QUEENSLAND Catholics should encourage their senators to support a bill soon to be considered in Federal Parliament aimed at ending Medicare payments for second-trimester and late-term abortions, a leading Catholic bioethecist said this week.
Queensland Bioethics Centre director Ray Campbell’s comment followed Tasmanian Liberal Senator Guy Barnett’s disallowance motion pushing for a ban on taxpayer funding for mid-term and late-term abortions (from 14 to 26 weeks).
Labor Party and Coalition senators are to be allowed a conscience vote on the motion, introduced earlier this month. The motion was expected to be put to a vote on September 17.
Mr Campbell said Catholics should encourage support of the amendment because it “should have the effect of decreasing the number of abortions”.
“The senator’s proposal is drawing attention to the inconsistency involved in such developments such as surgery in utero to save a baby’s life while permitting children of the same age to be brutally killed,” he said.
A taxpayer-funded Medicare subsidy of $267 is paid to doctors who carry out abortions, including partial-birth abortions, between 14 and 26 weeks.
In a briefing paper to the Senate on the proposed amendment, Senator Barnett noted that “partial-birth abortion …(had) been banned by the United States Congress”.
Senator Barnett also mentioned in the briefing paper that “the humanity of the unborn child during the second trimester is also vividly illustrated by the latest developments in foetal surgery – operating on babies while they are still in the womb”.
He wrote elsewhere that “babies born at this stage of pregnancy can survive and flourish.”
The senator estimated that “since 1994 the Australian taxpayer has paid abortionists about $1.7 million to perform over 10,000 second-trimester and late-term abortions”.
Senator Barnett also sponsored a recent visit to Parliament House by Gianna Jessen, 31, an American who has cerebral palsy as a result of being deprived of oxygen during a botched abortion at seven months.
Ms Jessen also spoke on September 4 at a Brisbane event hosted by Cherish Life Queensland, Right to Life Australia and the National Civic Council.
