express my opposition to the war and Australia's involvement in it. From the trumped-up and ultimately fictitious casus belli, the predicted unpreparedness of the invading forces to win the peace and the incompetent and corrupt reconstruction process, the war's prosecution has fulfilled - indeed exceeded - every gloom-and-doom prediction of the nay-sayers.

 Leslie talks about the ethics of sex selection on ABC Radio National's PM
15 Feb 2007
 Let Us Decide for Ourselves on Euthanasia
1 Feb 2007

The hypocrisy of the Coalition government on issues of personal choice is breathtaking. While supporters of restrictions on junk food advertising to children or universal minimum workplace conditions are "nanny state" advocates, blanket prohibitions on the capacity of terminally ill Australians to control the time and manner of their own deaths are claimed to show adequate respect for individual choice.

 Privacy Should be Our Choice
15 Jan 2007

Privacy, as Victorian Privacy Commissioner Paul Chadwick recently observed, is a freedom most noticed in its absence. Sadly, we only seem to appreciate what we had once it's gone.

 On Changing the Way We Deal with Child Obesity
9 Jan 2007
 A More Positive Approach to Childhood Obesity
7 Jan 2007

Fat camps, prohibitions on junk food advertising, bans on sugary drinks in school canteens, Medicare subsidies for private weight loss programs, chair-free classrooms, food pyramids. Bariatric surgery, school weigh-ins, public service announcements telling kids to take more exercise, public hospital weight management clinics for the young. Bulging childhood waistlines as risk factors for diabetes, heart disease, escalating health care costs and social exclusion. Childhood obesity as lifestyle choice, disease, biological destiny or the result of parental ignorance, sloth or permissiveness. And in 2006, a three-fold increase in the number of Melbourne children - some as young as 10 - admitted to hospital with eating disorders resulting from their morbid fear of fat.

 On the Blogosphere
5 Jan 2007
 Do Blogs Spell the End of Moderated Opinion?
1 Jan 2007

Do blogs spell the end of moderated opinion? As expected, internet enthusiasts say "yes". The destiny of the World Wide Web is to end hierarchical, corporate control over the content and dissemination of knowledge, and the glorious reality - as far as editorial and analysis is concerned - is nothing less than the liberation of the opinionated from the oppressive control of toady, petty and uncomprehending editors.

 Are Fathers Parents or Progenitors?
17 Dec 2006

Once upon a time, there were two men.

The first, Gary, had a child in a shaky marriage. The couple separated, but then reconciled. When Patti discovered she was pregnant, both knew the child could be that of the lover she took during their time apart. Patti agreed to put Gary's name on the birth certificate, and Gary pledged to love and raise the child - Gary Jr - as his own. But when the marriage ended, Patti asked the court to deny Gary further access to the boy on the grounds that he was not the child's biological father. Gary fought back, seeking to maintain contact and both rights and obligations to the child. Ultimately, however, the court held that as "third parties" neither he - nor his parents - had any entitlement to a relationship with the small child.

 Voting Above the Line
16 Dec 2006

It turned out to be a storm in a teacup. In response to calls for a recount from a Victorian ALP confident the Democratic Labor Party's number two man had cheated its own candidate of victory, the Victorian Electoral Commission (VEC) ran the figures again. On Thursday, the elevation of a third Green's candidate to the Upper House was announced.

 The Kovco Case: Mother's Grief Real, and So Are Her Questions
1 Dec 2006

The death of a loved one is always difficult. For parents, regardless of the age of the child, anger, blame, impotence and guilt may accompany more generally experienced feelings like shock, disbelief, confusion, sadness, resentment, bitterness, hopelessness and depression.

 Beyond the 'yuk factor'
29 Nov 2006

WILL the carping of stem cell opponents never cease? First they insist their opposition to liberalisation of the laws governing embryo research is grounded in concern about women being exploited for their eggs. Then, one by one, they misrepresent and then reject every scientific alternative proposed to find alternative sources for such eggs.

