Thank you for your commitment to life and all you did during this critical campaign. A vibrant and growing prolife community, Cherish Life Queensland:

• Marched and rallied five times across Queensland — twice in Brisbane, and in Cairns, Toowoomba and Mackay. The Brisbane March for Life attracted a record crowd of more than 4,000, almost five times bigger than any “pro-choice” or pro-abortion rally in Queensland
• Delivered educational flyers on the Bill to almost 300,000 letterboxes in 15 targeted electorates across Queensland, encouraging people to lobby their state MP against the Bill
• Wrote thousands of submissions to the Queensland Parliament Health Committee against the Termination of Pregnancy Bill — of the 4,800 listed on the committee website, 78% were against the Bill
• Helped to organise thousands of letters and emails to MPs — one of our wonderful supporters organised more than 3,000 letters to be written by constituents in Brisbane Labor seats!
• Helped to obtain almost 40,000 signatures on an online and paper parliamentary petition against the Bill sponsored by ACL state director Wendy Francis
• Distributed more than 50,000 information handouts to supporters and churches across Queensland, equipping people on how to oppose the Bill.
• Co-commissioned with the Australian Family Association a 21 question YouGov Galaxy Poll to establish what Queenslanders really think about abortion — the most comprehensive poll on abortion in Queensland ever, which found only 6% of Queenslanders agreed with abortion past 23 weeks gestation (the entire report is available at www.cherishlife.org.au)
• Had scores of letters published in The Courier-Mail and other newspapers
• Met with almost all MPs on this issue
• Made thousands of phone calls to MPs’ offices (in conjunction with ACL and AFA)
• Hosted a parliamentary briefing for MPs on abortion coercion
• Co-hosted a parliamentary panel on abortion with ACL and AFA, to which all MPs were invited. The livestream video of this event can be viewed at www.cherishlife.org.au/resources/videos

In addition:

Many people earnestly prayed and fasted for the defeat of this Bill. Thank you!

The Brisbane Catholic Archdiocese conducted a survey with about 25,000 respondents, of whom 98% were vehemently opposed to the Bill — particularly in Labor seats. These people were encouraged to write letters or emails to their MPs.

A special thank you to two pro-family groups, AFA and ACL, which ran complementary campaigns against this abhorrent Bill.

Ahead of Labor’s National Conference this weekend, Cherish Life Queensland has announced that it will campaign strongly at next year’s federal election against Labor MPs and candidates of an abortion mindset.

Ms Teeshan Johnson, executive director of Cherish Life Queensland, said: “We condemn the undertaking by federal Labor to use taxpayer money to increase ‘accessibility’ to abortion, if it wins the 2019 federal election, as brutal and unnecessary.

“Abortion is already highly accessible in Australia with about 80,000 terminations a year. Most of these qualify for a Medicare rebate, which costs taxpayers more than $10 million a year,” Ms Johnson said. 

“Using more taxpayer money to further fund the killing unborn babies is an abrogation of the first duty of government, which is to protect innocent human life. MPs and candidates of this extreme abortion mindset do not deserve to be in government, and we will be doing all we can to keep them out of government, and cause them to lose their seats to pro-life politicians. 

“Also deeply concerning is the Labor for Choice motion to be tabled at the conference which seeks to bind all Labor MPs to vote for more permissive abortion legislation, by removing the historical conscience vote on this issue. Freedom of conscience is a fundamental human right under international law.

“The right to a conscience vote on abortion has been included in the federal platform of the Labor Party since 1984, properly recognising that abortion is a life or death issue and not merely a legal or medical one. If the ALP national conference votes to bind its MPs to vote for extreme abortion laws, they would be imposing their morality on some of their colleagues and ironically denying them their ‘choice’ by compelling them to vote against their personal convictions.

“If Labor for Choice is successful in removing the conscience vote from every Labor MP around Australia, it will mean that the pro-life movement will have to widen its campaign to target Labor as a party, instead of just individual pro-abortion MPs and candidates.

“This would be a great shame, as we know there are still some Labor MPs and Senators of goodwill with a strong life ethos.

“Removing the conscience vote would be a dictatorial action which would show Labor values adherence to ideology above freedom of conscience, even on matters as serious as killing. It also would send the message to prospective and existing Labor members with a strong life ethos that they would not be welcome in the party.

“As well as campaigning against Labor MPs and candidates who hold an extreme abortion ideology at the federal election, Cherish Life Queensland has offered support to several pro-life or life-supporting MPs including the Member for Dawson, George Christensen.”

Cherish Life Queensland is calling for public donations for the federal election campaign for life, following the extensive state-wide campaign it ran against the Termination of Pregnancy Bill earlier this year.

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The decision by the Queensland Labor Government to include euthanasia in an end-of-life inquiry has been condemned by Cherish Life Queensland as a tactic with the end goal being expanding “state-sanctioned killing” from the unborn to the elderly, sick and/ or disabled.

