Richard speaks against right-wing anti-choice Senate bill
Senator DI NATALE (Victoria) (10:10): Too often in this place we have debates about issues and we circle the topic without actually naming it. Let us be clear about what we talking about today. We are not talking about gender selection and abortion. We are talking about abortion. Gender selection is a non-existent issue in the Australian community. This is not an issue that those of us who have worked as medical practitioners face. It is just not a reality. In all my time in medical practice, there has never been one occasion when I was confronted with a situation where I was being asked to refer someone for a termination on the basis of the gender of that foetus.
I have spoken to my colleagues about this, many of whom have worked for many years in general practice. It is simply not an issue. None of them have ever been confronted with a situation where this exists. You only need to look through the medical literature to understand that it is not an issue in medical practice. It is just not. Senator Moore indicated that there are some limited circumstances where there may be some inherited genetic defect that is associated with a particular sex, but that is not about gender selection. That is about a decision to terminate based on the viability of the foetus. It has nothing at all to do with gender selection. So let us name what we are talking about here today. Let’s name it. This is a bill that goes to the heart of the woman’s right to choose. That is what this bill is about.
I have to say I am a little annoyed that, with so much division within the Australian community on so many issues, here we are debating an issue on which the Australian community has largely spoken. Of course, there is some disagreement at the margins, but, largely, this is an issue where the Australian community has made its opinion very clear. The Australian community supports a woman’s right to choose. That is what the Australian community supports. People will raise all sorts of arguments through this debate. People will say that this is a decision in which the Australian parliament has no role—that this is a decision between a woman and her health professional. Some people will say that somebody’s religious views have no place in determining the laws that shape issues like a woman’s right to choose. Some people will bring in the issue of rape and incest, and what options are available to women in those circumstances. They are all legitimate arguments, so I absolutely support each and every one of those. But my position on this topic comes from a more pragmatic perspective.
The simple fact is that, when you prevent women from having a termination, you do not reduce the number of terminations; you just put women at risk. That is the consequence of any law that attempts to prevent a woman from accessing a safe and medically supervised termination. The numbers do not change when abortion goes from being legal to being illegal. The only thing that changes is that women die. Let us not forget that, every year around the planet, tens of thousands of women die from unsafe abortions. That is what happens right now every year.
It is a confronting issue.