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Independent MLC Sarah Game has introduced a bill into the South Australian Parliament to protect viable unborn children after 23 weeks’ gestation. Her bill, which she describes as an action to confront “a tragedy”, will be voted on tomorrow (Wednesday).

On Wednesday, 12 November, Members of the South Australian Legislative Council will vote on the Termination of Pregnancy (Restrictions on Terminations after 22 Weeks and 6 Days) Amendment Bill 2025.

The bill, introduced by Independent MLC Sarah Game, would restrict abortions after 23 weeks to cases where it is necessary to save the life of the mother or where severe foetal abnormalities have been detected.

Currently, abortion is lawful in South Australia up to birth for any reason. Between July 2022 and December 2024, 79 healthy, viable babies were aborted after 22 weeks and 6 days, according to state health data.

Ms Game said her bill seeks to restore “the integrity of the promises” made when abortion laws were liberalised in 2021, and to ensure such tragedies do not continue.

“Not What South Australians Were Promised”

Introducing her bill in Parliament, Ms Game reminded colleagues that former Attorney-General Vickie Chapman had given an assurance in 2021 that the new laws would not result in healthy babies being aborted late in pregnancy on mental health grounds alone.

“In the first 30 months of these laws coming into force, 79 healthy, viable babies in non-emergency situations were deliberately killed in the womb after 22 weeks and 6 days,” Ms Game said. “That is not what the Parliament was promised. That is not what South Australians were promised. It’s a tragedy that demands action.”

She described in clinical terms what late-term abortion involves, arguing that such procedures inflict trauma on both mother and child. “This underscores the inhumanity and sheer barbarism of what we are doing to babies through late-term abortion,” she said.

Her proposed amendment to SA’s abortion laws, Ms Game argued, does not endanger women’s health but rather upholds good medical practice. “If a woman’s life is at risk,” she said, “the safest and most effective treatment is to end the pregnancy by delivering the child alive. No woman will die under this bill.”

(See the bottom of this article for Sarah Game’s full speech.)

Show of Support from Christian and Pro-Life Groups

The Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) has strongly endorsed Ms Game’s bill, describing it as “a sensible step in the right direction.”

The ACL noted that while it “does not support abortion at any stage of pregnancy,” the proposed reform “aims to protect viable, late-term unborn children and offer a more compassionate approach to both mother and child.”

“Reform is urgently needed to protect these precious lives,” the ACL said. “Rolling back late-term abortion is one vital step toward a society where every unborn life is valued, and where vulnerable mothers are supported through holistic care.”

The organisation has called on supporters to write to Members of Parliament ahead of Wednesday’s vote, emphasising that “every letter counts.”

SA ACL Director Ashlyn Vice told The Daily Declaration, “This bill would remedy an unintended consequence of the 2021 abortion reforms. Parliament and the people of South Australia were promised that the abortion of healthy, viable babies would not occur. But tragically, this has not been the case. This bill fixes a problem that should never have happened.”

Vice agreed with Ms Game, explaining that in situations where a mother’s life is at risk, late-term abortion is not medical best practice. “At late stages of gestation, the baby must be delivered. In an emergency situation, you would never go through the longer process of killing the baby first. You would go straight to delivery.”

“Late-term abortion is not compassion towards the mother. It’s a traumatic experience, because she must endure the death and then the delivery of her baby — stillborn. But it is compassionate to deliver a live baby – for both the baby and the mother.”

“South Australia continues to be a forerunner in this conversation. It’s essential that we continue to raise awareness, as many South Australians don’t realise what our laws currently are. We won’t stop advocating for the rights of the unborn until this situation changes.”

Call to Parliament House on Wednesday for the Vote

Pro-life advocacy network Love Adelaide has also urged Christians to take peaceful action, encouraging prayer, fasting, and action in the lead-up to the vote.

In an email to supporters, Love Adelaide described the upcoming decision as a “call to the Body of Christ to humbly come before the throne of grace and mercy in prayer.”

The organisation highlighted official data showing that in 2024 alone, 4,725 abortions were performed in South Australia, including 48 after 23 weeks.

Inviting pro-life supporters to attend Parliament House on Wednesday afternoon, Love Adelaide requests, “Please make every effort to come in [and] wear a white top”, as “this is the only way the MPs can see we are PRO-LIFE with strict rules that the Public Gallery sit in silence.”

A public rally will also be held on the steps of Parliament on Wednesday, 12 November, at 5.30 pm, coinciding with the expected time of the vote. Pro-life advocate Joanna Howe, who has organised the rally, urged people attend, saying that “it WILL make a difference to come, so please prioritise attending this rally above everything else you have on that day. The babies have no voice but ours.”

