New President for Voice For Life

At its recent Conference and AGM, pro-life organisation Voice For Life Inc appointed Gisborne Chartered Accountant, Catherine Gillies to the position of National President.

Catherine has had a long association with Voice For Life and frequently speaks to community groups and professional associations on the hidden impact of abortion and how unsupportive attitudes towards unplanned pregnancy can be the catalyst for a lifetime of destructive behaviour.

``Many women are directed to make a life-changing decision at a time when they are in crisis and under intolerable pressure,’’ she says. ``The reality is that the decision to deliberately end a pregnancy is life-changing for everyone. Abortion means that a child conceived is never born and a woman once pregnant has lost a child.’’

Catherine would like to see better information available to women and their families on what their options truly are when facing an unplanned pregnancy. She believes Voice For Life has a huge role to play in developing networks of professional support which connect women and men with practical help.

She comments, ``Women are faced with hard decisions. It is hard for a woman to acknowledge she is unable to raise her child on her own and to see that child adopted into another family. It is hard to imagine welcoming a child into a household already under pressure and it is hard to resolve the long-term issues of walking away from a pregnancy.’’

Outside of her accountancy practice, Catherine continues to act as a voluntary post-abortion counsellor. ``An experience of abortion is borne at great cost and the experience of sitting alongside a woman as she works through and resolves what an abortion decision has meant in her life can be deeply moving,’’ she says.

Catherine takes over the role of President from Mrs Annetta Moran of Auckland who, in her final report to the National Conference, commended the, ``Faithful activity by many to raise the conscience of New Zealanders against one of the horrors in history – the steady acceptance of abortion as a ‘normal option’ for an unplanned pregnancy.’’ Mrs Moran commented also that the groundwork has been laid for a `more informed’ future.

ENDS

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