Breaking the truce on abortion

By what wild superstition do legislators believe that a 24-week baby is a citizen deserving of all protection when wrapped in hospital blankets, but mere human waste when wrapped in the womb? I have held a baby born at 24 weeks, and if somebody attempted to assault her I would defend her. By what principle of justice do legislators conclude that there should be no restraint on adults who would assault the same baby when trapped in the womb?

At the very least, the current law against abortion gives consistent instruction to society that babies are never to be dealt with violently, whether before or after birth. Who seriously believes that a parental right to unlimited violence before birth will suddenly morph into unlimited tenderness after birth? No, if we so brutalise the deepest relationship in human life, that between mother and child, we brutalise it far beyond the baby’s first cry.

On a more pragmatic level, legislators must appreciate that the current law at least keeps the social peace - where those who want abortion can access it, and those who oppose it have the consolation of laws that nominally defend the “silent innocence of the unborn”.

But the present political leaders in Victoria do not intend to preserve social peace. They intend to crash through our fragile truce and declare an escalation in the culture wars.

So be it, but if they succeed, history will remember who broke the truce on abortion. And history will show that the naked violence of such a lawless abortion regime, as in the US, provoked more Australians than ever before to enlist in the struggle for a society where every child is indeed welcomed in life and protected in Law.