CATHOLIC doctor Tim Coyle falls silent for a moment and then regains his composure as he recalls the moment he witnessed a set of twins born alive during an abortion procedure.
It was 1974 when he and his wife Anne worked for the UK’s National Health Service – and the experience still haunts him.
“Anne was working in a private ward and I called in one day to see her,” Dr Coyle, who is the president of the Cairns branch of Cherish Life, said.
He said a woman was carrying out an abortion, and twins were born during the procedure.
“They were alive, two little babies, and were looking up from a kidney dish. They were gapping at us. Horrible,” he said.
Dr Coyle understands that the babies were not allowed to live after the procedure, describing the UK’s health service at that time as “the biggest abortion clinic in Europe”.
His grim reflection of abortion at the coalface comes as a bill introduced into federal parliament yesterday by Queensland MP George Christensen aims to protect the lives of babies born alive as a result of abortions by ensuring they receive appropriate medical treatment and care.
The Human Rights (Children Born Alive Protection) Bill 2021 can now be debated and voted on, if the Government, or an absolute majority of 76 MPs support debating it.
“This bill remedies the fact that Australia is in breach of two international agreements to which it is a signatory: The Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which recognise the right to life and the right of access to life-saving health care services,” Mr Christensen said.
It appears that not only does Mr Christensen’s bill have a strong legal standing, it may also have popular support amongst Australian constituents.
Cherish Life has just commissioned a national survey that showed most people polled believe babies born alive in an abortion procedure should be given life-sustaining medical care.
The survey was conducted last month by YouGov using a nationally representative sample of 1506 Australians.
Termination of pregnancy is permitted in all Australian states and territories under various circumstances after 20 weeks of pregnancy – so called “late-term abortion”.
The survey showed that 56 per cent of respondents supported care for babies born alive during a “late-term abortion”.
Only 18 per cent of recipients said babies born in those circumstances should be allowed to die.
A further 26 per cent said they did not know.
In Queensland, there were 203 live births following a termination of pregnancy between 2005 and 2015.
The Christensen bill would invoke the convention on the rights of the child as the basis to use federal constitutional power to override the states.
