Not One, But Two Abortion Bills!

Before the bi-partisan Parliamentary Committee had even reached their deadline to reveal their findings, Rob Pyne was at it again – this time putting forward a bill under “Health”, the Health (Abortion Law Reform) Amendment Act 2016 Using all the usual cunning of the pro-abortion lobby, 29 November last year saw Pyne move a motion to have both his bills debated together. With the help of the vote from Peter Wellington, Speaker Member for Nicklin, the motion was passed. The first bill had allowed no conscience clauses for medical staff not wishing to participate in the taking of innocent preborn lives, nor any safeguards, such as counselling, for the pregnant mothers. This had actually worked against Pyne as many in the community, once alerted to this fact, were against the bill, as were many politicians. So when the second bill was put forward, some wrongly breathed a sigh of misguided relief saying at least now there were some “safeguards”.   The grave danger that this has caused is that it sets up a mentality of “well, at least this bill has some safeguards” for those who were wavering on their opinion of the first one!

No Safeguards for Women or Babies

Let’s just look at two of those “safeguards” in the second bill. It states that anyone who is not a registered health practitioner cannot perform an abortion, but that this does not apply to the woman herself who can undertake or assist in her own abortion. Another “safeguard” included in this second bill, should the pregnant mother be over 24 weeks gestation, is that the abortionist should consult with another doctor re the ‘need’ for the abortion, however, should he not do that, it is not an offence! The report on the findings from the Health Committee are due on March 1, however, this could occur earlier when Parliament resits after the Christmas break in mid-February. Queensland often comes under a lot of pressure to come “into line with the southern states” but this is one area where we should run a mile from doing so. The Parliamentary Committee handed down a finding of recommending the first bill, the Abortion Law Reform (Woman's Right to Choose) Amendment Bill 2016, NOT be passed. We hope and pray that this will be the finding of the Health Committee tasked with the second bill.