Photo: Alan Edgecomb
PRO-LIFE group, Cherish Life has stood by a pledge to publicly name and shame Queensland state members of parliament who voted to legalise abortion – part of a wider campaign to oust them from office.
The group has released a pamphlet that identifies each MP and how they voted on the controversial Termination of Pregnancy Bill passed by 50 to 41 votes on October 17.
“The first duty of government is to protect innocent human life,” the pamphlet states, identifying the Labor, Greens and independent members who voted for abortion. Three LNP MPs also voted with the Government.
“These members of parliament have shown themselves to be unfit for public office as they voted for legalised state-sanctioned killing of unborn babies until birth.
“Please start working now to remove these MPs at the next Queensland state election in October 2020.”
The new abortion laws came in to force on December 3 allowing abortions on request up to 22 weeks’ gestation.
Abortions are allowed after 22 weeks, with permission from two medical practitioners.
The new laws also establish 150m exclusion or “bubble zones” around abortion clinics or medical facilities that offer abortions, to stop “harassment and intimidation” of patients and staff.
One Government MP, Jo-Ann Miller, voted against her own Labor party’s proposal, and Logan MP Linus Power abstained from voting.
The parliamentary abortion vote followed several days of highly charged debate.
MPs delivered emotional speeches, including Ted Sorensen, LNP Member for Hervey Bay.
“I stand here today as a survivor — and if this law was present in those days I would not be alive to speak on behalf of all the babies who have the right to live,” Mr Sorensen said.
“I believe that I had the right to live, I still believe that.
“Even in the womb it is a life. Take me for instance, who has the rights today to say ‘kill Ted’? Honestly.”
Member for Burdekin Dale Last addressed the issue of parents using the new law for the purpose of sex selection.
“I shudder to think that a woman and perhaps her partner would consider terminating a life because it is the wrong sex, or the relationship dissolved, or it was no longer convenient to have a baby, or the mother lost her job,” Mr Last said.
“To me this is nothing short of murder.”