Every politician should have to read this landmark study on fetal pain and watch the accompanying video footage before they vote tomorrow on Sarah Game’s bill to stop the injection of poison into healthy babies older than 23 weeks.

🔴 SHARE this video so all Australians can be… pic.twitter.com/VNqlWIAL6D

— Dr Joanna Howe (@ProfJoannaHowe) November 11, 2025

Love Adelaide also encouraged members of the public to write to “call and/or write a personal email to the Members of the Legislative Council and ask them to support this Bill.”

Vote Outcome Unknown

The outcome of Wednesday’s vote remains uncertain. A similar proposal introduced by Liberal MLC Ben Hood in 2024 — known as the Termination of Pregnancy (Terminations and Live Births) Amendment Bill — was narrowly defeated by just one vote. The make-up of the Upper House remains unchanged since that time, leaving advocates on both sides of the debate mobilising support.

Considering the vote sits on a knife’s edge, Love Adelaide requested prayer “for one hardened heart to soften… for one MP to feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit to do what is right and vote in favour of this bill.”

Ms Game said the issue transcends politics, describing it as “a question of conscience and compassion.”

“These were healthy children, and their loss is a tragedy that demands justice,” she told Parliament.

“If we fail to pass this bill, more healthy, viable babies will die. We cannot look away.”

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Appendix: Full Transcript of Sarah Game’s 17 September Speech

Mr President, when the Termination of Pregnancy Act passed the South Australian Parliament in 2021, the then Attorney-General, Vickie Chapman, gave a very clear assurance to the Parliament. She promised that these laws would not result in healthy babies being aborted after viability for a maternal mental health reason.

In fact, when asked directly in Parliament on the 17th of February 2021, the following question—could a pregnancy be aborted at 35 weeks if two doctors deemed that a mental health threshold had been reached for an otherwise healthy unborn baby—Ms. Chapman’s answer was an emphatic “no.” She said that if the only factor was the mother’s mental health, and if the baby was healthy, then the safest outcome would be for that baby to be delivered alive.

But here is the reality. In the first 30 months of these laws coming into force, 79 healthy, viable babies in non-emergency situations were deliberately killed in the womb after 22 weeks and 6 days. That’s three reception classes that are no longer with us. That is not what the Parliament was promised. That is not what South Australians were promised. It’s a tragedy that demands action.

And if we here in this chamber fail to act now, more South Australian babies will die.

When people hear the phrase “late-term abortion”, many don’t know what that actually means. So, let me explain what happens to a baby after 23 weeks’ gestation. And as I explain this, remember that this has happened to 79 healthy babies in South Australia since July 2022 and up to December 2024.

Under ultrasound guidance, an injection is given directly into the baby’s heart or umbilical cord. The injection is a needle filled with potassium chloride or digoxin. It causes the baby to go through a painful cardiac arrest.

In fact, when this injection is used to euthanise animals or to kill convicted criminals on death row, sedation is given first. The intended protocol is to sedate death row prisoners before the potassium chloride is administered. The evidence shows that if the sedation given to prisoners is inadequate, potassium chloride causes excruciating pain as it travels through the veins and stops the heart. That’s why there has been so much controversy about botched executions.

We don’t do this to prisoners or animals, and yet we do it to babies in South Australia. This underscores the inhumanity and sheer barbarism of what we are doing to babies through late-term abortion.

Once the baby has been killed, the mother’s cervix is prepared with drugs, and labour is induced. Over the course of many hours—sometimes even overnight—she goes through contractions until she delivers her baby. But because of the injection, that baby is delivered stillborn. The placenta is then removed, and the mother is monitored for bleeding and complications.

This is not speculation. This is the clinical process. This is what a late-term abortion is: the deliberate ending of the life of a viable, healthy baby, followed by induced labour and delivery.

And in South Australia, in just 30 months, 79 healthy babies—babies who could have survived outside the womb—have been killed in this way. This is not what the Parliament was promised. This is not what South Australians were promised. And it must not continue.

Some of you may be wondering: how do we know these 79 babies killed after 23 weeks were perfectly healthy? How do we know they weren’t aborted to save the mother’s life?

Because in South Australia’s annual reports on abortion, there are separate data records for late-term abortions required to save the mother’s life or another baby’s life, or because of a disability. But these 79 cases were not performed for either of those reasons. They were not emergencies. These babies had no life-threatening conditions. Their mothers’ lives were not at risk.

That means these 79 babies were healthy, viable babies who could have been born alive, yet their lives were deliberately ended in the womb. South Australians were told this would not happen. Parliament was promised it would not happen. And yet it has happened 79 times in just two and a half years.

