MPs in New South Wales are threatening to quit their party over its intention to push through an extreme abortion law.
Last month, pro-abortion MPs pushed a Bill through the state’s lower house which would permit abortion “for any reason right up until the day of birth”.
Liberal MPs Tanya Davies and Kevin Conolly told party leader Gladys Berejiklian that they will leave the party if important amendments to the Bill are not included.
Important amendments
Davies had proposed a ban on sex-selective abortion, and a requirement for doctors to help babies who are born alive after a botched abortion.
She also wanted to remove the requirement for doctors who conscientiously object to abortion to refer women to another abortion provider.
The amendments were rejected and the Bill passed the lower house, but the pro-life MPs have warned that their stepping down would mean the party losing its majority, ahead of the debate in the upper house.
Left to die
The Spectator’s Rebecca Weisser noted that “the bill was allocated only three days, less than the time devoted to debating plastic shopping bags”, and explained the importance of the survival amendment.
“In Victoria, in 2016, 33 babies with suspected or confirmed congenital abnormalities were born alive and left to die out of 310 late-term abortions. In Queensland, more than 200 babies who survived abortions between 2005 and 2015 were left to die.”
Rachael Wong, Managing Director of Women’s Forum Australia also criticised New South Wales’ extreme Bill, explaining that women should be empowered to choose life rather than coerced into choosing death for their children: