Two sides of the story on the NSW abortion bill
Will the proposed NSW Abortion Bill empower women, or will it put them at risk of coercion and sex-selective termination? Bethany Marsh and Wendy McCarthy give their views on each side of the case.
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‘PRO-CHOICE’ BILL IS REALLY ANTI-WOMAN
“No uterus, no opinion.” That’s the catchcry of the pro-choice feminists who like to shut down dissent from any and all male pro-lifers.
Why, then, does this not also apply to the young, white male who has recently introduced radical abortion legislation into the NSW parliament? Why, too, does it not apply to the male Health Minister who has given it his backing?
Once again, the pro-abortion lobby, which claims to promote women’s interests, demonstrates their own tactical inconsistencies in a move of utter hypocrisy.
This predominantly male-led legislative push, if anything, promotes the pro-choice movement’s own confected dismay about men controlling women’s bodies.
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Not only does the legislation fail to address this issue, it makes coercion even more likely because it allows abortion on a no-questions-asked basis before 22 weeks. No reason needs to be given, and no questions need to be asked.
If you think liberal abortion laws advance women’s rights; think again.
Coercion isn’t even the worst way that this legislation disadvantages women. That is reserved for the little baby girls in the womb.
Because the bill would allow abortion for any reason, an unborn baby could be aborted purely because of its sex. And, as history sadly shows, females are overwhelmingly targeted in sex-selective abortions and infanticide.
So tell me, are we advancing women’s rights yet?
The blatantly anti-woman nature of this legislation makes it impossible to support.
When you hear radical pro-choicers claiming they are speaking on behalf of women, don’t buy it.
They certainly don’t speak on my behalf, or millions of women like me. And — allow me to use yet another of their idioms — as a card-carrying member of the uterus-having sex, I’m pretty sure our opinion officially counts.
But, of course, the most important reason this legislation should be utterly discarded is that it blatantly disregards the rights of innocent unborn, and unjustly discriminates against their existence.
This is the reality most often forgotten in the abortion debate.
We are dealing with the lives of unborn children who will ultimately be subject to a painful death for the sake of an agenda driven by powerful men in our parliament.
There is no magic that occurs at birth. Just as there’s no difference between an unborn baby of 21 weeks gestation and one of 23 weeks. In all cases that “bunch of cells” is called a human, a person, a baby.
A true feminist would be fighting tooth and nail to protect unborn children — and their mothers — both before and after birth.
These unborn babies deserve every opportunity at life.
Greenwich’s bill will rob them of their future.
Bethany Marsh is in her final year of an arts degree, and is the chair of Lifechoice Australia (lifechoice.org.au)
AGAINST
Watching the Reproductive Healthcare Reform Bill 2019 being tabled before NSW parliament yesterday was a historic moment and an especially proud one for those of us who have spent the past 50 years fighting to see meaningful change of a 1900s law that criminalises abortion.
The new bill makes women and doctors equal before the law.
It is a sad fact that for 119 years NSW women and their doctors have had to skirt around the risk of criminal prosecution to access and provide healthcare in NSW.
In May the NSW Pro-Choice Alliance signalled a sustained campaign and as chair I was very clear that our objective was to overturn these outdated laws that hold no context in our modern world.
Yesterday, we saw a group of 15 cross-party MPs bring a carefully considered bill of reform to NSW parliament, with more co-sponsors than any other piece of legislation in the history of our state and with support from key figures including the Minister for Health.
This broad support has been garnered at a time when more than 70 per cent of the public support decriminalisation and the rest of Australia has leapt ahead of NSW and reformed their reproductive health laws.
The fact other states have paved the way has helped NSW be informed by the careful work done in Victoria in 2008 and Queensland just last year.
The NSW Reproductive Healthcare Reform Bill is a carefully crafted bill which follows the more moderate approach approved in Queensland and sits more conservatively, below Victoria’s approval of abortion up to 24 weeks.
Importantly, and very deliberately, the 22-week limit reflects the timeline at which families may first learn about serious foetal health issues.
I have been working with women to achieve this change since the 1970s, when a group of us gathered and decided to take out an advertisement in the paper declaring our own abortions and inviting the police to come and arrest us.
Abortion has been at the centre of political, ethical and social debate for the past 50 years and this has delayed and denied women access to safe, affordable and accessible healthcare.
I’m astonished that any members of parliament would admit to having missed this debate that has raged for the best part of half a century and subsequently feign surprise by abortion decriminalisation moves in NSW.
This small group of MPs is ignoring most voters by trying to delay NSW joining the rest of Australia in modernising its abortion laws.
We are now on the verge of removing legislation that causes such sadness, ugliness and stigma for women seeking an abortion.
It is high time for women to have independence over their healthcare choices, it is time for NSW to join the rest of Australia in reforming its abortion laws and introducing sensible regulation of abortion as a healthcare issue.
Wendy McCarthy is chair of the NSW Pro-Choice Alliance
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