Back to the drawing board with a deeply divisive bill

The Berejiklian Government has achieved so much, particularly with several much-needed infrastructure projects, which will have significant long-term benefits for the state.

It is disappointing that this sound record of achievement is being overshadowed and damaged by this deeply flawed and very divisive abortion bill before the NSW Parliament.

While the Premier should be commended for allowing more time to debate the bill in the Upper House before it potentially becomes law, the best option for the Premier would be to ditch the bill altogether and go back to the drawing board to make sure her government gets it right, as it is has caused a lot of understandable anger, division and disappointment in the community.

This totally unnecessary self-inflicted wound can definitely be cured. An important issue such as this should not be rushed into law, with its potentially serious political and social consequences.

Thomas Carrie, Summer Hill, NSW

The actions of men, mainly religious men, in the abortion debate in NSW is an absolute disgrace, including the call that it is all about killing children.

Unfortunately, some women find themselves in untenable situations in pregnancy, including the fact that sometimes due to serious congenital conditions some pregnancies will result in unviable babies being born.

Is it really preferable that we have a situation where the woman must continue with a pregnancy knowing that when the baby is born it will not live? This is a complex area that needs understanding and counselling and not the criminal code.

If the people protesting so loudly about the killing of babies believe that is the issue, then let us fill our jails with all the women in NSW who have ever had an abortion, lock them all up and see how society functions when a third of the female population is in jail.

Michelle Kerr, Asquith, NSW

Abortion was never a key political or social issue in the re-election of the Berejiklian Government. It was not part of the Liberal Party policy.

Furthermore, there is a very real sense of underlying anger in the community that opposition was stifled and that there was little consultation on the right to life.

While abortion is accepted as a reality, ultimately very few are in favour. Gladys Berejiklian was supported for her handling of roads, schools, tunnels, hospitals, transport and so forth, not for introducing controversial social policies from left field.

James A. Athanasou, Maroubra, NSW

A child needs to be wanted. Nearly every week, I cry when I read of the short, and often horrific, lives some children endure, mostly at the hands of their loving parents.

The choice should be the mother’s and not that of a group, usually with religious affiliations and often dominated by men.

Believe me, women don’t rush into abortions, but they have the right to have one in the safety of a hospital and not in someone’s back room.

Joy Chariton, Sydney, NSW

I think that my opinion should carry less weight than that of a woman for no other reason than that I will never be in a position of having to consider aborting a child that I am carrying.

However, what sets my opinion apart from that of many others is that I am an adopted child. My birth mother fell pregnant with me in her mid-20s, she was not married and it was the mid-1960s. The biological father offered to “take care of it”, which of course is me.

Needless to say that my birth mother chose a much different path at great sacrifice to herself. After adopting me out, she went on to marry and have her own family.

I am now well into my 50s and after losing my parents, I decided to take a chance and write that letter that I had planned for so long. Within days, I received a phone call from my birth Mum. We have a great relationship now from a distance and respect fully each other’s lives, privacy, decisions and past. I have two new beautiful young sisters that I cherish along with my adopted older sister. Life is good for all of us.

I would never force my opinions on any woman who finds herself in a position of having to consider an abortion. That said, I have had an amazing life that would of course not have been at all possible had I been “taken care of”. My wife, three sons, my dog and I thank my birth mother from the bottom of our hearts.

Mark Palmer, Inverell, NSW