What does a grassroots movement look like?

We have recently returned from a meeting at Port Pirie on Sunday 27 September to raise awareness of, and opposition to, the Liberal Attorney-General’s abortion-to-birth bill, which will be soon tabled in State Parliament. You can find the details of your local Lower House MP by clicking here.

On Wednesday, 23 September the State Lower House passed the Health Care (Safe Access) Amendment Bill 2020. The Bill goes to the Upper House in October.

Freedom to assemble, speak and pray is fundamental to a free society.

September is set to ramp up engagement in the Beautiful Life campaign to love both mums and their unborn children in SA and defeat the Liberal Attorney-General’s abortion to birth legislation, and I want to bring you up to date.

At least 6 of every 100 women who undergo medical abortions experience complications that need hospital care. Yet a recent ABC SA article paid short-thrift to this fatal risk and failed other obligations on non-commerciality, partiality and accuracy, the Australian Christian Lobby said today. 

In April 2020, Flinders University researchers published an online survey entitled ‘Australian Perceptions of Abortion Study’. The survey appeared to have bias and, concerned that it may be referred to in abortion debates in state parliament in coming months or years, I applied under Freedom of Information laws (FOI) for the survey’s supporting data.

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On Wednesday, 22 July 2020, the SA Lower House will debate and possibly vote on the Health Care (Safe Access) Amendment Bill 2020.

The Bill will establish 70,000 square metre zones in at least 12 areas (possibly more) in South Australia where it will be against the law to communicate about abortion in a way that can be seen and heard by those entering or leaving a place where abortions are carried out.

We are being pushed by MPs into a clamp down state which shuts down freedom of speech and facilitates the commercialisation of abortion. The Health Care (Safe Access) Amendment Bill 2020 will ban any communication about abortion within 150 metres of a place where abortions are provided.

The Australian Christian Lobby said that a push for “no-speech” zones around SA abortion clinics, scheduled for State Parliament this week, relies on a deeply flawed survey.

Do you remember all those letters South Australians wrote to their State Coordinator, urging him not to use his Covid-19 emergency powers to change abortion law? Recently, South Australia’s Chief Public Health Officer wrote:

"The current legislation on abortion was not specifically changed by the [Covid-19 Emergency] Response Act. Accordingly, the legislation governing pregnancy terminations remains as agreed by Parliament prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. The decision to not change the current legislation on abortion was influenced by the fact that there was no evidence that this core health service had been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic."

(emphasis, by ACL)