The Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) is pushing for amendments to Western Australia’s proposed new abortion bill before it becomes law. National Director of Politics Wendy Francis says it will basically allow abortion to birth, with girls under 16 no longer needing parental consent.
The state’s lower house has passed the bill with alacrity. It increases the threshold for abortion on demand from 20 weeks gestation to 23 weeks, with procedures after that only requiring a single doctor’s agreement, even through a telehealth consultation from another state. It has dropped a previous pre-abortion counselling requirement.
The ACL claims “public opinion surveys indicate that a majority of more than 60% of the population opposes abortions after 13 weeks, with 76% opposing abortions after 24 weeks.”
Ms. Francis, told Vision Radio, she’s hopeful of getting some changes to the bill: “We are really hopeful because there are some very good politicians over there. I’m thinking of [Christian conservative MLC] Nick Goiran for instance. People will recognise his name, but there’s many good ones over there.”
“One of the things that is particularly concerning is that they have made sure that even under 16-year-olds do not have to get parental permission to have an abortion, so a child can go and have an abortion without their parent even really knowing. The Australian Medical Association (AMA) is concerned about that. The AMA is also concerned that you can get approval for an abortion under this proposed legislation, even from a doctor on the phone from interstate. So not even aware of [a patient’s] particular circumstances,” she said.
“The sort of amendments that are on the cards for the Upper House are legislation that will ban gender selection abortions. We know that is a growing problem, and particularly for girl babies. That any baby born alive will receive the same care and treatment as would be provided to any baby born in a premature state. Mandatory considerations for counselling services. Mandatory pain relief. So there’s a number of amendments, including not being able to immediately refer somebody for an abortion if it’s detected that they might have a baby with Down Syndrome.”
“We certainly have a lot of concerns about this bill. People like Nick Goiran are going to push back on it and that’s a wonderful thing. But we really need to pray because when we open the door to this sort of free killing of babies, a darkness comes upon the soul of all of our state. And there’s just no other way to put it. We abort in Australia, around 100,000 babies [each year]. We terminate their lives before they’re even given a chance to grow. We’re all in a lather because we’re not going to have enough people working when we want superannuation because we’ve got an ageing population. Again, it’s just madness. We’re actually killing the next generation. And then we’re complaining because we’ve got an ageing population and we’re not even regenerating enough to keep our population going. When we turn against God’s way and when we adopt these dark ways of Satan, then it’s very obvious that the whole wheels start falling off our society. And that’s what’s happening,” Ms. Francis asserted.
“Our state director, Peter Abetz, who was formerly a member of Parliament himself, he’s working hard on this. People will know of Peter Abetz, get in touch with him if you want to, but support people like Nick Goiran who are really working hard on getting these amendments through the Upper House and we believe we’ve got a really good chance of getting some of these amendments through.”
“Not that long ago we got some of these amendments through in South Australia and New South Wales, particularly in South Australia, where they have one of the best ‘Born Alive’ bills in the country. If a baby is born alive in South Australia, they receive the same treatment, they even receive pain relief. Around the nation there is no pain relief given to a baby born alive after an abortion. They’re left to die in in places like Queensland and Victoria and even in the Northern Territory. The law is very specific. You are not to give any life sustaining treatment to a baby born alive after an abortion. It’s quite barbaric. And so we’re looking for Western Australia to certainly follow in the path of South Australian legislation. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if all abortion was outlawed? That would be a wonderful day. But if we can get some of these amendments in, then we’re clawing back some some good ground.”
