Australian State Passes Bill Allowing Abortions Up to Birth

Pro-abortion politicians celebrated last week Thursday, September 26, after the Australian state of New South Wales decriminalized the killing of unborn babies up to birth.

The controversial law allows abortions for any reason up to 22 weeks and up to birth with the permission of two doctors and a hospital committee, The Independent reports.

Ignoring strong opposition from New South Wales citizens, lawmakers in the upper and lower house quickly passed the bill with very few amendments.

According to The Sydney Morning Herald, MP Alex Greenwich, the lead sponsor of the bill, and other pro-abortion politicians cheered and hugged each other in celebration Thursday after they voted to strip away basically all protections for babies in the womb.

“Abortion has been decriminalised in NSW. I am sorry this has taken so long,” Greenwich said after the vote.

But Margaret Tighe, president of Right to Life Australia, mourned the news.

“There should be no cause for jubilation in New South Wales today when the death knell has been sounded in the New South Wales Parliament for unborn children in the womb – abortion now being allowed up till birth,” she said.

Tighe said the law does not even give babies who are born alive after botched abortions full protections. She expressed concerns about inadequate conscience rights protections for pro-life medical professionals as well.

“We are proud of the many members of the Parliament of New South Wales who were unwavering in their stand for life and posed amendment after amendment to contain this horrendous bill,” she said.

Pro-abortion lawmakers rejected a long list of amendments, including measures to ban the sales of aborted baby body parts and to require pain medication for unborn babies capable of feeling pain, ABC News reports. They did pass amendments to protect unborn babies from sex-selection abortions and to add at least some conscience protections for pro-life medical workers.

Abortion activists tried to ram through the radical pro-abortion bill quickly. The bill passed the lower house of parliament in August, just days after pro-abortion lawmakers introduced it.

After the vote Thursday, Catholic Archbishop Anthony Fisher, of Sydney, said the law may be the “worst” one ever passed in New South Wales in modern times.

“… it represents such a dramatic abdication of responsibility to protect the most vulnerable members of our community,” Fisher said.

Here’s more from the Herald:

In a last-ditch attempt to block the bill, 10 MLCs from the upper house signed a protest which was delivered by the clerk’s office to the Governor on Thursday afternoon.

The MPs included One Nation’s Mark Latham and Rod Roberts; Labor’s Courtney Houssos, Greg Donnelly and Shaoquett Moselmane; Liberals Matthew Mason-Cox and Lou Amato; Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Robert Borsak and Mark Banasiak and Christian Democrat Fred Nile.

The protest will have no impact, but was the last option for members to register opposition.

In August, thousands of pro-life advocates gathered in Sydney to urge politicians to protect the rights of unborn babies in their state.

However, pro-life efforts have been met with harassment and death threats. Police charged two people for making death threats against pro-life MPs and a third for allegedly spitting on a peaceful pro-life protester in August.

New South Wales was the last state in Australia that protected unborn babies from abortion. Now, abortions are legal across the country. VOA News reports between 65,000 and 80,000 unborn babies are aborted every year in Australia. That number could go up even more as a result of the New South Wales vote.

New York state lawmakers celebrated in a similar fashion in January when they passed a radical bill legalizing abortions for basically any reason up to birth.