John Marks, CEO of Rhema FM spoke with NSW director of the Australian Cristian Lobby Kieren Jackson about the ‘Reproduction Healthcare’ bill.
Mr Jackson believes the bill has many flaws. Even the name is misleading disguised under the the term ‘healthcare’. He said “The bill is called the reproduction healthcare 2019 so I think its a very misleading name intentionally.’
We asked Kieren to sum up what the bill entails. “Its talking about the provision of abortion regulating abortion witch is currently regulated under the crimes act and cleared into a healthcare bill. So what this essentially allows, is abortion to birth before 22 weeks. There is no restrictions on abortion except it has to be performed by a doctor after 22 weeks. The doctor has to consider a abortion has to be performed so he only has to consult with another doctor and the other doctor doesn’t even have to see the patient.”
Victoria and Queensland have already passed bills to similar effect and Jackson said “this bill is closely modeled on the Queensland and Victoria models which are the two most radical models in Australia.
“…this bill is very radical.”
There are other restrictions on late term abortion such as the northern territory but this bill is very radical.”
Unlike many other contentious topics that will be given plenty of time for the community to get on board and have a say, this bill was announced to the media on the Monday morning the 29th July and introduced on the following Thursday. Mr Jackon said talking to John, “they attempted to ram that through the lower house in 1 day. There was some push backs from the MP’s on that and so the debate will commence on Tuesday 6th Aug. I think the MP’s are very upset how his has been handled and the speed at which this has been announced and introduced.”
He continues ” The way that they have done this, I think they are trying to hoodwink the electorates and to ram the bill through without consulting widely.”
