Australia’s Largest Christian News Site

It’s been a momentous week for the pro-life movement in Australia.

The dismay and disbelief of the Senate voting down Senator Ralph Babet’s motion of urgency remains. The simple motion was to recognise the tragedy that every week in Queensland and Victoria, at least one baby is born alive after a failed abortion and left to die with no legal protection.

But a broader perspective reveals that while that vote was lost, the battle for the right to life of these babies certainly has not.

I doubt there’s ever been a time in the Australian mainstream media where the human rights issue of the right to life of babies has hit the headlines as much as this week.

Queensland Inquiry into Babies Born Alive After an Abortion

The catalyst for this exposure began on Monday, 19 August, as Queensland held a parliamentary inquiry into Robbie Katter’s Termination of Pregnancy (Live Birth) Bill 2024.

During that inquiry, Queensland midwife Louise Adsett held back tears as she spoke publicly about her experiences of babies born alive after an abortion and left to die.

Adsett blew the whistle on this national disgrace – that very few Australians are still aware of. The Queensland midwife gave one example of a baby boy born at 21 weeks’ gestation. She said, “This baby boy fought for his life for five hours before taking his final breath. This is not an uncommon occurrence.”

Adsett’s explosive testimony did not go unnoticed. The Australian picked up and ran the story as did the Daily Mail.

As of today, that latter article has had 80 shares and 246 comments.

The comments on the Daily Mail piece are well worth reading. One person responded, “I’m pro-choice and about as left-leaning as it gets, but we can’t allow babies to suffer like this. I had no idea. This brings me to tears. Those poor loves, left to die.”

The next morning, Matthew Pantelis on Adelaide’s FiveAA radio station interviewed Dr Joanna Howe. Pantelis played audio of Adsett’s “absolutely harrowing” account before the Queensland inquiry committee.

The FiveAA radio host also took aim at the Liberal Marshall Government’s abortion reform allowing abortion up to birth in South Australia, calling the move quite “unexpected and quite unprompted by, well anyone”.

Federal Senate Motion of Urgency

Monday’s Queensland inquiry gave the impetus for Victorian Senator Ralph Babet to submit a motion of urgency. The purpose was for the Senate to acknowledge this tragic reality that occurs in Australia every week.

A successful motion, by itself, would have done nothing to change the situation for these helpless, dying babies. The motion was not a vote on the Human Rights (Children Born Alive Protection) Bill 2022 which has sat idle in the Federal Senate for over 18 months.

But a successful motion would have given a huge surge in momentum to see the bill become law.

Defeated as the motion was, it is still a step forward.

Sky News host Peta Credlin picked up the story, interviewing Liberal Senator Jonathan Dunium. Asked why he voted in favour of the motion, Dunium replied, “First of all, I believe life is a gift of God. To take that away from someone else is, frankly, a sin.”

“To allow this to happen, in a modern world, whereas if you were sick, requiring medical care, you’d get it, these babies are born alive and should be protected.

“That’s what decent human beings would offer. I can’t believe it is not the law that that must happen.”

Peta Credlin implored the Tasmanian Senator, “I hope you keep pursuing it. My phone is lit up like a Christmas tree. I know a lot of Australians didn’t know that was going on.”

Later that night The Late Debate (also on Sky News) gave more air-time to the issue.

The failed motion led host Liz Storer to conclude, “Our Senate is full of psychopaths. Seriously, why would anyone, for any reason, vote against such an obvious, clear-cut motion?

“You wouldn’t treat a dog like this. And if you did, you’d get done for animal cruelty. It’s that straightforward.

“I keep throwing around the words ‘Satanic’ and ‘demonic’. Because there are no other words for this kind of evil.”

Credlin Continues to Give Exposure Time

Peta ran the story again on Wednesday. She began her segment, “As I woke up this morning, I still couldn’t get over the decision in the Senate last night.”

While acknowledging the topic was difficult and confronting, “we can’t just pretend it away because it’s difficult.”

“Why should the treatment of one human person depend upon a veto from someone else?”, she inquired.

“Elsewhere at law, we would call this infanticide.”

To her credit, Credlin ran the story for the third straight night, this time interviewing former Deputy Prime Minister John Anderson.

Anderson highlighted that “This is immensely distressing from a human point of view, and deeply chilling from a civilisational point of view.”

The issue “goes to the very heart of our democratic civilisation, which is based on the idea of the sanctity of life for all – the value and dignity of each.”

The central tenent of our society – the sanctity of life – flies in the face of the Senate decision, because “we cannot take it upon ourselves to exercise the power of life and death over others.”

“If our legislators can’t see that… every life has intrinsic value, pity help us.”

Anderson then urged people to go to their local member and say, “I’m disgusted by this, and I’m chilled by what it means. It’s a return to paganism. It denies everything that has gone into Western civilisation.”

Public Support for Protecting Babies Born Alive After an Abortion is Strong

In 2021, Cherish Life Queensland commissioned a YouGov poll to find out the views of Australians. A survey of 1,506 Australian voters found overwhelming majority support for giving medical care to these babies “to the same extent as other premature babies.”

Only 18 per cent of respondents answered, “They should not be given medical care and can be allowed to die.”

The Senate decision is completely out of step with the sentiment of the Australian people. The major problem is not that Australians think these babies should be left to die without care.

The problem is that many Australians simply don’t know this is occurring.

The pro-abortion ABC News gave no coverage of the week’s proceedings. Similarly, The Guardian only noted the failed Senate motion in passing – buried among the notes of Tuesday’s parliamentary proceedings.

Yet despite the coverup, this week, many more Australians are now aware of the horrors that late-term abortion is producing.

That is why it’s been a momentous week – like never before – for the pro-life movement.

Whether this momentum continues is at least partly up to each of us.

Update 26 August: Continuing Media Coverage

Over the weekend, The Australian ran another piece, this time by Gemma Tognini. She concludes, “The idea that babies who, through some miracle, survived an abortion and whose lives are viable still would be left to die is horrific to me… We cannot and must not hide this evil any longer.”

An even harder hitting article in The Daily Telegraph by Vikki Campion left no one wondering about her stance.

She bluntly pointed out, “As UAP Senator Ralph Babet spoke to his urgency motion, the Greens’ Sarah Hanson-Young made vomiting-gestures behind him for the cameras.

“Care for babies in the Greens stops at Gaza. Climate 200-funded independent David Pocock, who fights to the marrow in his bones to save koalas, voted against painkillers for a baby dying on a table.”

And finally, John Mikkelsen from Quadrant concludes that “the nation’s moral compass is way out of kilter” the following about last week’s Senate vote.

___

Photo courtesy of Adobe.