Hospital Chaplain, Reverend Alan Bulmer, has written to Health Minister for Tasmania, The Hon. Michelle O’Byrne, in response to her draft Abortion Legislation for Tasmania.
As I read his sensitive letter, I was reminded again that the pastoral consequences of the life and death of the unborn are a very real part of a hospital chaplain’s ministry. His letter brings the personal aspect of the death of the unborn to the Minister’s attention and asks for the reconsideration and withdrawal of this draft legislation. Extracts from the Hospital Chaplain’s letter:
I am often called in to mothers who have miscarried. If the pregnancy is under twenty weeks a birth certificate is not issued and a funeral is not necessary. I have had several cases where families have requested naming ceremonies and some form of funeral for such babies. A group of wood workers has produced some beautiful tiny caskets for such babies and I have helped place these babies in them. I have viewed these babies and in many cases they are perfectly formed and beautiful. Photos have been taken, locks of hair cut and prints made of hand and foot to keep as mementos.
There have also been instances where babies born at around twenty weeks have survived. Many more do so at twenty-four weeks.
What is to happen to these babies who are aborted at up to twenty-four weeks (and indeed byond it)? Will there be a birth certificate? Will there be a death certificate and a funeral? Will the parents see their aborted, beautifully formed (in most cases especially if the abortion is carried out because they only want a boy or a girl and this pregnancy is not the gender they want, for example).
I shudder to think of what babies of longer gestation would look like if they are aborted, as the bill allows for this to happen right up to the time of birth. . .
I dread to think of the consequences if this legislation gets through parliament and I urge you, and all politicians who support you, to rethink your position and withdraw it while there is still time.
Read full letter: Abortion
See also, Abortion Law for Tasmania? and UPDATE: Tasmania’s Proposed Abortion Law Changes.