Indeed, 75% of all late-term abortions in South Australia kill healthy, viable babies. We cannot look away from this. These were healthy children, and their loss is a tragedy that demands justice.

Opponents of this very sensible and compassionate bill will try to argue that this will put women at risk. For example, the pro-abortion activist group Fair Agenda has stated its opposition to the bill and argued that a woman may need access to abortion after 23 weeks because of a catastrophic diagnosis for her own health or because she is trying to escape an abusive relationship.

So, let me be clear: no woman will die under this bill. This bill makes it crystal clear that if a woman has a catastrophic diagnosis for her own health, she can still access emergency care. This bill only removes the capacity to have a late-term abortion and kill a healthy, viable baby in circumstances where the mother’s life is not at risk.

Let’s be clear about what good medical practice looks like. In a genuine emergency where a mother’s life is at risk—for example, with extreme preeclampsia—or even in non-emergency situations where her physical health is threatened, the safest and most effective treatment is to end the pregnancy by delivering the child alive. That can be done by emergency caesarean or by inducing labour without the need for feticide.

In fact, standard obstetric practice after the point of viability is exactly that: to deliver the baby. If the mother’s health is at risk, doctors act quickly to deliver her child alive. What is not normal obstetric practice is to first stop the baby’s heart and then proceed to delivery. This process of a late-term abortion takes much longer—at least 12 to 72 hours to complete—and is therefore not appropriate as emergency medical care for a woman in a truly risky situation.

Mr President, this shows us something very important. The deliberate killing of a baby after viability is not about protecting a mother’s life. The safest, fastest, and most compassionate medical treatment is to end the pregnancy and deliver the baby alive.

But don’t just take my word for it. Professor R.J. Norman, Professor of Reproductive and Preconceptual Medicine at the University of Adelaide and founding director of the Robinson Research Institute, has said this about South Australia’s abortion laws:

“In this law, we are operating a dual standard. We deny human rights to a viable fetus, yet in premature birth we strive our utmost to preserve human life. Logically, there is no difference between the potentially disposable material in the womb at 23-plus weeks and the sacred inviolable rights that are conferred upon the baby at birth. My recommendation is that in the case of a normal fetus, the primary aim should be to deliver it alive and provide life-giving support for the child and perinatal psychological support for the woman involved.”

Activist organisations like Fair Agenda argue that a late-term abortion is necessary to rescue a woman from an abusive situation. But let’s stop and think about that. A late-term abortion does not rescue a woman from abuse. It does not remove her violent partner. It does not end her trauma. What it does do is end the life of her child and send her straight back into the very abuse that caused her pain in the first place. That’s not compassion—that’s abandonment.

What vulnerable women in these circumstances need is genuine support and care: housing, safety, counselling, and community—not a late-term abortion that compounds their trauma and robs them of their child.

Some of you may be asking, “Why now? Why introduce this bill so close to the end of the year?” My motivation is simple: I want to save these babies, and I believe every South Australian wants the same.

This should be an easy bill to pass. Both the Premier and the Opposition Leader voted for the substance of this bill when it was presented as an amendment in 2021. Tragically, that amendment lost by just a handful of votes, and now we are living with the devastating consequences. Seventy-nine healthy, viable babies have been killed.

I wager most South Australians have no idea this is happening, nor knowledge of the brutality of abortion up to birth. Through this debate and vote, I will make it my mission to ensure every South Australian knows.

I wish to acknowledge the broad support I’ve received for this bill, including from Love Adelaide, the Australian Christian Lobby, and other pro-life groups and individuals. I also acknowledge Dr Joanna Howe, Professor of Law at the University of Adelaide, who has used her expertise to chair a committee of medical specialists in drafting this bill.

These experts come from fields including obstetrics, gynecology, neonatology, nursing, midwifery, and psychiatry. You may wonder why these experts remain anonymous. The reason is simple—they have no choice. Our peak medical bodies—the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, the Australian Medical Association, and others—are dominated by pro-abortion activists who do not reflect the membership’s views on late-term abortion. For healthcare professionals to speak critically of this agenda is extraordinarily difficult, almost impossible.

The people of South Australia want more from us. They don’t want voices silenced. They want this debate to be heard properly and urgently, because there are babies’ lives on the line.

I make this commitment today: whether this Parliament passes this law this term or not, I am here for at least another four years, and I will make it my mission to try and save these babies.

South Australians were told this would not happen. Parliament was promised it would not happen. And yet it has happened 79 times in just two and a half years. If we fail to pass this bill, more healthy, viable babies will die. We cannot look away. These were healthy children, and their loss is a tragedy that demands justice.

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Photos via Sarah Game and Adobe.