Alex Antic (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On Saturday 5 August, the Western Australian Minister for Health, Amber-Jade Sanderson, stated in the West Australian newspaper:

There's no such thing as a failed abortion.

There's no such thing as babies born alive after an abortion.

Well, she's wrong. On Thursday 24 March 2022, Sue Ellery MP, who was representing the health minister in WA, stated in the WA parliament that, in fact, 31 babies were born alive after abortions between 1998 and 2021. In Queensland and Victoria, 724 babies were born alive following failed abortions between 2010 and 2020.

Furthermore, today I've been provided with a statement from a whistleblower midwife in a large Australian hospital. This person wishes to remain anonymous but stated, in short:

15. I think the frequency of the number of babies being born alive is 20% maybe. Maybe a little less than that. Sometimes you just have the baby twitching it's not necessarily that they are alive. Babies who are born more premature are less likely to survive or live for an extended period, but some are still born alive.

16. In terms of how long the babies remain alive, every baby is different. Of what I have seen recorded anywhere from 15 minutes, another it was an hour.

…   …   …

21. Recently a 21 +6 healthy and normal baby was aborted and lived for 5 hours. The midwives held the baby all night, even as they worked, because the parents didn't want a bar of it. I have confirmation from two midwives who held the baby and from the birth and deaths book. The reason that it took this baby so long to die is because the size was really good, you know, sometimes the scans are really bad, and they get a size wrong.'

When the opportunity comes to vote in our Human Rights (Children Born Alive Protection) Bill 2022, I want this chamber to listen to these words and understand that anyone who says this practice does not occur is wrong.