MEDIA RELEASE



Wednesday, 13th November 2013



The Australian Christian Lobby said it’s disappointed a Tasmanian parliamentary report on abortion missed the key issue in the debate over decriminalising abortion – the baby.



ACL’s Tasmanian Director Mark Brown said the finding by the upper house standing committee report into the Reproductive Health (Access to Terminations) Bill 2013 failed to make an adequate case to remove abortion from the criminal code.



“Abortion should remain in the criminal code. It is an appropriate place when the life of a child is at stake,” Mr Brown said.



Mr Brown said whilst ACL welcomed the committees’ finding that the $32,500 proposed fines for counsellors who have a conscientious objection to abortion and refuses to refer a woman onto a service is excessive, there shouldn’t be fines at all.



Mr Brown said the committee has failed to realise that the bill suppresses free speech through supporting jail time for those who might protest outside abortion clinics.



“A free and democratic society should allow those who may disagree with the practice of abortion to express their views in visible displays such as prayer vigils and silent protests,” he said.



He said it was equally disappointing the report findings failed to give doctors with a conscientious objection the freedom from being compelled to refer a woman onto someone else.



“If a doctor or counsellor is opposed to abortion on the moral grounds of not taking innocent life, they must have the freedom not to be complicit in the process,” he said.

“The issue of conscientious objection is one that Victorian doctors are currently fighting to change in their state laws,” he said.

Mr Brown said there were several reasons terminations weren’t being performed at public hospitals beyond the one identified by the committees’ findings.



“The report concludes that fear of criminal prosecution is a barrier to terminating unborn babies at public hospitals. This may be the case but it is not the only reason abortions are not routinely performed in the public system – staff had strong conscientious objections for religious and other reasons. However, this wasn’t included in the findings.



“The issue of fear of criminal prosecution from doctors should be addressed via education rather than legislation,” he said.



Mr Brown said ACL would continue to advocate for the rights of the unborn and urge supporters to contact their members to vote against this bill.



ENDS

Dan Flynn is the Victorian director of the ACL. In this interview with the ACL's Katherine Spackman he discusses the case of Dr Mark Hobart who is currently being investigated by the Medical Board of Victoria for not being able to refer a patient who wanted to abort her baby because it was a girl.  Victorian MP Christine Campbell is concerned about Dr Hobart's case and is circulating a petition calling for an amendment to law to allow for conscientious objections.

Please circulate and sign this petition in support of an amendment to Section 8 of the Abortion Law Reform Act - to be received by 10am Wednesday 6th November 2013



The Abortion Law Reform Act 2008 (the Act) legalises abortion, without any qualification for unborn babies, up to 24 weeks.



Section 8 of the Act requires that a medical practitioner with a conscientious objection to abortion must refer a patient seeking an abortion (or advice on abortion) to another practitioner who has no conscientious objection. This provision has the effect of penalising both freedom of expression and freedom of conscience.



The attached Petition highlights the plight of Dr Mark Hobart, a Victorian Doctor, who recently refused to make a referral for an abortion, where a couple sought to terminate their 19 week old unborn child because she was a girl instead of a boy. For this non-referral the Medical Board of Victoria has commenced a disciplinary investigation of Dr Hobart, despite there being no complaint by his patient.



The Petition seeks that the Legislative Assembly of Victoria protect doctors nurses and allied health professionals from being forced to act against their conscience and refer for abortions.



Speaking in Melbourne on 19 October, Professor Greg Craven (Vice-Chancellor of ACU and Crown Counsel to the Victorian Government from 1992 to 1995) addressed the seriousness of the effect of section 8 .He stated:



“I have never faced a more serious topic in my life…The reason I say that is because…we face a crisis in the protection of conscience in relation to healthcare; a crisis that can spread beyond abortion into all sorts of areas of healthcare; and beyond healthcare into a whole variety of contexts of conscience; and we have to do something about it. … The reality is, the right to conscience is the right not to be constrained against your moral precepts…The basis of that right is the right of every person to an individual personality, because if a person cannot act on their basic moral precepts, they are not a person. A person who does not have a right to conscience has been denied their right to individuality.”

Please print off the Petition and obtain signatures. Then post back to the electoral office of Christine Campbell MP (details at foot of petition) to reach her by 10 am Tuesday 5 November 2013



(Note: currently only handwritten Petitions are acceptable in the Victorian Parliament)