THIRD RATE ABORTION BILL
The Abortion Law Reform Bill is a gift to the abortion industry because it legalises and expands abortion. It does not reflect community attitudes and will almost certainly lead to higher rates of abortions.
This Bill will allow abortion-on-demand for the first time, with any woman free to terminate her pregnancy up to the first six months. And the sole requirement post-six months is that the abortionist must “consult” with another doctor. The other doctor could be from the same abortion clinic and is not even be required to speak with the woman.
Because abortion has remained a “crime” under the Crimes Act, there has never been a set of comprehensive regulatory requirements to cover the procedure. That’s got to change.
A pregnant woman is carrying a new human life. As that new human life begins to grow within her, her body has a physical and emotional response.
There are many factors that need to be taken into account when a woman is considering abortion as a response to her unplanned or problematic pregnancy. This Bill fails to address any of them.
To ignore an abortion’s reality and full implications on a woman is to inflict grave injustice upon the very person this bill is supposedly trying to assist. This debate must firstly focus on the real needs and welfare of the pregnant woman.
The community, and particularly we as legislators, must ensure expectant women are offered independent counselling, practical support to meet their real needs, alternatives to abortion and the real hope of carrying their pregnancy to term.
We should also legislate to require the provisions for free and informed consent, pre-procedure counselling which must give honest details of foetal development, outline the method of the abortion on the unborn and the risks both physical and psychological on her.
Finally, women after an abortion must have access to counselling and support services which are independent of the abortion provider.
For 25 years I worked as a volunteer and a staffer in pregnancy support. I have seen how important support is for women struggling with a pregnancy as well as for those who have had an abortion. Whatever love and support a women needs with a problematic pregnancy, a woman whose pregnancy ends in abortion needs and must receive even more.
I will be moving amendments aimed at ensuring women are offered counselling which allows them to examine a range of options and available community supports.
Before making a decision, women need to know about the well-documented and mounting evidence concerning the physical and psychological risks to themselves as well as the nature of the abortion procedure to be performed upon her and her unborn.
Informed consent is required in other medical procedures; legalised abortion cannot be an exception.
I have spoken to women who say that their abortion was presented as simply the removal of a “clump of cells.” Such a description is an insult to women and her unborn. Every woman who has been pregnant knows that regardless of how the pregnancy ends the motherhood remains.
Women considering an abortion in Victoria will continue to be treated like third class citizens unless drastic amendments are made to the Bill. If we want to help women with unplanned or problematic pregnancies this bill will not be passed.
Through my amendments I intend to support women. This Bill does not support women with options and choices. Women deserve better. I will therefore not vote for the Abortion Reform Bill.