The Life of Zye - who will cry?

"Officially he's terminated - put him in a dish and just leave him in another room where the patient can't hear him!"

So Zye was taken out by a tearful young nurse and left alone, shivering and crying until eventually he drew his last breath and the darkness he had been accustomed to, thankfully returned.

Meanwhile, down the hospital corridor another woman was among the hundreds in Australia receiving IVF treatment in the hope of conceiving, and a few blocks away in a government building another couple sign up in the hope of adopting a child sometime within the next few years.

I said this was a "story" and there will be some who will say that it could never happen in real life. But it is based on true events, which make it more horrific.

According to babies' rights campaigner Dr Joanna Howe,

As data reporting requirements on abortion varies between states and territories, there is only limited publicly released information about when babies are born alive following an abortion. From this information and media reports we know of the following babies born alive and left to die:

• 31 in Western Australia
• 328 in Queensland
• 396 in Victoria
• 54 in South Australia
• 1 in NSW
• 1 in the Northern Territory

These numbers are significantly less than the overall number of babies born alive following a failed abortion, given that only Queensland and Victoria publicly release fulsome data…. In other jurisdictions, we only have an incomplete and anecdotal picture of the extent of babies born alive and left to die following an abortion….

A recent life birth inquiry in Queensland Parliament introduced by Rob Katter (KAP) heard evidence from clinical midwife Louise Adsett, of a baby boy who survived five hours after a failed abortion:

To give you a first example, a mother made a decision to abort a baby at 21 plus weeks gestation. The process began in the morning with misoprostol given throughout the day. The process took all day and the baby was only delivered during the early hours of a night shift where skeleton staff was on duty. This baby moved vigorously, gasped for breath and had a palpable heart rate. To make it clear this baby was alive, it was over 400 grams, so the baby was a good weight. The parents of this baby did not desire to see or hold this baby…. (who) fought for his life for five hours before taking his final breath.

All this makes it harder to grasp the outcome of an urgency motion in the Senate this week moved by Senator Ralph Babet (UAP) to provide care to such babies.

The motion stated:

That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency: The need for the Senate to recognise that at least one baby is born alive every 7 days following a failed abortion and left to die, and that Australia's health care system is enabling these inhumane deaths; and for the Senate to condemn this practice, noting that babies born alive as a result of a failed abortion deserve care.

This is clearly not a move opposing women's rights to abortion, but a move for the rights of real live human babies.

But as a sign the nation's moral compass is way out of kilter, it was resoundingly defeated on a 32 - 18 vote, with Labor, Greens and some Independents, perhaps unsurprisingly, voting No, along with four Liberals, including their Senate leader Simon Birmingham (South Australia), Jane Hume (Victoria), Andrew Bragg and Maria Kovacic (NSW).

We reap what we sow!