The Australian Christian Lobby upholds the value of every human life and helped a historic 3,500 strong March for Life earlier this month in Adelaide opposing the SA Liberal Attorney-General’s proposed abortion-to-birth bill.
A mother’s recent evidence to the Disability Royal Commission and a SA medical report should both send the Attorney-General back to the drawing board, ACL SA director Christopher Brohier said.
“A mother told the Disability Royal Commission she received continued pressure from health practitioners to abort her son diagnosed with Down Syndrome,” Mr Brohier observed, “Even to the shocking extent that she was given an appointment slip to get an abortion. Yet the proponents of the SA abortion-to-birth bill say women have autonomy. It is a lie – we will never know how many women bowed to medical pressure and aborted babies they wanted to keep.”
“If the SA government’s bill passes, many women will come under this unscrupulous pressure – right up to birth,” Mr Brohier warned.
The ACL also welcomed the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI) “The Whole Nine Months Plan” released this week, encouraging health practitioners to promote carrying babies in the womb the whole 9-month gestational period.
The report further recommends that births should not be induced without good medical reasons, as preterm births increase babies’ risk of behavioural and problems at school age.
“We commend Health Minister the Hon Stephen Wade for supporting this plan,” ACL SA director Christopher Brohier said, “The Plan is also important because it warns of complications arising from preterm birth as the leading cause of death in Australian children under five years old. Yet medically-induced preterm birth rates are going up nationally”
“The SAHMRI plan reinforces the truth: the baby in the womb is a living and developing human being,” Mr Brohier added, “Bizarrely, the Attorney-General plans to legalise abortion to birth – the termination of the life of a living and viable human being. When you consider the established link between abortion and pre-term births reported in the Journal of Reproductive Medicine, the SAHMRI and government plans are incompatible. Why are we preventing pre-term births in one part of a hospital and facilitating a known risk factor in another?”
The ACL calls on the Attorney General to abandon her risky plan to allow abortion to birth.
