Dear Brothers and Sisters,

BISHOP’S PASTORAL LETTER: ABORTION LAW FOR TASMANIA?  UPDATE 16 March

Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I have updated my letter of yesterday on this issue due to a) the Minister’s decision to extend the submission’s date and b) some editing to improve the text.

I regret that I have to write to you again to encourage you to write to our political leaders over a matter of great concern.

Last week Tasmania’s Minister for Health, The Hon. Michelle O’Byrne released a draft bill and consultation paper dealing with the legal framework for the termination of pregnancy.

As stated in my Pastoral Letter yesterday, 15 March, the paltry allowance for public consultation on the draft bill was reprehensible. I am pleased to say we received advice after my letter was distributed, that the Minister had agreed to extend the deadline for submissions on the Abortion law reform bill for two weeks. The new deadline is FRIDAY APRIL 5.

In presenting this draft legislation the Minister claims that she is not dealing with matters of principle, but simply making adjustments.  This is a facade.  The proposal is being brought as a Private Member’s Bill and is attracting a conscience vote for a reason: it deals with significant matters: matters of life and death.

The Bill provides for pregnancy termination on request until 24 weeks gestation and pregnancy termination with medical approval from that point until birth.

The Bill restricts freedom of conscience for medical professionals so that they are bound to facilitate access to termination providers.  Moreover, the Bill threatens anyone who provides any form of counselling (including church workers) with criminal sanction if they also do not facilitate access to termination providers.  There are a number of other restrictions on freedoms of conscience and freedoms of speech.

These measures may seek to move away from criminalising abortion, but they move towards the criminalising of dissent and disagreement on this matter.

There are some issues that are worthy of consideration in this Bill, including the issue of whether criminality is an appropriate form of regulation in some or all circumstances.

However, the proposal, in the main, can only be described as extremist.  It is far removed from even that position to which some hold as a pragmatic compromise, that termination should be “safe, legal, and rare.”

Up until 24 weeks a simple request for termination is required but there are no checks and balances to ensure that coercion of the mother is not apparent.

While rightly affirming the rights of women, this proposal simply ignores the humanity of the unborn children involved.  Up until 24 weeks gestation termination of the unborn is allowed on any grounds, including the gender of the child.

The 24 week threshold is not determined, as some might think, on the basis of the potential viability of the child.  It is on the grounds that tests for disability, including cleft palate and other less severe congenital abnormalities, cannot be conclusively undertaken until after 20 weeks gestation.

From 24 weeks the criteria for terminating the unborn baby are “the (two) medical practitioners must have regard to the woman’s current and future physical, psychological, economic and social circumstances”. Termination in late-term requires medical consent, not because of the child, but because termination in that period can have significant medical impact on the mother.

There is no balanced consideration of the child.  There is no consideration of the child at all.  Late-term termination necessarily requires that significant harm be done to the child in order to effect the termination.  The rights of that child, even limited rights such as a requirement that the child be anaesthetised before it is eliminated, are simply irrelevant to the proposal that Ms O’Byrne has tabled.

It is notable in all the information from the Minister that the sobering phrase ‘abortion on demand’ has been scrupulously avoided!

This proposal eschews any sense of responsibility that women (and men for that matter) should take in their sexual activity and so treats sexually active people as less than adult. The act of sex always retains a chance of pregnancy, no matter the precautions taken. It is never responsibility-free. There is no such thing as the right to pregnancy-free sex.

There is no mention in relation to the care of those women who have had abortions and have suffered trauma and guilt. We need to care for them.

One aspect of this horrible legislative rampage from a member of the Tasmanian Government is that it is not clear what role the public hospitals are expected to play in this process

Ms O’Byrne does not acknowledge that it is not only the potential legality of the procedure that is stopping doctors; it is that many doctors do not wish to provide the procedure or refer patients for a termination. This will not change with the legislation as much as the Minister believes it will.

It is interesting that in Victoria we are seeing anti-smoking advertisements for people to stop smoking as it could hurt their unborn baby. In NSW they are thinking about laws that could apply to drivers who kill unborn babies in drunk/reckless driving accidents. There is a certain irony in creating laws to allow the termination of pregnancy while at the same time spending money to protect unborn babies!

For every complex problem there is a simple solution… and it is wrong. Henry Mencken (1880-1956)

This is an abhorrent piece of legislation introduced by a minister in a government whose priorities appear to be the imposition of personal values during a rapidly disappearing time/ window of political opportunity.

I encourage you to write to the Minister, voicing your disapproval of this measure and outlining your concerns in your own words.

The Draft Bill and Consultation Paper can be found here: http://www.dhhs.tas.gov.au/pophealth/womens_health

Feedback must be in writing via email to public.health@dhhs.tas.gov.au or a hardcopy posted to Population Health Equity, GPO Box 125 Hobart, TAS, 7001.

All responses must be received by 5:00pm Friday 5 April 2013.

YOU HAVE UNTIL 5PM FRIDAY, APRIL 5 TO RESPOND. PLEASE RESPOND!

Yours sincerely in Christ’s service

Shalom

+John

Bishop of a deeply troubled Tasmania

http://www.examiner.com.au/story/1352311/give-us-time-church/

http://www.themercury.com.au/article/2013/03/09/374164_tasmania-news.html

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/manslaughter-counts-for-unborn-babies-20130209-2e56k.html

My Pastoral Letter of 15 March (yesterday) is here.