 Women can still say "no"
23 Nov 2006

Is stem cell science really anti-woman? Can anyone who truly believes in the right of women to be treated as rational citizens deserving of the same rights and opportunities as men campaign against the science on the grounds that women lack the capacity to give informed consent to egg donation?

 The Difference between a Slut and a Stud
20 Nov 2006

Has anyone been listening to the lyrics of Eminem lately? The man is obsessed about the sexual morays of his lady friends. And women just can't win with this guy. First he tells them that if they don't put out, he'd going to "put them out," while in the next breath he's dismissing them as beneath contempt for sleeping with him on the same day they met. The rap superstar is also pretty direct about his lack of respect for women who offer to worship at his alter (if you get my drift) when all they know about him is that he's lead singer of a band.

 It Matters Who You Are, and Where You Come From
14 Nov 2006

Should arguments stand or fall on their merit? Or is it critical that media consumers get full, accurate and relevant information about who is providing facts, or offering opinion, about matters of public interest?.

 Much Remains Confused about Men, Women, Sex and Power
13 Nov 2006

Here, there, women crying "rape" are everywhere. I worry about the sudden onslaught of rape charges. Of course, I support a woman's right to raise her grievances publicly and have them addressed in a legitimate forum, but I worry that others might not. The men being named are sporting heroes, and it wasn't all that long ago that author Helen Garner questioned the legitimacy of young women bringing charges of sexual assault, both because of serious damage the resulting publicity had on the man's reputation, and because she felt it was the job of young women to take responsibility for the effect their sexuality had on the opposite sex.

 Misconceptions in the Blame Cycle
9 Nov 2006

Women must play and active role in protecting their sexual and reproductive health

 Progressive Social Movements: Is the end nigh?
26 Oct 2006

The challenge for feminists is to beat a system that still stifles them

 Beslan's Terrorists Show the Dark Side of Human Emotions
17 Oct 2006

Damaged children grow up to believe that only violence can change

 There Shouldn't Be One Law for Religions, Another for the Rest
13 Oct 2006

Retiring sex discrimination commissioner Pru Goward's parting comments on the unfettered capacity of the nation's religious institutions to practise gender discrimination were the most interesting - and contentious - of her tenure.

 No Sister, Feminism is Not About Choice
12 Oct 2006

Airing a dream is to criticise and negate the opposing vision

 Multiculturalism and Feminism: Do they Mix?
9 Oct 2006

Do multiculturalism and feminism mix? What about feminism and religious freedom?

 Legal Safeguards Can Make Euthanasia A Legitimate Option
20 Sep 2006

People should have the right to make choices about their own deaths.

 Burlesque evokes a repressive past, not a liberating present
12 Sep 2006

Last Thursday, a number of female scientists stormed out of the dinner of a government- funded conference on climate change. They were outraged at the choice of a scantily-clad, all-woman burlesque troupe that included one performer covered with balloons that conference participants were invited to pop - as entertainment.

 Steve Irwin: Why we admired the boy who wouldn't grow up
6 Sep 2006

For me, the news of Steve Irwin's death caused a Diana moment: the molasses, freeze-time moment of shock that sears whatever one was doing - going to lunch, cleaning the fridge, having a shower - on one's consciousness for ever. I sat at my computer and cried.

 Implications of Dr Suman Sood conviction for unlawful abortion
29 Aug 2006

Leslie talks about the implications of the conviction of New South Whales Dr Suman Sood for unlawful abortion.

 Abbott playing fast and loose with the truth
28 Aug 2006

Since becoming Federal Health Minister, Tony Abbott has demonstrated a casual, at times even antagonistic, relationship with facts that don't support his moral views. This week's performance on Insiders continued this lamentable tradition. The Minister claimed that non-Government politicians supported "human cloning", that the Government's own expert panel recommended the creation of "human animal hybrids", and that a private member's bill sponsored by Senator Natasha Stott Despoja would "force" pro-life organisations to "refer people to abortion services", and deny federal funding to those that didn't.