Cherish Life president Dr Donna Purcell said an inquiry to improve aged care and increase funding for palliative care services was needed, but these crucial areas were being used as a smokescreen and would not be given the attention they deserved given euthanasia was part of the terms of reference.

“Holding a parliamentary inquiry with a committee controlled by pro-euthanasia MPs is just following the tactic which enabled the Victorian Government to legalise assisted suicide last year, while ignoring the need to boost funding for palliative care.

“Legalisation of euthanasia would expose the vulnerable elderly and terminally ill to pressure – real or imagined – to do the ‘right thing’ and request death so they are not a ‘burden on their family’.

“Sending the message that some lives are not worth living is also utterly counter-productive to combating Australia’s suicide epidemic.

“No safeguards are effective when it comes to euthanasia. It is open to serious manipulation and can be the worst and ultimate form of abuse of those who are ill, elderly, or disabled.

“This is one of the reasons why this state-sanctioned killing is opposed by both the AMA and the World Medical Association.

“Euthanasia advocates give the false impression that terminally ill patients have to suffer excruciating pain and dreadful agony.

“This is simply not the case, as the advanced palliative care available today means that every Australian can have the hope of a tolerable dying process.
“Palliative care focuses on relieving pain and keeping patients comfortable in order to allow a natural and dignified death at their appointed time. Good medical practice is all about facilitating natural death with dignity and peace.

“Doctors should kill the pain, not the patient.”

Queensland’s Termination of Pregnancy Act passed in October, 2018, under a Labor State Government.

It one of the most brutal and extreme abortion laws in the world. It's to our state’s great shame that a full-term healthy baby of a healthy mother can be legally aborted for any reason - such is the sick extremity of our laws.

• Abortion “on request” (no questions asked) to 22 weeks gestation.
• Abortion from 22 weeks up to birth for any reason provided a second “doctor” signs off. But the second “doctor” can be a second abortionist - there is no requirement for impartiality. The "sign-off” by the second doctor can be merely a phone call or email - there is no requirement for the second approving doctor to see the woman. There is no legal penalty if there is no second doctor - a law without a penalty is no law at all. 
• Sex-selective abortion is legal.
• Doctors are compelled to refer for abortion. 
• Absolutely NO “safeguards” for women considering abortion. 
• No ban on the particularly brutal partial-birth abortion technique.
• Babies born alive in failed abortions are left to die.
• No comprehensive data reporting on abortion.
• No requirement to anaesthetize a baby prior to an abortion (including no pain relief given to late-term babies prior to an abortion).

We are determined that these laws will not stand. Join the fight today.

Find out how your Queensland MP voted on the abortion laws here.

The pro-life lobby has accused the State Labor Government of extreme hypocrisy in presenting a Human Rights Bill, which includes a “right to life”, to Parliament today.
 
“Just a fortnight ago the Attorney-General and 49 of her MP peers wildly celebrated the passing of the Termination of Pregnancy Bill, which legalised abortion until birth. They showed gross contempt for human life that day.” Ms Teeshan Johnson, executive director of Cherish Life Queensland said.
 
“Two weeks later they present a Human Rights Bill to Parliament which includes a ‘right to life’. Do they really think they can convince the Queensland public they actually value human life?
 
“The Human Rights Bill also contains a right to ‘protection from torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment’, yet the abortion Bill they passed allows abortion up to birth with no requirement for pain relief for the unborn human being.
 
“There is a body of medical and scientific evidence to suggest that the unborn face enormous pain during an abortion from as early as 16 weeks gestation. Yet this Government didn’t see fit to have a requirement to anaesthetize the unborn before an abortion, so in effect it has legislated for torture, cruel and degrading treatment of unborn human beings at any stage of pregnancy.

“Their actions show they support torture and inhumane treatment of human beings, as long as they aren’t born.
 
“The Human Rights Bill supposedly protects freedom of conscience, but not in the case of a doctor with a conscientious objection to abortion, who now is forced to refer for abortion under the brutal new abortion law.
 
“For the Attorney- General and her peers to pretend they care about life is hypocrisy at its most vile.”

Cherish Life Queensland has condemned the Palaszczuk-Trad Labor Government for passing the brutal Termination of Pregnancy Bill 2018.

“Tonight 51 members of Queensland Parliament voted for state-sanctioned killing of unborn babies until birth.

“These MPs abdicated their responsibility to the most vulnerable in Queensland – the unborn and women.

“It’s a sad day when politicians go from kissing babies to voting for their destruction.

“These MPs should be ashamed for bringing in one of the most extreme abortion laws in the world.

“This has strengthened Cherish Life’s resolve to remove pro-abortion MPs at the next state election.

“As the first responsibility of government is to protect innocent human life, these politicians have shown themselves to be unfit for public office.

“The unborn need protectors now more than ever.

“We thank Labor MP for Bundamba Joanne Miller for having the courage and integrity to cross the floor and vote against this radical Bill.”

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