AP

Senator Gallagher, who serves as Minister for Women and rose to power with the help of pro-abortion group EMILY’s List, also oversees Centrelink’s payments policies in her role as Minister for Government Services.

Centrelink is paying $4,327 to Australian women who abort their unborn babies after 20 weeks, according to a leaked letter from the office of senior Labor frontbencher Senator Katy Gallagher.

Originally designed for mothers bereaved by the loss of their stillborn child, the tax-free payment is also being extended to women who have a late-term “intentional abortion”, according to a senior executive who replied on behalf of Senator Gallagher to a now-redacted recipient.

“The eligibility criteria for Stillborn Baby Payment do not exclude circumstances where the stillbirth was due to a medical termination, including an intentional abortion,” Ministerial and Parliamentary Services Director Katy Stevens wrote to an inquirer, in the letter dated 02 July 2025.

According to the Services Australia website, eligible families can also choose to receive Parental Leave Pay instead of the Stillborn Baby Payment, in which case weekly payments can accrue to a total of $22,754. Dr Joanna Howes exclusively broke the story on X:

As a senior figure in the Albanese Cabinet, Katy Gallagher holds direct responsibility for the key portfolios at the heart of the growing ‘Aborted Baby Bonus’ controversy. As Minister for Finance and Government Services, she oversees the administration of payments through Centrelink, while her role as Minister for Women places her at the forefront of policy affecting Australian women.

Senator Gallagher is also a member of EMILY’s List Australia, a pro-abortion political action group that supported her Senate candidacy in the 2019 federal election and required her to take a pro-abortion pledge.

Abortion Payment Available to Mother or Partner

The correspondence from Senator Gallagher’s office further clarified that the one-off cash payment is available to either the would-be “birth mother or their partner”, provided the child has been “certified by a qualified medical practitioner as having been delivered and the definition of a stillborn child is met”.

The definition of stillbirth provided in the memo from Senator Gallagher’s office is “a child who weighs at least 400 grams at delivery or whose period of gestation was at least 20 weeks; and who has not breathed since delivery; and whose heart has not beaten since delivery” — in line with the clarification provided on Services Australia’s website.

In Australia, most late-term abortions are performed by injecting the baby’s heart in utero with a lethal agent like potassium chloride or digoxin, followed by the induction of early labor and the delivery of the dead infant. As the procedure results in no signs of life at birth, it typically satisfies the clinical criteria for stillbirth used by Services Australia.

The Daily Declaration has previously examined evidence that Centrelink is paying the Stillborn Baby Payment for elective abortions. This has also been confirmed by The Advertiser in Adelaide.

The leaked letter — which appears to offer definitive proof of the late-term abortion payments — was provided to University of Adelaide professor and pro-life advocate Dr Joanna Howe by a woman who asked to remain anonymous. The private petitioner has been writing letters of inquiry to government ministers since the late 1990s, and had seen Dr Howe’s prior reporting on the scandal.

The same woman had also written to senior Labor MPs Tanya Plibersek and Ged Kearney, asking whether the Stillborn Baby Payment applies to intentional abortions after 20 weeks, who is eligible, and who approves the claims. Ms Plibersek’s office did not respond, while Ms Kearney’s avoided a direct answer.

Commenting on the letter, Dr Howe called it “definitive proof from someone with senior decision-making authority within the federal government, acting on behalf of the Minister Katie Gallagher, confirming that Labor pays for an intentional abortion.”

“A woman who has an intentional abortion — or even a man who forces a woman to have an intentional abortion — the Labor government will pay them $4,200,” she added.

“It’s a dead baby bonus for late-term abortions, paid for by all of us.”

Hundreds of Healthy Babies Aborted Late Term

Earlier this month, Dr Joanna Howe said two medical professionals independently contacted her with concerns about a rise in late-term abortions and the potential misuse of the Stillborn Baby Payment.

One, a South Australian hospital administrator, told Dr Howe that midwives are being left “traumatised and shocked” by rising late-term abortions and being pressured to sign Centrelink forms to enable payments.

Another involved a woman who planned to use her Stillborn Baby Payment for a holiday to Bali, leaving a midwife in tears after delivering the aborted infant.

In Dr Howe’s home state of South Australia, the legalisation of late-term abortion in July 2022 has coincided with a sharp rise in abortions performed beyond 22 weeks. Annual reports from SA Health indicate that 105 unborn babies lost their lives to the practice between 2022 and 2024, marking a 380 per cent increase over that period.

Only one of those abortions was to save the life of the mother, while just a quarter were due to foetal anomalies. The remaining 79 ended the lives of otherwise healthy babies.

In Victoria, nearly half of all late-term abortions take the lives of healthy babies in non-emergency situations. In 2020 alone, 129 abortions were carried out for “psychosocial reasons,” despite the physical health of both mother and child.

Katy Gallagher’s Pro-Choice Pledge

Notably, the letter from Senator Katy Gallagher’s office provided a matter-of-fact explanation of the Stillborn Baby Payment, showing no indication of secrecy or discomfort with its application in cases of late-term abortion.

This aligns with the position of the South Australian Abortion Action Coalition (SAAAC), which told The Advertiser in December that it “supports the policy”.

“The payment recognises the impact on patients who need to access a termination,” an SAAAC spokeswoman said.

SAAAC names EMILY’s List — a long-time backer of Gallagher — as a supporter on its website.

In April, ahead of this year’s federal election, EMILY’s List shared photos of Katy Gallagher visiting its national office, where she was pictured “reminiscing” over old campaign material the organisation had produced in support of her election.

Organisations like Grace Papers and the ANU Global Institute for Women’s Leadership have likewise championed Gallagher’s rise and emphasised the role of EMILY’s List in her political advancement.

“Through our collective feminist movement, we get progressive Labor women elected to Australian parliaments to advance our feminist principles,” EMILY’s List explains on its website.

To have the support of EMILY’s List, candidates must “commit to a pledge encapsulating the values of the organisation and how they will uphold and progress” those priorities — which include pro-abortion policies — once in office.

The Daily Declaration reached out to both Senator Gallagher and EMILY’s List Australia for comment but neither had replied at the time of writing.

The national media is yet to report on the leaked letter.

A petition launched by Dr Howe calling on the Albanese government to stop offering Centrelink payments for the late-term abortion of healthy babies has now gathered over 38,000 signatures. Her petition can be signed here.

https://www.drjoannahowe.com.au/abortion_bonus

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Images via Gary Houston/Wikimedia Commons and Australian Government/Wikimedia Commons.

Kurt Mahlberg

(Reprinted with Permission from The Daily Declaration)