Debate has resumed on the NSW abortion bill, and the Parliament will now consider the most important issue – late term abortion.
The proponents of this bill don’t merely want to decriminalise abortion; they want to extend the practice of abortion, by raising the stage of pregnancy at which it is freely available.
Thank you for participating in this remarkable and sustained pro-life campaign!
What your sustained pressure on MPs achieved in the NSW Parliament last week:
There has been phenomenal pressure placed on Premier Gladys Berejiklian and the National Party to vote down this dangerous bill. This has not been successful. However, it has resulted in some amendments to attempt to appease people like you who applied the pressure.
Just to recap…
Well over 10,000 people gathered in massive rallies in Martin Place and Hyde Park on the Sundays leading up to critical debates. Our Managing Director, Martyn Iles, other religious leaders and pro-life politicians called on attendees to dig deep in prayer and opposition to this bill.
ACL supporters were instrumental in protests outside National Party AGMs across regional NSW in the last few weeks.
94,000 flyers, exposing the voting behaviour of National Party MPs, were delivered into six NSW electorates.
You made phone calls to the offices of numerous National Party MPs.
In response to this pressure and in a desire to save their electoral hides, enough pro-abortion MPs agreed to some amendments.
Just to remind you, the amendments that were demanded by pro-life MPs, seeking to make a bad bill better were:
- A ban on sex selection abortion
- That babies born alive as a result of an abortion be given lifesaving care
- That health practitioners be not forced to refer a mother seeking an abortion to a health practitioner that is pro-abortion
- That there be a ban on late term abortion.
With pro-life messages being chanted outside Parliament in late night sittings, some amendments were grudgingly obtained last week that, on the face of it, address the first three points. Relevant amendments were:
- A statement that the NSW parliament opposes sex-selective abortions, and that a future parliamentary report on the issue is to include prevention recommendations.
- A statement that “The duty owed by a registered health practitioner to provide medical care and treatment to a person born as a result of a termination is no different than the duty owed to provide medical care and treatment to a person born other than as a result of a termination.”
- A requirement that a doctor with a conscientious objection to abortion will have to direct patients seeking an abortion to NSW Health.
These amendments may only be a gesture of capitulation in the face of an unprecedented public display of opposition to abortion.
