Joyce attacks abortion bill with story of baby son

Barnaby Joyce has used the example of his baby son to attack an historic NSW abortion bill.

Mr Joyce, who welcomed his second baby with former staffer Vikki Campion in June, said NSW MPs should seriously consider the rights of the unborn before voting for the legislation. Picture: AAP

Former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce has used the example of his baby son to attack the NSW parliament over a historic bill to decriminalise abortion.

Mr Joyce, who welcomed his second baby with former staffer Vikki Campion in June, said NSW MPs should seriously consider the rights of the unborn before voting for the legislation.

“On the first of June, Vikki’s and my son Tom took his first breath,” Mr Joyce told federal parliament yesterday.

“This was not the start of his life. The reality is he was part of this world for some time and was merely passing from one room to another.”

Mr Joyce said Tom had rights long before he was born, even though he was not conscious of them, and those rights should not be eroded by the state parliament.

“Inside the womb, Tom kicked, punched, grabbed his umbilical cord, felt pain, slept and dreamt — to say he didn’t have the rights of other human life is to say he must be subhuman,” Mr Joyce said.

“I don’t believe that any person, any doctor, any parliament has the power today to declassify another person as less than human and by so doing removing their most fundamental right to be alive.”

The New England MP’s impassioned speech came as independent state MP Alex Greenwich yesterday introduced the bill to the NSW parliament. He is seeking to remove abortion from the state’s 119-year-old criminal code.

The private member’s bill, which has 15 co-sponsors from across the political divide, allows for terminations up to 22 weeks and later if two doctors “consider that, in all the circumstances, the termination should be ­performed”.

The draft law will not be debated until next week after Premier Gladys Berejiklian was forced to delay a vote amid mounting pressure from conservative MPs.