A large crowd gathered at the steps of South Australia’s Parliament House yesterday for a rally in support of a controversial bill to ban later-term abortions. Source: The Advertiser.
The steps were lined with individual numbers from one to 45 and a small teddy bear in front of each number to represent the 45 late-term pregnancies that were terminated after 23 weeks since July 2022.
Conservative Liberal MLC Ben Hood introduced the amendments to the Upper House yesterday.
Under the changes, women who terminate their pregnancy after 28 weeks would be forced to deliver the baby alive, and either keep the baby or put the child up for adoption.
Speaking at the rally. Mr Hood said he feared “most South Australians” do not know the full-extent of pregnancy terminations practices in the state.
“What this bill does is strike a balance. It is a balance between the lawful right to choose, but it is [also] a balance about the right to life of a healthy viable baby,” Mr Hood said.
“There is nothing more important than [for us] to look after our most vulnerable, and our most vulnerable are being terminated.”
Organisers of the event said about 2500 people attended.
University of Adelaide professor and pro-life activist Joanna Howe also spoke at the rally, and called for campaigners to attend another rally this morning outside Premier Peter Malinauskas’s office in Welland.
SA Health data showed fewer than five abortions were performed after 27 weeks since abortion was decriminalised in South Australia in 2022, and there were no terminations after 29 weeks.
Mr Hood’s bill is not expected to secure the 11-vote majority required to progress to the Lower House.
FULL STORY
Huge crowds are at the steps of SA’s Parliament House for a pro-life abortion rally (By Agnes Gichuhi and Kathryn Bermingham, The Advertiser)
RELATED COVERAGE
Supporters of Liberal MP Ben Hood’s amendments to SA’s abortion laws rally outside Parliament House (ABC News)
