Ralph Babet (Victoria, United Australia Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency:

The need for the Senate to recognise that at least one baby is born alive every 7 days following a failed abortion and left to die, and that Australia's health care system is enabling these inhumane deaths; and for the Senate to condemn this practice, noting that babies born alive as a result of a failed abortion deserve care.

In this country, every single week, at least one baby is born alive after a failed abortion. In some states and territories, there is no legal requirement for that living human being to receive any medical care. The baby is often placed in a metal tray and left to die slowly. I cannot for the life of me understand how we can bang on every single day in this place about the importance of human rights while allowing the most vulnerable human beings to be treated like garbage. Whatever one's view is on the merits or otherwise of abortion, once there has been a birth, medical practitioners are dealing with a living human being, a person, an Australian, who should have the same rights under law as you or me. Senator Antic and Senator Canavan and I have a bill in front of the Senate right now called the Human Rights (Children Born Alive Protection) Bill 2022 that, if passed, would ensure care is provided to every child born alive after a failed abortion. This bill is also supported by Senator Roberts.

This should not be a contentious or controversial concept. It is the very minimum of decency, the very least that we should do as people who like to think of ourselves as civilised. Imagine for a moment if the Senate rejected such a proposal. What would it say if you shrugged your shoulders and turned your back on a newborn baby, unmoved by his or her cry and unconvinced by his or her humanity? A society is ultimately judged not by its GDP but by the way it cares for its most vulnerable, and there is none more vulnerable than a newborn baby. A society that refuses to care about the suffering and death of babies is one which is destined to fall. To be unmoved by the plight of a helpless child, especially when it is within your power to render aid and assistance, is to lose your own humanity. It is evidence of a sickness at the very core of one's own being. What kind of darkness has overtaken the heart of people when they can march through city streets chanting for the right to kill a baby in the womb while remaining silent on the rights of babies born alive and left to die? I think abortion should be unthinkable. I want more than a change to the laws in this land; I want a change in the hearts of Australian people, where abortion disappears not because politicians made it illegal but because our consciences were reawakened and we agreed that it was abominable.

Queensland midwife Louise Adsett gave evidence at a parliamentary inquiry in Queensland yesterday where she gave a distressing example of a mother who decided to abort her baby at more than 21 weeks. She said:

The process took all day and the baby was only delivered during the early hours of the night shift … This baby moved vigorously, gasped for breath and had a palpable heart rate. To make it clear, this baby was alive … This baby boy fought for his life for five hours before taking his final breath. This is not an uncommon occurrence.

Fighting back her tears, she added, 'These babies deserve better. They deserve to have the same rights that all of us human beings have'—unwanted, unacknowledged, unloved. To her credit, Louise is one of the few nurses who does whatever she can to provide some kind of dignity and comfort to these vulnerable babies.

It should not be controversial to invite my fellow senators to join with me in affirming that a baby born alive after a failed abortion is at the very minimum given care and comfort. To do anything but less than this is to forsake our own humanity, even as we deny them theirs. I was going to conclude by saying God forgive us if we fail to do this, but I must say this: as much as I believe in God's mercy, I don't think that God himself could forgive us for getting this one wrong. I hope my fellow senators in this place stand with me to decry the practice of abortion, especially late-term abortion, where a baby could survive out of the womb if born. This is a tragic thing. This is a horrible thing. This is an evil thing. This is a disgusting thing, and it is something that I will never be okay with.