In November 2023, the first National Catholic Medical Association Conference was held in the Diocese at St Joseph’s Conference Centre in Baulkham Hills and brought together medical professionals and religious from across Australia to explore issues of life and truth emerging in modern healthcare.
Professor Joanna Howe delivered the keynote speech on “The pro-life cause now and into the future”. Here is an excerpt.
For the first time in Australia’s history, we now have wall-to-wall abortion up to birth and on demand, which makes Australia’s abortion laws the most extreme in the world.
In 2021, South Australia and the Northern Territory became the last two jurisdictions to adopt abortion up to birth, a legislative trend which began in Victoria in 2008.
The abortion industry argues that late-term abortion is rare and only happens because a baby is going to die anyway. However, the evidence does not support these two propositions. For example, in Victoria between 2009 and 2020 there have been 4186 babies who have lost their life to late-term abortion. These gestationally viable babies are unique, unrepeatable human beings whose lives are arbitrarily and violently ended through late-term abortion.
Proponents also maintain that late-term abortion only accounts for 1-2% of abortions. But for me, this doesn’t speak to the scarcity of late-term abortion but the frequency of abortion overall in Australia today.
There are now over 80,000 abortions every year in Australia. Over a 10-year period, this is close to a million lives lost to abortion.
It is also a myth that late-term abortion only happens when a baby is going to die anyway. In Victoria between 2009 and 2020 there were 1891 gestationally viable babies who had their lives ended through late-term abortion who had nothing wrong with them. In these cases both the mother and baby were physically healthy, and the abortion was recorded as being for a ‘psychosocial reason’.
A ‘psychosocial reason’ is an extremely broad category that encompasses everything from mental health to housing and work stress, social disruption, bereavement and relationship difficulties.
In fact, it is difficult to think of a reason for abortion which does not, in some way, come under the broad umbrella of ‘psychosocial reason’.
In the first six months of abortion up to birth in South Australia between July and December 2022, there were eight gestationally viable and healthy babies killed through a late-term abortion in a non-emergency situation. These were elective abortions that should never have been allowed. These eight babies could have been induced alive and given medical care.
Given that an abortion after 22 weeks and six days requires a mother to deliver her stillborn child vaginally, there is a clear opportunity here to require that child to be induced alive rather than dead. Such an approach respects the human rights of both mother and child.
The other thing abortion proponents love to say is that abortion up to birth is a misleading term and never happens in practice. But again the data exposes the opposite. For example, in Victoria in 2011 a healthy baby who was in the womb of a physically healthy mother had her life ended through abortion at 37 weeks.
37 weeks is full term. Over a quarter of babies are born between 37 and 38 weeks. My own son was born at 37 weeks’ gestation. This is not an issue on which we can afford to stay silent.
For me, abortion is the human rights challenge facing our generation. There is no other human rights abuse in our world today which involves the violent and arbitrary destruction of human life on this scale.
It was in 2021 when my home state of South Australia introduced abortion up to birth that I felt a stirring to speak up. Although I was afraid of the implications for my career, my mortgage and the safety of my family, I knew I could no longer be silent. Since then, I have launched social media accounts and a website to educate Australians and advocate for abortion law reform. My goal is not to bulldoze people on the issue of abortion but to inspire a new generation to rise up and fight for the human rights and safety of our children.
Ultimately the tide will only turn against abortion up to birth in Australia when we change people’s hearts and minds, and we elect politicians who stand up for the human rights of babies in the womb.
Dr Joanna Howe is a Professor of Law and former Rhodes Scholar. She is an expert in and has consulted widely on migration and workplace law to the Australian government and private industry and has authored three books. Follow her on Facebook and Instagram @drjoannahowe, and to receive her weekly newsletter, sign up at www.drjoannahowe.com/join
This article was originally published in the 2024 Easter | Autumn edition of the Catholic Outlook Magazine. You can read the digital version here or pick up a copy in your local parish.
