FIREBRAND figures with extremist views about abortion laws, women’s rights and the family unit are controversially backing a families’ forum that three federal politicians are supporting.

The World Congress of Families conference, which will be opened by federal Social Services Minister Kevin Andrews, and is being publicly endorsed by conservative Coalition MPs Eric Abetz and Cory Bernardi, has already sparked headlines for featuring the research of United-States based doctor Angela Lanfranchi, who links breast cancer to abortion.

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But Dr Lanfranchi is far from the only contentious figure attending the conference, which will be held on August 30 in Melbourne.

The program for the one day event lists a number of “sponsoring organisations” which include Pastor Daniel Nalliah’s Catch the Fire Ministries.

Mr Nalliah, who has also formed the Rise Up Australia political party, sparked outrage when he linked the Black Saturday bushfire’s with Victoria’s abortion laws, by claiming he had a dream about raging fires and God’s protection being “removed from the nation of Australia, in particular Victoria, for approving the slaughter of innocent children in the womb”.

Today, he says those comments were taken out of context by the media.

While Mr Nalliah is not organising the event, he confirmed he will be supporting it and promoting it among his network of parishes.

“To have government leaders also endorsing and speaking at the event is also a great achievement,” he said.

Fellow sponsors include the Memucan Institute, which lists its purpose as defending traditional masculinity and has described the push for women’s equality as a “jihad”.

“The equality for women jihad is in reality waging a war against the primacy and stability of family life, due democratic processes, and ultimately against the concepts of masculinity and femininity,” the Institute’s mission statement reads.

The group’s convener Alan Barron said he is supporting the World Congress of Families conference because its basic principles of being pro-traditional family, anti-abortion and anti-gay marriage aligned with his views.

Evangelical group Salt Shakers, which does not endorse the use of contraception and describes homosexuality as “dangerous” is another “sponsoring organisation”.

A spokeswoman for Social Services Minister Kevin Andrews said the conference was “about families, therefore it relates to the Minister’s portfolio”.

She said the choice of speakers was a matter for conference organisers.

But Senator Bernardi said he supported overarching themes of the conference, including the sanctity of life and the family, and was grateful to the sponsors.

“What I don’t support is the tyranny of political correctness, the preferred weapon of the progressive agenda, which seeks to shut down debate and condemn ideas that differ to their own world view,” Senator Bernardi said.

“As to the sponsors, I am just grateful that there are people prepared to financially support defending unborn children and the continuing threat to family life,” he said.

“I just wish a few more politicians would be courageous enough to do the same.”