The Australian Government has been challenged on allowing parents who deliberately have a late-term abortion to access thousands of pounds in baby loss payments.
The Stillborn Baby Payment, which can be a lump sum of AU$4,326.57 (£2,118.79) or a maximum of AU$22,754.40 (£11,143.22) in Parental Leave Pay, can be given to parents if their child has “not breathed since delivery and had no heartbeat after birth”. The baby must have been at least 20 weeks’ old or weighed at least 400 grams.
But in a letter written on behalf of Minister for Government Services Katy Gallagher, the Government admitted that the eligibility criteria does “not exclude circumstances where the stillbirth was due to a medical termination, including an intentional abortion”.
‘Appalling’
Gallagher was asked in the Australian Parliament “to close this appalling loophole and ensure these taxpayer funded payments are reserved for genuine cases of stillbirth, not for barbaric late-term abortions carried out by choice”.
But the Minister, evading the question, boasted of her “support” for the country’s abortion laws and only stated that a doctor and midwife’s verification of a stillbirth is required in order to apply for the payment.
Although each Australian state has its own abortion law, they all effectively allow abortion on demand up to birth.
Abortions for holidays
Professor Joanna Howe of Adelaide Law School reported that she spoke to a midwife who was “in tears over the phone telling me of a mother who had aborted her healthy 28-week-old baby and was intending to use the payment for a holiday in Bali”.
Professor Howe emphasised: “It is a slap in the face to parents who suffer the terrible grief of unexpectedly losing their child to a stillbirth”.
She also warned that, because the payment can be shared between both parents, it could be weaponised by “a man who forces a woman to have an intentional abortion”.
Right To Life UK spokeswoman Catherine Robinson stated that the loophole is “dangerous and urgently needs to be closed. It may incentivise even more people to have late-term abortions, and could even increase the prevalence of reproductive coercion”.
Also see:
UK March for Life: A ‘public witness’ of the will to see unborn lives valued
No prosecution for grandmother over ‘here to talk’ sign in Scots abortion censorship zone