A Chat with Rob Pyne
Although I live in Victoria, I joined my Queensland confreres yesterday on Twitter, to help promote their annual March for Life, and to protest proposed abortion law reform in their state. Abortion is illegal in Queensland, although the state boasts many abortion facilities, and terminations are available basically on demand. Still, the law is an educator, and we hope, a deterrent for some mothers and their doctors.
The Conversation
Early in the campaign, the author of Queensland’s two abortion bills responded to a tweet of mine, and our conversation continued intermittently throughout the day. During the course of our dialogue, I was shocked to see that MP Rob Pyne was profoundly ignorant of both the facts of abortion and the issues at stake in his bills.
These bills allow for the complete decriminalisation of abortion through all nine months of pregnancy, for any reason - physical and psychological. There are no protections against gender-selection abortion, coercion or lifestyle abortions (since these are covered by the ‘psychological’ aspect). Medical staff are apparently protected from being forced to assist in an abortion, but there is an ‘emergency‘ clause, which could be used to take away their freedom of conscience. Under the proposed changes, abortionists would not be penalised for failing to comply with the (very minimal) guidelines. Mr. Pyne also calls for the introduction of 50m exclusion zones around abortuaries, during working hours. [Click here for details of the initial bill and here for details of the second one.]
With such wide-sweeping proposals being introduced, you could imagine my surprise to see this comment from Pyne:
So all he wants is for mother to be free to kill their babies without any legal repercussions? Well, I don’t agree with that, although some other pro-lifers think this is acceptable. But, even if this is the only issue, why attempt to take away all safeguards for the pre-born?
We may glean a clue from his social media comments.
Perhaps Mr. Pyne proposes such an all-encompassing law because he doesn’t understand the process of late-term abortion, and doesn’t even seem to agree that this procedure even exists!
Late-Term Abortion
So, first Mr. Pyne denies that late-term abortion is even a thing, then he goes on to ask me what (in my twisted imagination) a late-term abortion would look like. This from a politician who feels sufficiently well-educated in the field of women’s health and abortion, to introduce - not one, but two - abortion reform bills.
You can see from my reply, that I sent Mr. Pyne the link to this video about third trimester abortion, made by Live Action and former abortionist, Dr. Anthony Levatino.
The Takeaway: Rob Pyne is stunningly ignorant
My takeaway from all this is that Labor MP Rob Pyne is completely ignorant about the contents of his bills, and is very likely simply pandering to the desires of influential abortion enthusiasts in Emily’s List.
Now, I know it’s not very fair to make fun of someone for what could be an honest mistake, made in the haste of typing a social media comment. But the following screenshot may, in fact, give an indication of the level of intelligence of this politician, especially since the pro-abortion social media campaign uses the tag #itsnot1899.
It’s Not 1899
No, Mr. Pyne, it’s not 1899 and it’s not the twentieth century, either.
It’s 2017: that time in history when technology leaves no doubt as to the development and humanity of pre-born children, and when human rights are often on the minds of ordinary Australians.
It’s that time when pro-lifers are accused of being ‘twisted’ for exposing the reality of abortion.
It’s when offering to help mothers in crisis can be criminal activity, (learn about my legal challenge here) but killing babies is a public health service.
I don’t live in his state, and I don’t vote Labor anyway. But if I did, Mr. Pyne would have lost my vote for his stunning ignorance and complete indifference to the plight of the pre-born.
Share this around, if you’d like others to know how dismally impoverished is our cache of politicians.
Click here to read an article about the Pyne bills, by Queensland’s Teresa Martin.
