AN earlier Cairns News report citing Family First’s Lyle Shelton as saying a Green MP’s Amanda Cohn’s private member bill to increase abortion availability in NSW hospitals was basically defeated, is partially incorrect.
We have since learned that the bill, with one of its worst amendments in place, passed the Upper House with the support of four National Party MLCs and two Liberals.
However anti-abortion protesters have claimed some success with three of four of their key amendments passed to throw out some of the bill’s worst provisions. They also added a provision for an annual data report on abortion statistics in NSW including adverse events.
Last Wednesday an estimated 10,000 Sydney people and others from as far afield as the NT and WA, rallied outside the NSW Parliament to oppose the bill. During the rally protest leader Dr Johanna Howe was informed that the vote on the second reading of the Bill was lost 24-16.
Dr Howe, a professor of law in Adelaide, had worked with Libertarian MLC John Ruddick, to introduce pro-life amendments to the bill, such as medical aid for infants who survive abortions and to outlaw sex-selective abortion. However a non-conscience, party vote by Labor and the Greens blocked Ruddick’s amendments even from debate.
Further on the negative side, Labor and the Greens successfully amended current legislation to allow nurses and midwives to perform abortion procedures including the administration of abortion drugs, up to 22 weeks. Dr Howe says these drugs, which are the cheaper option for abortions, do not only kill infants in the womb but can cause serious side effects in one of every nine such procedures.
She is urging all her supporters to call every Lower House member to block that amendment, which she says is one of the worst aspects of the bill, when the final reading is vote on this Tuesday (May 13th).
Successful for the protesters was the defeat of an amendment backed by Dr Cohn to oblige doctors exercising conscientious objection to an abortion to refer a woman to a doctor who they reasonably believe would perform the abortion. In other words, a doctor exercising conscientious objection must be override it.
A further win for the opponents of the bill was an amendment from Robert Borsak of Shooters, Fishers & Farmers Party, taking away the power of the Health Minister to direct all hospitals to facilitate abortions.
Those voting for the bill included Nationals MLCs Scott Barrett, Wes Fang, Sarah Mitchell and Nichole Overall (pictured) and two Liberals, Jaqui Munro and Natalie Ward.
These relatively young, naive MPs apparently have no idea of what constitutes conservative values, which the National Party across Australia, and some Liberals, have traditionally advocated. For Nationals to vote with the Greens and Labor on an anti-life bill will be considered a shocking betrayal to many in their base.
We should note that six Liberals not only voted against the Bill, but others spoke at the protest outside the Parliament. They included former PM Tony Abbott who quite rightly pointed out that the bill was a serious attack on freedom of conscience and religion.
““This is an attempt to cancel conscientious healthcare professionals. It’s an attempt to drive good Christian people, and good Muslim people and Jewish people out of our health system,” said Abbott.
“It’s designed to drive institutions of principle and faith out of our system. It is an assault on our fundamental rights and freedoms, and it must be fought.”
Philosophically the Greens are a party of anti-industrial nature worshippers who see human life as on a par with animals and vegetation, and that humans should be controlled and culled like any other animal whose numbers become a threat to ecosystems.
Dr Howe also noted the role of the rabidly pro-abortion women’s group Emily’s List, which operates inside the Labor Party.