 Transparency in Advertising
16 Aug 2006

Hear Leslie discuss the lack of regulation prohibiting deceptive and misleading advertising from anti-choice pregnancy counselling agencies

 Contemporary callenges to women's freedom to choose
16 Aug 2006

Leslie joins Jo Wainer in a discussion of her book Lost, and contemporary challenges to women's freedom to choose.

 The Net Brings You The World, But Not Necessarily the Facts
10 Aug 2006

It's enough to make you feel queasy. A recent Harris poll found that half the American public - up from 36% last year -believe Iraq had weapons of mass destruction at the time of the US invasion. This despite the fact that final report of the Iraq Survey Group - experts handpicked by the CIA and Pentagon - concluded that Iraq had no deployable chemical, biological or nuclear weapons in 2003, and had not produced any since 1991.

 Stem Cell D-Day
7 Aug 2006

Late last year, the Lockhart Legislative Review Committee - the Federal Government's own handpicked experts - handed down its recommendations on the fate of stem cell research in this country. Among other things, the Committee recommended lifting Australia's ban on so-called "therapeutic cloning". Having first shelved the report on the basis of a cabinet vote, a backbench revolt saw the Prime Minister agree to a broader discussion at the first party room meeting after winter break. That meeting - otherwise known as Stem Cell D-Day - is today.

 Does "yes" still mean "yes" and "no" mean "no"?
11 Jul 2006

Some called it Camillagate. The streaming of footage from the Big Brother household showing two men sexually dominating a woman, followed by a public outcry for the show to be taken off air. But was there something in the story most commentators missed? Leslie says "yes".

 Rewind
6 Jul 2006

The recent "Camilla" incident streamed from the Big Brother house several weeks ago renewed controversy about the show's suitability for free-to-air TV.

 Accusers, Abusers and Excusers: The Dreyfus Affair Revisited
26 Jun 2006

Download an MP3 encoded recording of the event.

 
 Positive Family Planning Letter
17 Jun 2006

Leslie's letter to the editor on "Positive Family Planning" in the Medical Journal of Australia.

 
 Victims of a Lost Puritanism
20 May 2006

Book Review - Lost: Illegal abortion stories. Edited by Jo Wainer, foreward by Helen Garner. Carlton, Melbourne University Press, 2006. 214 pages. ISBN: 0-522-85231-9

 Living in the public eye means living under public judgement
18 May 2006

Former footballer, broadcaster and TV fisherman Rex Hunt's entanglement in a scandal of his own making may not engage everyone's sympathy and interest. Tabloid-fodder, we might sniff, before returning to the more serious business of sipping lattes and cracking open expensive bottles of chardonnay.

 Stem cell dilemma
16 May 2006

Ethical dilemma from Virginia Trioli's ABC Australia Radio Program. Download an MP3 encoded recording of the interview.

 
 Time to Break the News to Your Children
11 May 2006

Should children be told they were conceived by sperm or egg donation?

 Full disclosure for pregnancy counselling services
9 May 2006

Leslie was interviewed by Henry Grossek (Viewpoints) on 3SER 97.7 FM. Download an MP3 or Ogg Vorbis encoded recording of the interview.

 
 Let's Keep the Counsellors Honest and True
18 Apr 2006

Pregnancy counsellors must declare their stance on abortion.

 Abortion, Corruption & Cops: The Bertram Wainer Story
30 Mar 2006

Crochet hooks, castor oil, slippery elm bark, syringes full of Lifeuboy soap and Dettol. Sepsis, gas gangrene of the uterus, hysterectomies on 12 year olds, deserted pregnant wives taking their children and jumping off the St Kilda pier and women waiting, scared and alone, on a dark windswept corner of Bourke Street for the stranger's car that would take them, huddled beneath a blanket on the floor of the backseat, to the backyard abortionist. And if they haemorrhaged on the kitchen table, the best they could hope for was to be dumped on the corner near the Royal Women's in the hope that someone would find them in time. Many died.

