THE lack of legal consequences for a young Cairns couple recently prosecuted over a drug-induced home abortion could pave the way for a weakening of Queensland’s abortion laws, according to pro-life advocates.
The couple were found not guilty after the case was heard in Cairns District Court on October 14.
Queensland Bioethics Centre director Ray Campbell said the outcome of the case “is being used by the pro-abortion cause to promote the decriminalisation of abortion, although it really tells us we need the law to remind people of the seriousness of abortion”.
Toowoomba GP and Queensland secretary for the World Federation of Doctors who Respect Human Life Dr David van Gend said “the most important outcome of the Cairns abortion trial was the Crown’s powerful restatement of principle in Queensland law, that it is prohibited for adults to take the life of their unborn baby unless compelled to do so because of serious risk to the life or health of the woman”.
Mr Campbell, Dr van Gend and Cherish Life Queensland state president Teresa Martin queried the judge’s instruction to the jury in the Cairns case.
Mr Campbell said “it is highly questionable whether the judge’s direction was correct in law”. “The judge’s instruction was that it was a matter of whether the drug was a danger to the health of the woman,” he said.
“This totally ignored the effect of the drug on the child.
“Because of the judge’s instruction to the jury and given the jury’s finding, it is possible some women will think it is now alright to procure their own abortion, totally ignoring the death of the baby and the possible detrimental effects to their own health.”
Ms Martin said she believed the judge had misdirected the jury into considering only the noxiousness of the drug in relation to the mother and not the baby.
“What Cherish Life Queensland, and I believe other pro-life organisations want, is that the attorney-general should clarify the abortion laws as they stand,” she said.
Dr van Gend said: “As the crown prosecutor, Michael Byrne, reminded the jury, abortion is ‘illegal unless the pregnancy posed a threat to the woman’s life or her physical or mental health’ and is not permitted for reasons of ‘lifestyle’.”
National Civic Council Queensland president Luke McCormack said concern a private member’s bill to decriminalise abortion may be tabled in State Parliament before the year’s end has led him to start organising prayer novenas in opposition in parishes and schools in Brisbane archdiocese.
Mr McCormack was the Victorian president of the Australian Family Association when abortion laws were liberalised in 2008.
“It seems likely the Cairns case is being used as an excuse for Queensland to follow Victoria and other Australian states that have abandoned all legal protections for the unborn child,” he said.
Premier Anna Bligh has said abortion laws in Queensland would remain unchanged.
“However, I predict in the current atmosphere caused by the Cairns case that a private member’s bill will be tabled in State Parliament to change the law by the end of November,” Mr McCormack said.
“This is why I am currently seeking to organise a novena throughout the archdiocese to pray this does not happen.”
