Victorian Legislative Council votes 27-11 to defeat Infant Viability Bill 2015

On 25 May 2016, after just two hours of debate, the Legislative Council of Victoria voted down, by 27 votes to 11, the Infant Viability Bill 2015 introduced in October 2015 by Democratic Labour Party member Hon Dr Rachel Carling-Jenkins.

The Bill would have prohibited abortions from being performed in Victoria at 24 weeks of pregnancy or later; it would have required medical practitioners to refer women in late pregnancy in distress to appropriate support services; and it would have required appropriate care be given to any baby delivered at 24 weeks of pregnancy or later.

Dr Carling-Jenkins explained that she set 24 weeks of pregnancy as the cut off date for the Bill "predominantly on the basis of 24 weeks gestation being, in practice here in this state [Victoria], accepted as the point of viability for infants."

Picture from L'il Aussie Prems  

In 2011, the latest year for which data has been published by the Consultative Council on Obstetric and   Paediatric Mortality and Morbidity, there were 378 abortions performed in Victoria at 20 weeks or later. Of these 183 were performed for “maternal psycho-social indications” and 195 for “congenital abnormality” (that is the baby had, or was thought to have had, a disability). Forty (40) babies aborted at or after 20 weeks for disability survived the abortion and were born alive but all died subsequently. (Table 6.19, p. 136) There is no evidence that these babies were given resuscitation or other appropriate medical care.

Ten (10) abortions for “maternal psycho-social indications” were performed at 28-31 weeks, well past the stage of viability, and one (1) at 37 weeks or later. (Table 6.20b, p.141).

Despite this published data, the Minister for Agriculture, Hon Ms Jaala Pulford, falsely claimed that all abortions performed at 24 weeks or later were carried out at two public health facilities and were performed for late diagnosed congenital abnormalities.

Dr Carling-Jenkins is to be commended for attempting to wind back Victoria’s unrestrictedly permissive abortion law and seek to provide protection for babies who are clearly at the stage of viability and their mothers.

The other ten members who supported the Bill also deserve commendation, noting that some of them, such as Hon Daniel Mulino, while supporting abortion in general, acknowledged the justice of protecting unborn babies who have reached viability.

The members who voted for the Bill were:

Ms Melina Bath (National) melina.bath@parliament.vic.gov.au

Mr Jeff Bourman (Shooters & Fishers) jeff.bourman@parliament.vic.gov.au

Dr Rachel Carling-Jenkins (Democratic Labour) rachel.carling-jenkins@parliament.vic.gov.au

Hon Richard Dalla-Riva (Liberal) richard.dall-riva@parliament.vic.gov.au

Hon Damian Drum (National) damian.drum@parliament.vic.gov.au

Mr Nazih Elasmar (Labor) nazih.elasmar@parliament.vic.gov.au

Mr Bernie Finn (Liberal) bernie.finn@parliament.vic.gov.au 

Mr Daniel Mulino (Labour) daniel.mulino@parliament.vic.gov.au

Hon Gordon Rich-Phillips (Liberal) gordon.rich-phillips@parliament.vic.gov.au

Hon Adem Somyurek (Labor) adem.somyurek@parliament.vic.gov.au

Mr Daniel Young (Shooters & Fishers) daniel.young@parliament.vic.gov.au

Overall abortion rate continues to fall in Western Australia but late term abortions double

The 1998 abortion legislation in Western Australia made it mandatory to report every abortion performed in Western Australia, regardless of method, to the WA Department of Health’s Abortion Notification System.

Although the statistics are only published in detail triennially, with the most recent report published covering 2010-2012, the basic statistics have been obtained through parliamentary questions asked each year initially by the Hon Ed Dermer MLC and, in recent years, by the Hon Nick Goiran MLC.

The answers to the latest questions regarding abortions performed in 2015 were provided on 10 May 2016.

Overall decline in abortion rate

There were 8105 abortions performed in Western Australia in 2015 compared to 8467 performed in 2014 – a drop of 4.46% in raw numbers. This is the lowest number performed in any year since legalisation apart from 2003 (7942), 2004 (7968) and 2005 (7828).

More significantly the abortion rate – that is the number of abortions performed as a percentage of the number of abortions plus the number of live births – has continued to steadily fall from a peak of 26.06% in 2001 to a new low of 18.66% in 2015, that is from one in every 3.83 unborn children being aborted in 2001 to one in every 5.35 children being aborted in 2015.

If the abortion rate had stayed as high as it was in 2001 an additional 3215 unborn children would have been aborted last year.

A window into the womb

In the absence of detailed studies it is difficult to explain this steady decrease in the abortion rate. However, it is likely that ultrasound – that amazing window into the womb – has played a key role.

The abortion lobby’s attempt to describe the unborn child as a nonentity, a cluster of cells, a zero, a tumour, a parasite, nonhuman, nonliving, a non person and so forth is becoming more difficult in the face of ultrasound images of that cluster of cells smiling, sucking its thumb, and in the case of twins cuddling and playing together.

The recent outburst by the National Abortion Rights Action League complaining that the Doritos advertisement screened to millions of viewers during the Superbowl was “humanizing fetuses” illustrates the difficulty for the advocates of abortion as a merely trivial act.

