QUEENSLAND’S major parties have made their positions clear about whether they intend to legalise abortion.
In a letter to pro-life organisation Cherish Life Queensland, the LNP stated it would not change existing abortion laws.
“It is the long held position of the LNP that the current abortion laws are sufficient and do not need to be changed,” LNP Leader Tim Nicholls wrote in the letter to Cherish Life’s president Julie Borger.
Labor agreed at its party conference in July to push to legalise abortion.
“I have written to every election candidate urging them to vote against the expansion of abortion in our state,” Mrs Borger said.
“Under our current laws as interpreted by Judge Fred McGuire, more than ten thousand little Queenslanders each year never get to feel the sun on their faces.
“The question must be asked: ‘How many abortions are enough for these pro-abortion advocates?’”
In February, Labor Attorney General Yvette D’Ath, referred abortion to the Queensland Law Reform Commission after two failed attempts to push through bills that would legalise abortion.
Independent Member for Cairns Rob Pyne withdrew his bills to decriminalise and regulate abortion, a day before they were due to be debated.
“The QLRC recommendations will be the basis for legislation the Government will introduce to Parliament for debate,” Ms D’Ath said on February 28.
“In the next term of Government, Labor will bring forward a bill to Parliament to modernise Queensland’s abortion laws.”
The QLRC’s terms of reference for a new bill appeared on the commission’s website in June.
Since then the pro-abortion lobby has started a new push for parliamentary support.
The group Fair Agenda has lobbied election candidates to sign a pledge that they will vote to remove abortion from the criminal code.
One hundred election candidates, including abortion campaigner Mr Pyne, as well as 81 Greens, 17 Labor Party and one LNP candidate have signed.
The Greens back legalising abortion, while One Nation Queensland leader Steve Dickson has vowed to oppose any change.
“I am not going to allow anybody to take a child’s life,” Mr Dickson told The Catholic Leader after opposing both abortion bills proposed by Mr Pyne.
Mrs Borger said Cherish Life’s letter to candidates urged them to take an opposite stand on abortion.
“I ask you to use the privilege you will receive, if elected as a member of the Queensland Parliament, to vote against the expansion of abortion in our state,” the Cherish Life letter to candidates said.
“I urge you to respect the wishes of the Queensland people and not those of a few militant so-called feminists, who want to legalise abortion for any reason until birth, with no safeguards for women.
“Cherish Life Queensland exists to lobby and educate on matters that pertain to life from conception to natural death.”