 To tell or not to tell
14 Mar 2006

Ethical dilemma from Virginia Trioli's ABC Australia Radio Program. Download an MP3 encoded recording of the interview.

 
 Women need counselling, not coercion
6 Mar 2006

Pregnancies Don't Need Support, Women Do

ANYONE who followed the debate on RU486, and understood the complex politics surrounding it, knew it was coming: a quid pro quo for the Health Minister to soften the blow of losing his powers to deny Australian women access to RU486. It came last Thursday: a $51 million dollar package for two "pregnancy support measures": a new counselling hotline and Medicare rebate. Then came the story of a push in Victoria to remove abortion from the Crimes Act.

 THE RU486 DEBATE: Death by Amendment
18 Feb 2006

As I write, the Therapeutic Goods Amendment (Repeal of Ministerial Responsibility for Approval of RU86) Bill 2005 may be sliding towards defeat in the House of Representatives. Designed to undercut 1996 amendments to the Therapeutic Goods Act that have effectively banned RU486 and other abortifacient drugs from Australia, the Bill - having passed through the Senate last Thursday - is now the subject of an amendment that, if successful, will see the ban remain firmly in place.

 Letters Page, The Australian, RU486
8 Feb 2006

What woman would want to have an unsafe, illegal abortion when she could have a safe and legal one? Health minister Tony Abbott (Opinion, 6/2) claims to be worried that making RU486 available in Australia would lead to backyard miscarriages and an internet-based black market.

 RU486/Mifepristone: A factual guide to the issues in the Australian debate
8 Feb 2006

A joint publication of Reproductive Choice Australia and the Australian Reproductive Health Alliance. Written by Leslie and launched at Parliament House Canberra on 8 February 2006.

 To RU486 or not to RU486?
24 Jan 2006

In the next few weeks, the Australian parliament will debate a bill that would let the Therapeutic Goods Association (TGA) decide on whether RU486, the abortion pill, could be used in Australia. This has kick started a pretty feisty debate and a strong letter campaign from those who want to stop RU486 from being available in Australia in which Leslie was involved.

 Lift the Ban on RU486!
8 Dec 2005

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, but those who'd hoped the giving spirit might have affected the Prime Minister when it came to the abortion drug RU 486 have found their stockings sadly empty. On Tuesday, the Prime Minister emerged from a Liberal party room meeting to inform the media that the vote expected by the end of next week was cancelled. The Coalition's pre-Christmas legislative agenda was crowded with issues far more important than women's health. Those hoping to find out whether Australian patients will finally get access to a pharmaceutical that doesn't just terminate very early pregnancies, but is used in the treatment of breast cancer and endometriosis, would just have to wait.

 Note to the PM: Politics Don't Belong in Medicine
27 Nov 2005

For those who have been watching the debate about RU486, this coming Tuesday is the moment of truth. That's because Tuesday is the day the Coalition party room meets to discuss whether they will support or oppose a promised Democrat's amendment to the Therapeutic Goods Act that will lift what has effectively been a ban on the "abortion pill" in Australia.

 Book Review - Motherhood: How should we care for our children? Moving beyond the motherwars - changing the way we see and act
27 Nov 2005

Motherhood is the latest in a long line of cri de coeur books by baby-boom women about what is claimed to be the incompatibility of "feminist" ideas about motherhood and female emancipation and their lived experience of motherhood. Like Manne, such authors breathed feminist assumptions - about the equality of men's and women's talents, women's need for economic independence and human flourishing - "as naturally as air". But when their children are born, such women find they conflict with the way they want to mother (or as Manne prefers, the way children need them to mother).