Full credit also to the front line prolife witnesses outside Perth’s abortuaries – 40 Days for Life and the Helpers of God’s Precious Infants as well as the crisis pregnancy centres – Pregnancy Assistance and Pregnancy Problem House who are saving unborn children one at a time.

Teenage abortion rate also falling

The number of abortions of teenage women (under 20 years) performed in 2015 hit a new low of 706 - down from a high of 1663 performed in 2006 when 54.44% of teenage pregnancies ended in abortion.

In 2014, the most recent year for which data on teenage births is currently available, the teenage abortion rate had fallen to 43.23%.

Late term abortions increasing

The number of abortions performed in 2015 at over 12 weeks gestation was 580 or 7.16% of all abortions. This rate of later abortions has climbed from 4.49% in 1999 reaching over 7% first in 2011.

The most alarming figure for 2015 is the number of abortions performed at 20 weeks gestation or later which more than doubled to 73 from 36 in 2014. Abortions at 20 weeks or later have increased from a low of 0.32% of all abortions performed in 1998 to almost one percent (0.90%) in 2015.

This dramatic increase, despite supposed closer scrutiny by the Minister for Health, gives new grounds for an urgent, thorough inquiry into the practice of late term abortion for disability in Western Australia.

TAKE ACTION NOW:

Write to Hon Colin Barnett MLA, Premier, 1 Parliament Place, WEST PERTH WA 6005 email wa-government@dpc.wa.gov.au and express in your own words your concern that the number of abortions performed at 20 weeks gestation or later has more than doubled in just one year from 36 in 2014 to 73 in 2015. Point out that these abortions are being performed on discriminatory grounds against babies with disabilities and carried out close to or after the point of viability of 22/23 weeks when premature babies are surviving in Western Australia.

Ask him to support a full inquiry into this practice.

Election 2 July 2016: the life issues

On 2 July 2016 Australian electors in the six states will be choosing thirteen men and women to represent them in the Commonwealth Parliament – one member of the House of Representatives and, following the dissolution of the Senate, twelve Senators to represent their State.

For those who understand that the fundamental human rights issue of our time is the right of every human being, regardless of stage of development, age, sex or disability to be protected by law from having his or her life deliberately ended for any reason the primary consideration in allocating their votes on 2 July 2016 will be the attitude and intention of the candidates for election to the life issues that are within the constitutional power of the Commonwealth Parliament.

Abortion

The Commonwealth Parliament has no direct constitutional power in relation to the legality of abortion. However, the Commonwealth Parliament is responsible for the funding of abortion – in Australia through Medicare and the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme and overseas through Australia’s overseas development assistance programme.

Each year both the House of Representatives and the Senate have the opportunity to disallow the regulation that authorises a rebate for two abortion items on the Medicare schedule:

• ·        Item 35643 currently sets a scheduled fee of $218 for a surgical abortion by curettage of suction curettage;
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• ·        Item 16525 currently sets a scheduled fee of $384.35 for an induced abortion in the second trimester.

In 2015 Medicare paid out $9,282,513 under item 35643 for 53,989 surgical abortions and $205,779 for 711 second trimester induced abortions.

The Pharmaceutical Benefit Scheme subsidised the cost of mifepristone (RU486) and misoprostol used in chemical abortions, paying out $3,511,837 between April 2016 and March 2016 for 12,519 abortions.

In previous Parliaments, former Senator Guy Barnett (Liberal, Tasmania) worked hard to build support for disallowing item 16525 which funds second trimester abortions and Senator John Madigan (Independent, Victoria) introduced a bill to prohibit the use of Medicare funds to subsidise abortions performed solely on the grounds of the sex of the unborn child.

Recently retired Senator Joe Bullock (Labor, Western Australia) continued the work done by Senator Ron Boswell (Liberal National Party, Queensland) to ask questions through the Senate estimates process revealing that Australian overseas assistance development was helping International Planned Parenthood achieve its goal of aborting over one million unborn children each year.

Euthanasia

Both the Australian Greens and the Liberal Democratic Party have proposed or introduced bills in the Commonwealth Parliament to either remove the current restriction on the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory from making “laws permitting or having the effect of permitting the form of intentional killing of another called euthanasia or the assisting of a person to terminate his or her life” or, based on a doubtful interpretation of the constitutional power for the Commonwealth to legislate in regard to the provision of medical services, to authorise medical practitioners to perform euthanasia or assisted suicide despite State criminal laws to the contrary.

It is likely that a euthanasia or assisted suicide bill of some kind will be proposed in the new Parliament.

Cloning and human embryo research

The law permitting human cloning in Australia passed the Senate in 2007 by just one vote.

Cloning and human embryo research is permitted under laws passed by the Commonwealth Parliament using a range of constitutional powers, including the corporations power.

These laws should be changed to prohibit such assaults on human life.

In the ballot box human lives are in your hands

It is essential that prolife voters use their vote to ensure the election of committed prolife MPs and Senators prepared to actively pursue the life issues in the Parliament.

No other issue matters as much as the right to life!