Source : Perth Now news
Conservative politicians have reignited debate about the rights of babies born alive via terminations, joining with a prominent religious group to campaign for stricter policy.
Coalition MP Llew O’Brien introduced a bill to federal parliament on Monday, requesting comprehensive healthcare for infants who survived abortions.
“If every international obligation Australia had ever undertaken was swept away and only one could remain, for me, it would be the one that protects the fundamental human rights of our children,” Mr O’Brien said, using the United Nations Conventions on the Rights of the Child to bolster his arguments.
Key to his speech was a belief that babies born via abortion were people. Children born alive by any other means receive medical help, but termination laws do not require positive intervention for fetuses, he said.
The proposal is similar to one brought in to the upper house by now Nationals leader Matt Canavan and Liberal senator Alex Antic in 2022.
The earlier bill did not proceed and instead lapsed three years later.
A similar bill was introduced to the Queensland parliament by state MP Robbie Katter in 2024. It also gained little traction.
Mr O’Brien’s bill also called for all foetuses that survived medical termination to be recorded as children and their type of death specified, which would allow national statistics to be generated.
However, the proposal will not proceed, due to Labor having a majority in the lower house.
Each state has its own laws on pregnancy termination.
Abortion is legal for any reason up to 22 weeks gestation in most jurisdictions. The ACT allows it for any reason at any stage of pregnancy.
Australia does not have comprehensive data on the number of babies born alive annually during abortions.
The figure could be as high as 150 nationally, Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) analysis of state data sets showed, but each jurisdiction measured and recorded abortion results differently.
The ACL supported the bill through a protest on the front lawns of Parliament House, where 10,000 baby booties were laid in the shape of a cross to represent the bodies of terminated fetuses.
Senator Canavan and One Nation’s Barnaby Joyce attended the rally.
“You have a responsibility to care for a person. Let’s call it what it is – a person,” Mr Joyce said at the rally.
The One Nation MP previously attended an anti-abortion rally outside NSW parliament in June.
