{"id":13972,"date":"2013-05-24T11:28:04","date_gmt":"2013-05-24T00:28:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/?p=13972"},"modified":"2013-05-24T11:28:04","modified_gmt":"2013-05-24T00:28:04","slug":"abortion-update-24-may","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/2013\/05\/24\/abortion-update-24-may\/","title":{"rendered":"Abortion Update 24 May"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><span style=\"line-height: 1.4em\">From the office of Bishop John Harrower May 24, 2013<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<h3>What is the current status of the proposed changes?<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>The Reproductive Health Bill (Access To Terminations) Bill 2013 passed the House of Assembly of the Tasmanian Parliament on April 16, 2013.\u00a0 All members of the Greens party, and all members of the Labor Party, except The Hon. Michael Polley, voted for the Bill.<\/li>\n<li>The Bill has NOT become law.\u00a0 It must now be considered by the Legislative Council.\u00a0 The Bill has passed the first reading in the Legislative Council. This simply means that the Council has agreed to consider it.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"line-height: 1.5em\">The Legislative Council will consider the Bill in detail in the coming weeks, probably sometime in June.\u00a0 <\/span><span style=\"line-height: 1.5em\">It may choose to reject the Bill, to pass the Bill as it currently stands, refer the Bill to a committee for proper consideration, or to change (amend) the Bill and return it to the House of Assembly.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>What is actually being proposed, as it currently stands?<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>The Minister for Children (The Hon. Michelle O&#8217;Byrne) released a Draft Bill in March.\u00a0 Our submission (see <a href=\"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/2013\/04\/05\/abortion-tas-anglican-submission\/\">http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/2013\/04\/05\/abortion-tas-anglican-submission\/<\/a> ) was based on this Draft Bill.\u00a0 The Bill that passed the House of Assembly was slightly different to the draft but not in any substantial way.\u00a0 The key concerns, as presented in our submission, remain.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"line-height: 1.5em\">The Bill, as it stands:<\/span>\n<ul>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"line-height: 1.5em\">implements \u201cabortion on request\u201d for any reason, up to 16 weeks of pregnancy.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"line-height: 1.5em\">allows abortion at any stage in pregnancy after 16 weeks if a doctor and a specialist agree that proceeding with the pregnancy would be to the detriment of the mother.\u00a0 The doctor must take into account a number of circumstances, including the social and economic impact on the woman.\u00a0 These broad grounds effectively remove any restriction, even for late term pregnancies.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"line-height: 1.5em\">compels doctors who have a conscientious objection to facilitate in an abortion by referring any patient who is seeking \u201cpregnancy advice\u201d to a doctor who will provide the abortion.\u00a0 This overrides a doctors professional judgement and duty of care.\u00a0 It questions the professionalism of all those who ascribe human value to the unborn child.\u00a0 Failure to refer runs the risk of deregistration and unemployment.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"line-height: 1.5em\">compels \u201ccounsellors\u201d (broadly defined as any form of advice-giver) to similarly refer those seeking advice.\u00a0 The penalty is approx $30,000 fine or imprisonment.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"line-height: 1.5em\">implements \u201caccess zones\u201d that prohibits certain activities within 150m of an abortion provider.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"line-height: 1.5em\">has other technical issues that demonstrate that it has been sloppily and hastily drafted.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"line-height: 1.5em\">The stated aim of the Bill is to decriminalise abortion.\u00a0 None of the issues outlined above need to arise in order achieve this aim.\u00a0 If abortion is to be decriminalised, it should not be done like this.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>What can I do?<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"line-height: 1.4em\">We encourage you to make contact with the members of the Legislative Council in order to communicate your views on the matter.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"line-height: 1.5em\"><span style=\"line-height: 1.5em\">The best form of communication is a letter, phone call or email that thoughtfully outlines the particular ways in which you disagree with the Bill.\u00a0 You may wish to urge them to reject the Bill or to at least significantly amend it.\u00a0\u00a0 You may wish to tell them that the aim of decriminalisation should not be achieved through the measures currently included in the Bill.<\/span><\/span><em style=\"line-height: 1.5em\"><span style=\"line-height: 1.5em\"><br \/>\n[A pdf\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"line-height: 1.5em\">version<\/span><span style=\"line-height: 1.5em\">\u00a0of this post contains contact details for Legislative Councillors &#8211; <a href=\"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/files\/2013\/05\/20050524Parishes.pdf\">click here<\/a>]<\/span><\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"line-height: 1.5em\">There is a petition that can be signed:\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"line-height: 1.5em\"><span style=\"line-height: 1.5em\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.parliament.tas.gov.au\/EPetitions\/Council\/CurrentEPetition.aspx?PetNum=14&amp;lIndex=-1\">http:\/\/www.parliament.tas.gov.au\/EPetitions\/Council\/CurrentEPetition.aspx?PetNum=14&amp;lIndex=-1<\/a><\/span><\/span><em style=\"line-height: 1.5em\"><span style=\"line-height: 1.5em\"><br \/>\n[A pdf version of this post contains a paper version of the petition &#8211; if you use and sign this do NOT sign the electronic version. \u00a0Also ensure the petition paper is returned on time &#8211;\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/files\/2013\/05\/20050524Parishes.pdf\">click here<\/a>]<\/span><\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From the office of Bishop John Harrower May 24, 2013 What is the current status of the proposed changes? The Reproductive Health Bill (Access To Terminations) Bill 2013 passed the House of Assembly of the Tasmanian Parliament on April 16, &hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/2013\/05\/24\/abortion-update-24-may\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13972"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13972"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13972\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13985,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13972\/revisions\/13985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}