Abortion protestors face off outside parliament

THE abortion debate heated up today when both sides of the controversial issue clashed outside the Victorian Parliament.

Thousands of anti-abortion campaigners stopped traffic as they marched down Melbourne's Bourke Street and onto the steps of Parliament to protest the new abortion laws under debate.

Across the road a few hundred pro-choice campaigners chanted slogans calling for abortion to be decriminalised.

The protesters are sending their messages as the Victorian Parliament begins debate on legislation to remove abortion from the Crimes Act this week.

Abortion is currently permitted in the state under a common law ruling only if it is to protect the woman's health.

The rowdy demonstrations attracted a heavy police presence with officers acting as a human barricade to keep the two groups separated.

Pro-choice campaigners chanted slogans including: "Right to life your name's a lie, you don't care if women die", "Get your rosaries off our ovaries" and "Not the church, not the state, women must decide their fate".

The anti-abortion campaigners, including many parents and their young children, waved banners with slogans saying: "Justice for the unborn", "Abortions hurt women" and "Defend the unborn".

University student Jason Ball, 20, said that while today's demonstration was easily outnumbered by anti-abortion campaigners, the large majority of Victorians wanted women to have the right to choose.

"Eighty per cent of Australians support the right to choose," he said.

"If you weigh up between the feelings of a grown woman and an unborn child, the unborn child is not conscious of its own surroundings."

Fellow pro-choice campaigner, Fleur Taylor, 37, said the right to choose should be a fundamental human right.

"It should not be up to doctors, legislators, the church or psychologists to tell women whether or not they make the fundamental decision that they are going to have to live with for the rest of their life."

Mother of two Helena Lindorff, 30, said she attended the rally to give unborn children a voice.

"If I listened to that crowd I wouldn't have these beautiful children. They (children) don't have a voice when they're in the womb and as human beings we have to make sure that we give them a voice."

Jacinta LePage, a student doctor, said she wanted to be a part of the day to express the concerns of some doctors, many who were against late-term abortions.

"I think to abort a baby that can live outside of the womb is murder," she said.

"I want to be an obstetrician, gynaecology doctor and I will be forced in my training to do abortions that I completely disagree with."