 Paternity Fraud or Paternal Discrepancy?
27 Nov 2005

"Paternity Fraud" implies deceptive women cuckholding men into believing children are biologically theirs. But the truth is more complex, and more human.

 Senator's choices could mean none for women
16 Nov 2005

There's only one thing I have to say about Queensland National's Senator Barnaby Joyce. I hope he's telling the truth.

 Book Review - Call Me Elizabeth and Callgirl
20 Aug 2005

It's a big year for books on prostitution, with Call Me Elizabeth and Callgirl only some of the volumes weighing down gender studies shelves across the nation. At the start of Callgirl Angell gives us an inkling as to the cause of the current obsession when she writes that "people look at me and get a little scared. I could be - I am - one of them. I am their sister, their neighbour, their girlfriend. I'm nobody's idea of what a whore looks like. Maybe that's why I'm scary. They want callgirls to be different, identifiable. That keeps them safe." Thirty-five years after second-wave feminism and in the midst of rising divorce rates, declining fertility and increasing numbers of women willing and able - should a suitable male fail to appear - to go motherhood alone, many of us are confused not just about what women want, but who women really are. Exposes of the secret worlds of women who appear average or even respectable on the outside tantalises us with the prospect of finding out.

 The Sins of Scholarship
15 Aug 2005

Few academics would have slept through the long-running Australian history wars. Sparked by claims made by retired academic Keith Windshuttle that several prominent scholars - among them Henry Reynolds and Lyndall Ryan - misrepresented or falsified data in order fabricate a version of Aboriginal history consistent with pre-existing political agendas, the debate threw a sharp and very public spotlight on the fallibility of scholars and scholarly methods.

 Abortion case could set an ugly precedent
11 Aug 2005

We should not further restrict women's access to late abortions, writes Leslie Cannold. The charging of Dr Suman Sood for manslaughter and procuring an unlawful abortion in NSW is the first such prosecution in that state since 1971, though it was only seven years ago that two West Australian doctors were charged as criminals for providing terminations. Indeed, Australia has a long history of prosecuting women and doctors over abortions and, because of the consistent refusal of politicians to legislate progressively on the issue, common law rulings have had a profound impact on the development of abortion law.

 Book Review - After the Party - Jesse Blackadder
23 Jul 2005

Jesse Blackadder's first novel is an exploration of the physical and eclectic social terrain of Byron Bay: Sydney-sider holiday escape and stopover de rigour for the backpacker set. It follows the chain of events set into motion by Zac's near-death experience at a party given by the emotionally inscrutable Black Dragon. Over a three-week period, Zac, Black Dragon, her friend Madeline and Zac's girlfriend Kate roam between Sydney and Byron, searching and ultimately discovering important truths critical to unlocking their true vocation or potential for love.

 Zealotry trumps humanity in pursuit of dubious cause
18 Jul 2005

There is no end in sight to the painful saga of the long-ago termination of a woman with a foetus diagnosed with dwarfism in 2000. Feeling it has no choice but to defend the principle of patient confidentiality, the Royal Women's Hospital has decided to seek leave to appeal against the Victorian magistrate's ruling at the end of last month. The ruling compels the hospital to hand over the medical records of the woman known to the public as Mrs X, despite that women's persistent refusal to consent to their release.

 To Publish - or to e-publish?
25 Jun 2005

Once upon of time there was a tribe called the Very Smarts. The Very Smarts lived on a island where they planted, tended and then harvested trees from which they carved beautiful and much-sought after canoes. But while the Very Smarts were wonderful craftspeople, they had neither the interest nor the acumen to distribute or profit from their work. Instead, completed canoes were rowed by the Very Smarts to the Teleporting tribe on the mainland. There the Teleporters would put the final touches on the canoe and, with the Very Smarts help, rate each canoe for quality.

