There were only two speeches against Senator Babet’s motion to recognise the need to protect Australian newborns who survive their abortion. One was from Greens Senator Larissa Waters. The other was from Senator Maria Kovacic from the Liberals. It is extremely concerning that a Liberal Senator would be lock step with a Greens Senator on this issue and it exposes that someone of Kovacic’s radical left, anti-child and anti-family ideology does not belong in the Liberal Party.
Kovacic’s vocal opposition to giving a right to medical care for babies who survive abortion is disgusting and needs to be called out.
Her opposition to recognising the human rights of all Australian newborns and the need for equal protection under the law is based on four arguments.
First, Kovacic argues that women have a right to choose and nothing should interfere with that. No person (woman or man) should have a right to choose whether medical care is provided to a newborn. If a newborn baby is gasping for air or in distress, it should not be up to the parents to decide whether medical practitioners treat and comfort that child. In situations such as these, a clinical assessment should be made at birth as to whether life-sustaining treatment or palliative care should be given to the baby.
Second, Kovacic asserts that the data around the incidence of Australian children born alive after abortion is inaccurate and misleading. This is patently false. Between 2010 and 2020 the annual health reports of Queensland and Victorian health departments establish 724 babies survived their abortion and were recorded as “neonatal deaths”. This means they were born alive and subsequently died in hospital. This amounts to one baby each week who was born during this period and left to die without a legal right to medical care.
Third, Kovacic contests that babies are “not left to die”. However, the oral evidence of midwife whistleblower Lou Adsett to a Queensland inquiry establishes that babies are left to die in witches’ hats and metal kidney dishes in hospitals and this can sometimes be for hours. Furthermore, we know of three other cases of Australian newborns left to die after their abortion. Baby Xanthe in 2020, who was left in an empty hospital room at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s hospital for 7 minutes, Jessica Jane left on a metal kidney dish for 80 minutes in the Northern Territory and the unnamed baby at Westmead Hospital dumped in a medical waste bin while still alive.
Fourth, Kovacic asserts that this is not a matter for the federal parliament as abortion is regulated by the states. To be clear: this is not a question of how to regulate abortion. The abortion has already taken place and the baby has survived the abortion. Furthermore, under the external affairs power in the Constitution, the federal government is empowered to make laws that fit under any treaty that Australia has ratified. Australia ratified the International Convention on the Rights of Child so any federal law protecting newborn babies from being left to die could be made using this convention.
Kovacic is exposed for being heartless, misleading and not fit to serve in our Federal Parliament.
Join me in demanding that the Liberals immediately dump Kovacic for failing to care about the plight of Australian newborns.