Written by Senator Guy Barnett, Liberal Senator for Tasmania
Partial birth abortion is a second trimester and late term abortion method which has been banned by the United State Congress. This method involves the breech delivery of the child, except for the head. The abortionist then stabs scissors into the base of the baby’s skull. A suction catheter is then inserted and the brains are sucked out, causing the skull to collapse. Yet partial birth abortions may attract a Medicare benefit in Australia.
Other methods of second trimester and late term abortion, such as the administration of prostaglandin to induce delivery, can result in the delivery of a live born child, who is then left to die. The latest available figures from Victoria indicate that 47 out of 309 post-20 week abortions performed in 2005 resulted in the delivery of a live born child. In fact, there were 98 abortions performed on babies aged between 23 and 27 weeks. Babies born at this stage of pregnancy can survive and flourish. Over 50% of all post 20 week abortions were done for psychosocial reasons. During this same year in Victoria, there were no recorded termination for maternal physical health risks.
All abortions hurt women, and late-term abortions hurt them most. A study in Finland in 2005 found that the suicide rate among women who had an abortion is six times higher than that of women who have given birth and double that of women who have had miscarriages. In January 2006 Professor David Fergusson, a psychologist and epidemiologist, from Christchurch, New Zealand – and a man who describes himself as ‘an atheist, a rationalist, and pro-choice’ – concluded that ‘Those having an abortion had elevated rates of subsequent mental health problems, including depression, anxiety, suicidal behaviors and substance use disorders.’ In short, ‘abortion increased psychological distress rather than alleviating it’.
Since 1994 the Australian taxpayer has paid abortionists about $1.7 million to perform over 10,000 second trimester and late term abortions. In 2003-4 at least three babies were aborted in Victoria after 20 weeks gestation solely because they had cleft lip or cleft palate and lip with no other disabilities. In January 2000 a woman who was eight months pregnant presented herself at the Royal Women’s Hospital in Melbourne, and asked for, and received, an abortion as her unborn baby was going to be born a dwarf. Discriminatory abortion for disability in the unborn sends a hurtful and destructive message to born disabled people.
Australians are uneasy at late-term abortions, and one poll has found that 78.5% of respondents were opposed to Medicare funding after 20 weeks of pregnancy. How can it be right to use Medicare funding to intentionally end the lives of babies old enough to survive outside the womb? It is time to stop Medicare funding of abortions of babies who could be born alive.
This is an abridged version of Senator Guy Barnett’s Briefing paper available at www.guybarnett.com