AP

Concerned Christians across Australia are lobbying for long overdue policy change to protect babies born alive after failed abortions.

On 17 August (2026) a bill was reintroduced in the lower house by MP Llew O’Brien, advocating for equal medical treatment for these unwanted babies. Currently, in all states apart from NSW and SA, babies born alive or wounded after unsuccessful abortions are not legally entitled to any life-saving treatment or neonatal palliative care.

While pro-abortion journalists such as Tory Shepherd from the Guardian and organisations such as the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists  continue to deny the basis for these claims of injustice, evidence is continuing to surface that these babies are not just legally unprotected, but are actively being left to die. They are being discarded as medical waste with a complete lack of dignity, love or care being afforded to them. Official health data shows that 456 babies died shortly after being born alive following unsuccessful or partially successful abortion in Victoria from 2010-2022, and 494 in Queensland from 2010-2023. These births were listed as neonatal deaths, indicating that lifesaving medical care was unlikely to have been prioritised in their first and last hours of life outside the womb. Medical procedure guidelines suggest that in some hospitals, palliative care is advised, but not legally mandated. Tragically, lifesaving procedures such as gastric tubes, IV lines or oxygen therapy are not recommended in these cases.

But no matter the data, these injustices are the clear result and natural progression of a society that defends abortion up to birth for any reason. Here in Australia, abortion up until the gestational threshold (when a baby can first survive outside of the womb, around 20-24 weeks) can be performed with the approval of a single medical practitioner. These abortions can be approved for something as simple and unverifiable as if the mother claims that the pregnancy is negatively affecting her mental health. Future and present circumstances are considered equally valid in the approval process. Moreover, abortion procedures can be extended up until birth if only one additional medical practitioner signs off on the decision to inject the baby’s heart with potassium chloride with the intention of stopping its heartbeat prior to inducing labour of a (hopefully) stillborn baby. And, before this gestational threshold where approval is even needed, doctors are permitted to operate on babies from around 13-24 weeks by tearing apart the fetal limbs and body parts before suctioning the mutilated corpse out from the womb, and discarding it as medical waste.

To defend abortion at all requires one to determine human value according characteristics or circumstances rather the Christian view of simply being a human in the image of God (Gen.1:26-28). This leads to a worldview that flirts with eugenics, where we perfect ourselves to death. In order to defend late-term abortion, one has to concede – to maintain logical consistency – that it is not morally wrong to kill a 25-week-old baby outside the womb. Location becomes the key determinant of a right to life. On this view, it would be morally defensible to kill someone residing inside his own house, but that would be classified as murder if the same act was to take place out on the street. If Australians are justifying this kind of evil – dehumanising and devaluing the very smallest and weakest of humankind – the practice of infanticide is the next step on the slippery slope.

So please, join Christians across the nation in praying for, lobbying for, and defending the rights of these babies against the demonic practices of abortion and infanticide. Pray and work for a deep life-enhancing moral and cultural change.

– Katherine Morris