Cherish Life Queensland has warned it will campaign strongly at the next state election against any members of Parliament who vote in favour of the Termination of Pregnancy Bill, warning that MPs who vote for this Bill could face a 13% swing against them.

An August 2018 YouGov Galaxy poll shows that the way MPs vote on this Bill in Parliament will influence how 54% of Queenslanders will vote at the next state election. Of these, 39% say they would be less likely to vote for an MP who supports the Bill, while 15% say they would be more likely to do so.

“If this abortion-to-birth Bill passes, it will amount to government-sanctioned killing,” executive director Teeshan Johnson said.

“Anyone who votes for this extreme Bill doesn’t deserve to be in Parliament. The first duty of government is to protect human life.”

Ms Johnson promised that at the next election Cherish Life would help any MP who voted for life, but would work to defeat any MP who supported the Bill.

Proof of at least 30 late-term third trimester abortions of healthy viable babies of healthy women for ‘social’ reasons in Victoria in recent years under almost identical law to proposed Qld legislation

Deputy Premier Jackie Trad is either appallingly ignorant of the consequences of her extreme abortion-to-birth Bill, or she is trying to trick the Queensland public into thinking there will be no late-term abortions for “social” reasons under her proposed law when that is exactly what the Bill will allow, according to Cherish Life Queensland.

Ms Trad challenged the pro-life movement yesterday at a pro-abortion rally in Brisbane to “produce the evidence” that women in the last trimester “are going to get… a late-term abortion because they no longer want a baby”.

“They cannot do it and they will not do it because it is just not the lived experience of Queensland women,” she claimed.

Cherish Life Queensland executive director Ms Teeshan Johnson said that if Ms Trad’s Bill was passed by State Parliament this week, Queensland women would have late-term abortions for non-medical reasons, which they could not do now because termination for “social” reasons is against the current law.

“Ms Trad’s brutal Bill is modelled on 2008 Victorian law which is almost identical to the Queensland Labor Bill.”

She said the Health Committee inquiry into the Bill ignored evidence provided by Cherish Life, taken from official Victorian Government statistics, that showed that in Victoria in 2011, a healthy baby of a healthy mother was aborted for “psycho-social” reasons at over 37 weeks gestation.

“This was a viable full-term baby who was killed because he or she was no longer wanted by his mother,” Ms Johnson said.

“In that same year, 10 healthy viable babies of healthy mothers between 28 and 31 weeks gestation were also aborted for so-called ‘psycho-social’ reasons in Victoria.

“The official government reports from 2009 to 2015 (the latest year for which figures are available) show that at least 30 healthy viable babies of healthy mothers have been aborted in the last trimester for ‘psycho-social’ reasons since the Victorian law came into force.

“In addition, of the 1,123 healthy Victorian babies of healthy mothers in the 20 to 27 week gestational bracket who were aborted for ‘psycho-social’ reasons over that seven year period, many would have been past 23 weeks and therefore viable, and a few would have been 27 weeks and therefore in the third trimester.

“The pro-life movement is defending the status quo, so the current law is maintained rather than expanded to allow late-term abortions for current and future ‘social’ reasons with no upper limit.

“In Victoria since the law was changed 10 years ago, almost half the late-term abortions have been done for ‘psycho-social’ reasons.

“This is not happening in Queensland now because the current law prevents this.

“It would be tragedy for Queensland mothers and babies if Ms Trad’s Bill is passed as then this would certainly happen in this state too.”

Gestational ranges of perinatal deaths (VICTORIA) from 2009-2015 for maternal

psycho-social indications only - non-medical reasons, healthy babies to healthy mothers

From Victorian Maternal, Perinatal, Child and Adolescent Mortality statistics, The Consultative Council on Obstetric and Paediatric Mortality and Morbidity

See Table 6.21b, Page 162, for 2011 figures from 2010/2011 Victorian Maternal, Perinatal, Child and Adolescent Mortality statistics, The Consultative Council on Obstetric and Paediatric Mortality and Morbidity http://realchoices.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/VicPNData2010_11.pdf

See also Victorian Late-Term Abortions table 2000-2016