Every so often, those of us who have a lifeoutside parliament are treated to a glimpse ofhow our modern democracy works. That isenough to remind us of Christ’s response to thechurch at Laodicea (Rev.3:16). Abortion wasallowed up to birth in NSW in 2019, so thereseemed little room to extend the law.
True to form, however, the Greens moved abill to achieve four things:
- (a) Allow nurses and midwives to prescribe abortion medication up to 22 weeks(even though, as one nurse pointed out,they are forbidden by law to prescribeantibiotics);
- (b) Weaken provisions for the right toconscientious objection to abortion forall medical personnel;
- (c) Force all hospitals to provide abortionsor lose government funding.
- (d) Remove data reporting (so no one could know what is going on).
At one stage, the situation looked dire, but inthe end, three of the four motions were defeated, and the first one changed the time for allowing abortion medication by nurses and midwives from 22 weeks to nine weeks. One of the notable features of the campaign against the bill was its strength.Thousands assembled outside Parliament Housein Macquarie Street to rally against the bill. Thiswas mainly organised by the South Australian legal academic, Dr Joanna Howe. So fearsome was her presence that both the Premier (Chris Minns) and the Leader of the Opposition (MarkSpeakman) accused her of spreadingmisinformation and of ‘brazen bullying’.
Before one pulls out a handkerchief andweeps tears of sympathy, it is worthwhile tostop and think to oneself: Is this not justdemocracy, with lobby groups at work, andpeaceful pressure being put on those who aresupposed to be our elected representatives? Are not Mr Minns and Mr Speakman grown menwho should be used to criticism? About the same time, the QueenslandLaw Reform Commission gathered over ahundred health and welfare experts to call forthe smacking of children to be made a crime.Associate Professor Divna Haslam, of the Queensland Child Death Review Board, madethe oft-repeated argument that pets have more legal protection than children. They certainly do, as do wild animals. The eggs of the wedgetailed eagle are protected by law in all Australianstates and territories. The child in the womb now has virtually no protection in any state orterritory.
The ABC tried to create a crisis overwomen in rural areas having trouble accessingabortion, and dressed it all up in the languageof Cultural Marxism that the people in powerare ‘not necessarily single mothers or women of colour or Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander community leaders’, but often men with medical backgrounds. It is not often that onecomes across a statement loaded with so manyassumptions and sweeping generalisations. Abortion is not health care but thedestruction of human life. There were twopleasing things about the recent NSW bill. First,that so much opposition was aroused to it. Wedo not appeal to the 51%; we may only be aremnant on this issue. But Elijah found out thathe was not alone, for there were 7,000 men who had not bowed the knee to Baal (1 Kings19). We, too, are seeing that – slowly perhaps –a growing number of people are concernedabout bowing the knee to Moloch. Secondly, while the bill was not entirelydefeated, it was gutted. Abortion by medicinal means is more hazardous than many realise,but at least the time limit for the involvementof nurses and midwives was brought down from 22 weeks to 9. This is no cause for rejoicing.Killing is still killing.The hymnwriter Frederick William Fabercan provide suitable encouragement for us:
For right is right, since God is God;
And right the day must win;
To doubt would be disloyalty,
To falter would be sin.
Written by Peter Barnes