When I was in Adelaide recently at the Walk for Life, a midwife shared a disturbing testimony about a time when she was present during a late-term abortion.
The dead baby was placed on a table and she was asked to photograph it for record-keeping purposes. However, the camera flash startled the baby and it began to breathe.
It was alive.
Not knowing what to do – and having no power to do anything – she put the baby in a storeroom. She checked on it over the course of hours until it slowly died, alone, without any medical care.
Now, you might assume this is a rare situation, but it’s not. Researchers at the Parliamentary Library provide the following data…
- In Victoria from 2012-2016, 198 babies were born alive and left to die (over 10%)
- In Queensland from 2005-2015, 204 babies were born alive and left to die
- In Western Australia from 1999-2016, 27 babies were born alive and left to die
The other states don’t keep records of live births during abortions – but they all have similar extreme abortion laws to Victoria – so there could be hundreds of live births in Australia every year.
Guidance from Queensland Health says to practitioners,
“If a live birth occurs, do not provide life-sustaining treatment. Document the date and time when the end of life occurs.”
In other words, wait for the baby to die.
The South Australian Attorney-General’s Department produced an FAQ about late-term abortion recently and it included the following statement about what happens when a baby is born alive.
“It is wrapped in a blanket and the mother is given the opportunity to hold the baby as it dies.”
Midwives attest that the mother usually doesn’t hold the baby. She desired to abort it – it’s too confronting to hold it. So, usually the baby dies alone.
If this was happening to newborn puppies, whales or wombats, the animal rights outcry would be off the charts. But strangely, the humane treatment of animals does not always equate to the humane treatment of human beings.
These children are living, breathing, capable of feeling pain, and capable of responding to affection. They are whole human beings, born alive and breathing.
George Christensen, the member of Parliament for Dawson in North Queensland, has drafted a new bill resolve this. It’s called the Human Rights Children Born Alive Bill 2021 and it makes this simple change to the law:
“A child which is born alive is to be rendered medical care as if it were a child born alive, otherwise.”
Too many children are deemed not worthy of life, not worthy of saving, not worthy of health care because the mother has decided the child is unwanted. This bill effectively says “a living child is a child – regardless of how you feel about it.”
You and I know, evil has consequences. It wreaks havoc on people’s conscience and on our world. That’s why I’m so grateful for your generosity, prayers, and advocacy to help oppose injustice like this and be a voice for those who cannot speak for themselves.
