Opinion: Labor’s Abortion Bill is ideology dressed up as health care

IN THE next 48 hours, the Queensland Parliament will debate and vote on one of the most important and controversial pieces of legislation ever to come before the Chamber.

IN THE next 48 hours, the Queensland Parliament will debate and vote on one of the most important and controversial pieces of legislation ever to come before the Chamber.

It’s not about stopping farmers clearing trees or sending cab owners broke through deregulation.

It’s not even about trying to get the trains to run on time, nor is it about saving an iconic Queensland industry like racing. It’s about the most sacred of all topics; the involuntary right to be born, or more specifically, the right to choose to kill an unborn child.

That sounds rather crass but the time for niceties is over as the vote on this Bill looms. State MPs have been told by their leaders that on this piece of legislation they have been afforded a so-called “conscience’’ vote, meaning they can vote how they like, because of the moral, ethical and religious connotations attached to abortion.

it’s important that Queenslanders understand what this Bill allows. Source: iStock

For Labor MPs, the notion of a conscience vote on any legislation – least of all one proposed and championed by the highly persuasive Deputy Premier and Treasurer Jackie Trad – is a farce.

Trad says this abortion Bill is personal, meaning her powers of persuasion will be even more finely attuned with her Caucus colleagues. But it’s important that Queenslanders understand what this Bill allows.

There’s a misconception that this new law only allows women to terminate their unborn child up to 22 weeks. Not true. This Bill allows a woman to abort a healthy unborn baby up until 37 weeks, or full term. It must be on “social circumstances’’ grounds and the woman must get the okay from two doctors.

Social circumstances can include economic disadvantage, relationship breakdown or even sex selection.

In Victoria, on which the Queensland laws are closely mirrored, a woman two years ago aborted a healthy baby at 37 weeks. From 2009-15 in Victoria, 1123 babies were aborted between 20-27 weeks.

Between 2009-11, 28 healthy babies were aborted between 28 and 31 weeks.

These are the same laws that will exist in Queensland. The key here is “healthy’’ babies. To be sure, I believe there are valid and compelling reasons to abort an unborn child if there are major foetal abnormalities. A woman who is raped must also have that choice – before 22 weeks.

Of the 4855 public submissions on the upcoming abortion Bill, 78 per cent were opposed, 15 per cent were in favour and 7 per cent unsure.

In a recent YouGov/Galaxy poll, commissioned by Cherish Life and the Australian Family Association, 62 per cent of Queenslanders believe that an unborn child at 23 weeks of pregnancy is a person with human rights.

That figure went up to 69 per cent of females. One in four Queenslanders knows at least one woman who took the decision to have an abortion following pressure from another person.

Just 6 per cent of those polled said they believed women should have the right to abort a child up until birth.

The poll also showed that more than half of all Queensland voters (54 per cent) say that if their local MP voted in favour of this Bill, it would influence how they voted at the next election.

In last month’s public hearings into the Bill, a late-term Brisbane abortion provider Dr Carol Portmann spoke on the subject of coercion. She said: “Certainly there will be circumstances where we are sure that (coercion) is happening … sometimes even in the best of circumstances, we understand that a person is to a degree being coerced, but feel they still need to go ahead because it is their only choice, because otherwise this person will leave them and their four kids.’’

Renowned American feminist Camille Paglia recently tore into her own side on the issue of abortion. Writing in Salon.com she said the issue had become “an ideological tool ruthlessly exploited by my own party, the Democrats, to inflame passions, raise money and drive voting’’.

Depressed teenager with positive pregnancy test.

“Abortion has become a feminist sacrament, promoted with the same religiosity that (feminist) Gloria Steinem and her colleagues condemn in their devoutly Christian opponents,’’ she wrote.

The hysteria whipped up in the US over the Supreme Court appointment of Brett Kavanaugh was linked to the 1973 case of Roe v. Wade, which effectively makes abortion legal in the US.

Feminists believe Kavanaugh wants to change the law, despite having said repeatedly he has no intention of doing so. It is hard to argue, especially at key stages of pregnancy, say between 30 weeks and 37 weeks, that you are not actually killing a baby.

This is obvious when you look at the advancements and success rates with premature births.

Then there’s the “right to protest’’ provisions within the Bill, or the “safe space’’ component.

This effectively bans any protest within 150m of an abortion clinic.

It does seem ironic coming from a Labor Government, which allows unions to lawfully shout and scream abuse outside workplaces, yet now includes the provision of jail for people exercising their democratic right to protest against abortions.

This abortion law is the totemic issue for the Left of the Labor Party. It is ideology dressed up as health care.

The Left of the Labor Party runs Queensland. But you already knew that.