NATIONALS Senate leader Ron Boswell has claimed that a private members’ bill that aims to compel pregnancy counselling services to disclose the fact that they will not refer clients for terminations is nothing but an attack on groups who do not support abortion.
In a speech to the Senate on June 14, Senator Boswell, a Catholic, said the bill purports to advocate truth in advertising about abortion, but if that were really the case, abortion providers would tell women of the lifetime of emotional and sometimes physical pain that abortions can instigate.
“Everyone who considers abortion should first read Melinda Tankard Reist’s book Giving Sorrow Words, which is about women who have suffered so much as a result of abortion,” Senator Boswell said.
“However, this bill comes from another angle. It is an attack on church groups who, as everyone knows, do not support abortion.”
The bill has been sponsored by Democrats senator Natasha Stott Despoja, Liberal senator Judith Troeth, Labor’s Carol Brown and the Greens’ Kerry Nettle.
Under the bill, pregnancy counselling services would have to declare in their advertising either that they do not provide referrals for abortions or that they “provide referrals for all pregnancy options”.
