A pro-life rally will take place outside NSW Parliament House on Tuesday evening, 2 June, ahead of an upper house debate on legislation seeking to ban sex-selective abortion in the state.
The rally, beginning at 6pm, will support a private member’s bill introduced by Libertarian MLC John Ruddick, which is due to be debated in the Legislative Council the following day.
The bill would prohibit abortions sought solely on the basis of the unborn child’s sex.
Organiser Dr Joanna Howe told The Catholic Weekly the rally aimed to demonstrate public support for the legislation.
“When over 100,000 people marched across the Harbour Bridge in support of Palestine, within one week Anthony Albanese recognised Palestine as a state,” she said.
“If we don’t turn up in large numbers – between 10 to 20,000 people – politicians will know they can continue to trample on the human rights of unborn babies, because born people will not make it their mission to save them and speak for them.”
Speakers at the rally will include Howe, Ruddick, Bishop Tony Percy, Australian Christian Churches president Pastor Joel Chelliah, and Dr Melissa Lai, president of Pro-life Health Professionals Australia.
Ruddick told The Catholic Weekly he believed the vote in the Legislative Council would be close, but said the bill had “a good chance” of passing.
If passed, it would mark the first amendment restricting NSW abortion law since abortion was decriminalised in 2019.
The proposed legislation comes amid debate over whether sex-selective abortion occurs in Australia.
Last year academics from Edith Cowan University and Curtin University published a peer-reviewed study in PLOS Global Public Health examining sex ratios at birth in NSW and Western Australia over a 20-year period, with particular attention to overseas-born mothers from countries associated with strong son preference.
The researchers said they identified birth-ratio patterns “consistent with male-biased SRB [sex ratio at birth]” among some groups, particularly migrants from countries “with a strong son preference, such as India and China.”
For Chinese-born mothers whose first two children were girls, the study found the sex ratio at birth for a third child rose to 1.34 males per female birth.
A similar pattern was observed among Indian-born mothers, with ratios also exceeding the expected biological norm.
Dr Lai recently described sex-selective abortion as a form of “gendercide” that is “unsupportable and unacceptable”.
Ruddick said the bill was intended to affirm equal dignity regardless of sex.
“The passage of this bill will send a clear and unequivocal message to expectant mothers: in Australia we uphold the human dignity of all people, and we are absolutely committed to the principle that the inherent value of a baby girl is equal to that of a baby boy,” he said in his second reading speech last year.
“This is not a debate about the morality of abortion; it is a debate about our cultural attitudes to gender and human dignity.”
The bill is strongly opposed by abortion-rights advocates.
Greens MLC Dr Amanda Cohn told The Catholic Weekly the bill was “badly drafted” and could discourage doctors from providing lawful medical care.
“There isn’t a single person in NSW Parliament arguing that pregnancies should be terminated on the basis of sex, but there is no evidence that this is happening under the current framework for legal abortion in NSW,” she wrote in an email.
“This bill is a thinly-veiled attempt to incrementally recriminalise abortion, and the Greens will oppose it.”
Cohn also argued it would be difficult to prove whether an abortion had been sought specifically because of foetal sex.
Ruddick acknowledged enforcement challenges but argued the law would act as a deterrent.
“It will still happen – but there’s going to be at least one little girl saved,” he said.
One of the groups sponsoring the rally is Tradies for Babies. Its director, Shaun Freeborn, said the bill would address what he described as a gap in protections against sex discrimination.
“Australia prohibits sex-based discrimination in almost every other area of law and public policy, yet unborn girls currently receive no protection from discrimination before birth,” he said.
“Sex-selective abortion undermines the message that women and girls are equally valuable and deserving of protection.”
The Australian Christian Lobby is also supporting the rally.
ACL chief executive Michelle Pearse said countries including China and India had enacted bans on sex-selective abortion.
“Why wouldn’t Australia pass this sensible policy?” she said.