 Book Review - Male Trouble: Looking at Australian Masculinities
21 Jun 2005

In his introduction to this collection of academic essays about different aspects and types of contemporary Australian masculinity or, as the authors prefer, masculinities, R.W. Connell notes that: 'It is now a familiar observation that notions of Australian identity have been entirely constructed around images of men.'

 Popular, yes - but is it moral?
18 Jun 2005

It's been driving me crazy for years, but John Howard's comments in Parliament early this week about the rectitude of mandatory detention and public support for it, tipped me over the edge. The time has come for some clarity in the minds of public figures and commentators about what public support for something does - and does not mean - in terms of morality.

 Book Review - Wonder Woman
21 May 2005

By Virginia Haussegger, Allen & Unwin, $26.95

 Madness in the Method
16 May 2005

Start talking research methodology to journalists, and many will run screaming from the room. To be fair, the same might be said of some academics working outside the bounds of history, social or pure science departments. Yet, however technical and dry it seems, researchers working in methodology-driven disciplines know that valid methods aren't a detail, but at the heart of the most important question to be asked of any study: can you trust the results?

 Why We Will Resolve the Conflict Between Work and Family
15 May 2005

Workers are demanding better working conditions, and conditions for family life

 Sex and the Teacher: Was Justice Done?
7 May 2005

Did unconscious sexism lead to a miscarriage of justice in the case of Karen Ellis? On Thursday, the Court of Appeals threw out the 22 month suspended sentence handed down in November by the County Court and re-sentenced the 37 year old school teacher to nearly three years, 6 months of which she must serve in jail. The ruling found the initial sentence had violated the principle of equality, including "equality of concern for male and female victims and equality in the sentencing of male and female offenders."

 Book Review - The Moral of the Story: An anthology of ethics through literature
23 Apr 2005

Over my (far too) many years of studentship and academic employment, I have bought (far too) many books, (far too) many of which have stagnated on my shelves, growing dusty and churlish from disuse. Amongst this unedifying lot have never been tomes edited or authored by Peter Singer. This is not because it is impossible to disagree with Singer, or to occasionally find his fearless exploration of the most complex, sensitive and interesting ethical issues of our times unsatisfying terse and one-dimensional. But rather because with the exception of de Botton, Singer is without peer when it comes to picking the right topic and penning erudite and accessible prose steeped in casual references to philosophical debates on similar issues dating back thousands of years. In The Moral of the Story, written in partnership with wife Renata, he does it again, compiling an anthology that students, academic philosophers and writers interested in ethics (and what writer isn't) will pull off the shelf to thumb through again and again.

 School Holidays: Give Us A Break
18 Apr 2005

For me, school holidays are like housework: highly demanding, ever-present and seemingly never done. My problem, in a nutshell, is while I'd be happy to have the kids at home, the demands of my work mean this only sporadically and occasionally possible. Most of the time, I need care. This means that every time those dreaded two weeks draw near, my "to-do" list looks like this.

 Book review: The Catch
9 Apr 2005

Spritely, sure-footed, rich with colour and authentic understanding of place, The Catch by first-time author Marg Vandeleur maintains its innocence and light-heartedness on a potentially chin-dragging topic: the shortage of suitable men for desperately-ticking women.

 After the DNA, will Abbott get a Reality Check?
24 Mar 2005

Having found a lost a "son", the Minister should be less critical of others

 Choice? What Choice?
14 Mar 2005

Women academics under-achieving has nothing to do with biology or inclination

 Book Review - Motherguilt: Australian women reveal their true feelings about motherhood
5 Mar 2005

Motherguilt bills itself as a book in which Australian women "revel their true feelings about motherhood" and one that assists women to "deprogram themselves" from the powerful and unique "epidemic of guilt" experienced by today's mothers.

 Put an End to Abortion Whispers
4 Feb 2005

As Prime Minister John Howard put it: "You can't have a situation where every time somebody dares to express a view, they're jumped upon from a great height and it's said the issue is back on the agenda."

