Three conservative Senators have introduced a bill to ensure medical treatment for babies born alive after a late-term abortion. Senators Matt Canavan (LNP Qld), Alex Antic (Liberal SA) and Ralph Babet (United Australia Party Vic)have introduced Human Rights Born Alive Bill.
Lest be dismissed as a stunt by politicians, there is a significant statistic behind the bill. 725 late-term aborted babies born alive in the period babies have been aborted in Queensland and Victoria alone in between 2010 to 2020. These figures come from Queensland’s Perinatal Annual Reports for 2010–2020, and Victoria’s Maternal, Perinatal, Child and Adolescent Mortality Annual Reports, 2010-2020.
“It is a fact that in every Australian State, a significant number of babies survive late-term abortions but are intentionally denied life-saving care, or even pain relief,” said Wendy Francis National Director of Politics for the Australian Christian Lobby. “The legislation introduced by the Senators will provide care to the most vulnerable among us, newborn babies. It is hard to imagine that any parliamentarian would believe that a viable life should be left to die because they are inconvenient or considered not worth living.”
In his second reading speech, Senator Matt Canavan said “Section 9 of the bill states that the medical care and treatment to be provided to a baby born alive as a result of an abortion to be commensurate to the circumstances, not including the fact that they were born as a result of a termination and goes on to state that this could be life-saving treatment or, indeed, palliative care as the case may be…
”Others have claimed that this bill perpetuates a myth that children are born alive as a result of abortions. The data available via the Parliamentary Library shows that to be a false claim, but even if that claim was correct—which it is not—what harm would this bill do? If no viable child is ever born alive as a result of an abortion, then this bill has no effect.”
The senators based their bill on statistics from the Parliamentary Library research. “Despite sketchy data, they found, that in a single year, 33 babies aborted after 20 weeks gestation were born alive in Victoria while, in Queensland, 204 babies were born alive as a result of abortions over a 10-year period,” Canavan reported in his second reading speech. But the 725 babies statistic uncovered by researchers Associate Professor Joanna Howe* and Dr Debbie Garratt is even higher.
The Queensland Termination of Pregnancy Guidelines state, ‘if live birth occurs…do not give life-sustaining treatment…document date and time end of life occurs’.
But in the debates about decriminalising abortion in NSW a provision to ensure care for lat term babies aborted yet born alive was successfully inserted in the Abortion Law Reform Act 2019. This was likely the most successful amendment passed during the passage of the debate.
In SA the Termination of Pregnancy Act 2021 passed with an amendment requiring a duty of care to children born alive after an attempted abortion.
Rather than being radical, the Senator’s Bill can be seen to line up with a standard set by the two Australian Parliaments that most recently passed new laws.
A public comment period is currently open in WA as that state considers new abortion laws. A discussion paper produced by the WA government does not cover care for babies born alive.