A Liberal MP has invoked the Nazis’ genocide of Jews in a parliamentary debate about amending NSW’s abortion laws, which will access to allow midwives and nurses to prescribe medical terminations up to nine weeks.
As reported by the Sydney Morning Herald, upper house MP Chris Rath told parliament on Thursday he could not support the amendment, stating “no person should have the power to determine what constitutes a valuable life” and past attempts had led to “some of the greatest atrocities known”.
“We need only to think of the historical prevalence of killing civilians en masse in warfare, the use of life-threatening shock therapies on the disabled if they were not murdered at a young age,” he said.
“Perhaps worst of all, the Nazis leading an entire people to believe that Jews were subhuman, worth less as a human being than you or I.”
Rath said abortion could not be a human right because the “very notion of human rights is the right to life”, per the SMH.
He also described it as “bizarre” to categorise abortion as health care and doing so implied it was something that should, rather than could occur.
“There being a right to abortion would imply that it is a procedure free to be employed for whatever reason one wishes. Calling it healthcare implies not only that it can be undertaken but that it should be undertaken,” he said.
The senior moderate Liberal later issued a statement apologising for the “unintended” comparison with Nazis.
“I regret and apologise for the insensitive language that was used,” he said.
The proposed bill in question is an amendment to NSW’s abortion laws, introduced by Greens MP Amanda Cohn, a former GP and medical abortion provider. The bill, introduced back in February, followed a recent NSW Health review of abortion law.
Per some of the review’s suggestions, the proposed reforms in parliament aim to ensure that abortion services are available statewide and within a reasonable distance from people’s homes — tackling the issue of “abortion deserts” — and that practitioners able to prescribe medical abortions be expanded to include nurses and housewives for terminations up to nine weeks.
Health Minister Ryan Park told reporters on Thursday he would consider supporting nurses and midwives being able to prescribe abortion drugs.
“That reflects what’s happening in other jurisdictions and the changes that the (Therapeutic Goods Administration) has made,” he said, per the AAP.
However, he stopped short of supporting proposed changes to lift mandatory reporting for health workers and to compel conscientious objectors to facilitate the procedures.
Senior Nationals MP Sarah Mitchell told parliament that health ministers need to ensure access to abortion services is “not dependent on where someone lives or their postcode”, although she did not support making it a legislative requirement.
Former Liberal prime minister Tony Abbott framed the bill as an attack on people’s right to act on their moral beliefs, as reported by the AAP.
“Freedom of conscience should be at the heart of any decent, civilised society and this legislation which is about to be rammed through the state parliament is a fundamental assault on freedom of conscience,” he told an anti-abortion rally outside parliament on Wednesday night.
Sydney MP Alex Greenwich, who is backing the bill, said the bill builds on legislation he introduced to decriminalise abortion in the state in 2019.
A “really straightforward change” of allowing nurses and midwives to prescribe abortion drugs in rural and regional areas will improve access and “make a huge difference”, he told AAP.
Debate was expected to continue in the NSW upper house on Thursday night with a vote in the lower house later in May.
With input from the AAP.
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