 The bald facts
3 Feb 2005

WINSTON Churchill said that a fanatic was a person who couldn't change his mind and wouldn't change the subject.

 In Search of the Gorgeous Aussie Bloke
3 Feb 2005

In the great debates about family/work balance and fertility rates, let's not forget men.

 Why are Young Women Welcoming the Return of the Bunny?
14 Jan 2005

The Playboy symbol is enjoying a resurgence in popularity. What does this signify?

 Book Review - Night Thoughts in a Time of War - Bob Ellis
6 Nov 2004

Most people are familiar with at least some of Bob Ellis's long and impressive resume. The author of seventeen books, including the bestselling Goodbye Jerusalem, Goodbye Babylon and First Abolish the Customer, he's also written and directed features and documentaries including The Notradamus Kid and Bastards from the Bush. He's won or been nominated for numerous honours, including the Premier's Literary Award.

 Abortion Critics Deny the Complexity of Choice
12 Jul 2004

British filmmaker Julia's Black's documentary My Foetus won't screen in Australia until August 8, but debate has already begun about whether the film should be censored, and the impact it will have on political debate about abortion.

 A Pregnant Pause for Waiters and Watchers
13 May 2004

The budget will encourage single working women to have children - but more needs to be done

 Deadly price of decency
21 Jan 2004

WE still don't know exactly what sparked the terrible flurry of violence that cost David Hookes his life.

 Fathers look after their children, but seek more thrills for them
7 Jan 2004

USUALLY he amazes, but this time we were appalled.

 Book Review - "The End of Equality: Work, Babies and Women's Choices in 21st Century Australia"
20 Dec 2003

Who better than Anne Summers, a woman who lists among her achievements the best-selling book Damned Whores and God's Police, advisor to former Prime Minister Keating and Officer of the Order of Australia for services to journalism and women, to write about the most pressing social problem of our time: the tragic imbalance between work and family responsibilities, and the devastating impact it is having on women's well-being and the nation's capacity to reproduce itself?

 Staying mum's a cop-out
6 Jun 2001

Feminists expect fathers to do domestic work, so how can they tacitly exempt mothers from paid work?

 The disappearing father
4 Aug 2000

Women don't turn to IVF lightly. Men are fleeing fatherhood.

 Child-care dinosaurs' time is past
25 Jul 2000

Dated views about women and work are deservedly dying out.

 The Horrible Dilemma of the Pregnant Woman
7 Jul 2000

She is pushed to have all the tests, then damned if she terminate late

 Best, yes, but for whom?
3 Jun 2000

BREASTFEEDING: what could be more simple? Best for mother, best for baby, the obvious and necessary feeding choice for all mums, and the only one ethical health professionals can support. Most women reading this would find such "facts'' familiar.

 A mother's birthright
28 Apr 2000

A woman-centred approach to birth includes the right to choose drugs.

 It didn't start with a kiss...
8 Apr 2000

HOW DOES this generation define a transcendent relationship, a perfect twosome, the ultimate love? In his construction of the relationship between Gen-X FBI agents Dana Scully and Fox Mulder, the Australian-born creator of The X-Files, Chris Carter, has taken a leaf from the Victorian era, and added a distinctive 21st-century twist.

 An interminable debate
8 Apr 2000

Giving Sorrow Words, By Melinda Tankard-Reist, Duffy & Snellgrove, $17.95

 It's his baby too, give him paid leave
5 Apr 2000

Both new parents, not just mum, should get time off work.

 Calling all single childless women...
20 Mar 2000

A new ruling may end discrimination in access to donor sperm.

 The population debate we have to have
16 Mar 2000

It's easier to talk about immigration than about why we're having fewer children.

 Bottoms up, sister!
26 Feb 2000

I LOVE The Vicar of Dibley and Dawn French's vicar, Geraldine Granger. But after most episodes, my stomach hurts - figuratively, that is. Which may be better than the literal way the vicar's must feel. Because at some point in each episode of the show, Geraldine does some serious eating: a freezer's worth of icecream, a cupboard full of chocolate bars, an entire Yule Log. That sort of thing.

 School hours: did feminism drop the ball?
21 Feb 2000

Working parents may not be able to rely on the women's movement to help them.

 Do nice guys finish last?
3 Feb 2000

The latest theory out of America about rape is not just wrong, it's dangerous.

 The bully and the bullied, chapter and verse - I confess: I was cruel in school
23 Jan 2000

A lot has been said in the past two weeks about the devastation wrought on children by bullies. I wince when I hear the stories, wince through identification and with shame.

 Identity deficit disorder - it's so you
19 Jan 2000

JENNY McCARTNEY'S hand-wringing about the preoccupation of the modern Western woman with vanity and consumption (on this page, 6/1) has a familiar ring to it. I am 34 now, and for as long as I can remember, responsible society has been exhorting me and my fellow female travellers to consider what we might have time to think about were we spending less time thinking about the shapes of our bodies.

 Charity begins at home, morally speaking
13 Dec 1999

Protecting our loved ones is only natural in a world of un-met misery.

 The anti-choicers' real target is women
29 Nov 1999

Late abortions are emotive fodder for those who deny women moral agency.

 Raising a brood of IVF commodities
21 Oct 1999

Knowing the identity of their biological parents gives children a sense of who they are.

 When more choice means less freedom
18 Oct 1999

IVF advances may make the working lives of women harder, not easier.

 For the love of Jeff
17 Sep 1999

Victoria's intellectuals are blind to the Premier's popular appeal. Here's why.

 Will making women equal change anything?
12 Sep 1999

The issue: Will making women equal change anything?

 Australians Battle Over Definition of Fatherhood
9 Sep 1999

Court and legislative battles have embroiled this nation in an uneasy search for the definitive answer to the vexing question: Who are dads anyway? The deliverers of DNA or the conveyers of care and concern? And if the answer is the latter, can the law insist each child have one?

 Good parents or good citizens?
29 Jul 1999

Taking a tiny risk can serve overall community interests.

 Why women need a workplace revolution
22 Jul 1999

Reproductive technology will never provide the answer to inequality.

 Labor's man of the '50s
30 Jun 1999

Just like John Howard, Martin Ferguson wants to take us back to the future.

 Women are being ripped off, but not by feminism
11 Jun 1999

Don't blame the movement, blame the system.

 Why men hold the key to the new feminism
10 May 1999

All workers, not just parents and not just women, need a life.

 The first cut
10 Apr 1999

TO circumcise our sons or not? Before our first children were born, a Jewish friend and I argued the question. Our non-Jewish partners looked on, unsure what the fuss was about.

 Let's look at the system, not what we do in bed
15 Mar 1999

IN A new book, A Return to Modesty, 23-year-old American Wendy Shalit argues that women's problems spring from their lack of modesty - or, to put it more crudely, their inability to keep their knickers above their knees.

 A role model? No thanks
9 Mar 1999

First Diana, now Monica. They became superstars, but that doesn't make them admirable.

 The quiet renaissance in male culture
12 Feb 1999

THE evidence is everywhere. On the radio, where popular new group Cake sing "I need your understanding, I need your love so much/you tell me that you love me so, you tell me that you care/but when I need you baby, you're never there", and The Whitlams croon about the aphrodisiac effect of loneliness.

 The young beauty and the billionaire
4 Dec 1998

Why both women and men resent this modern parable.

What, no baby? What, No Baby? takes us on journey into the lives of contemporary women who plan to have it all - marriage, motherhood and work - yet have been derailed by reluctant men, insatiably demanding jobs and ever-climbing expectations of what it takes to be a "good" mother.
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The Abortion Myth book cover The Abortion Myth forges a new women-centred abortion ethic capable of preserving a woman's right to control her body and her freedom to choose or reject motherhood.
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