NSW Libertarians are opposing a Greens bill, which will coerce pro-life hospitals, and midwives into performing abortions.

As I unpacked in my column this week for The Daily Declaration, the Abortion Law Reform Amendment (Health Care Access) Bill 2025, removes key protections for freedom in the 2019 legislation, such as, conscientious objection, and freedom of speech.

Tabled by Greens MP, Dr. Amanda Cohn, her womb-into-a-tomb amendments will redefine the parameters of prenatal healthcare.

By rewiring the language, Cohn wants to insert the oxymoron, “abortion care,” into the job description of midwives.

The move will see midwives have the power to “stop a person from being born” – to use the implied language of the 2019 NSW Abortion Reform legislation – not just, “support a mother in labour and birth to help then have their baby.”

The latter definition is how the Australian College of Midwives (ACM) describes their vocation.

Despite the dissonance between a midwife taking life in one room, and then birthing life in the next, Cohn’s coercion bill has the bizarre blessing of midwife associations, such as ACM.

Using newspeak, ACM told the Daily Declaration, Cohn’s proposals would “enable midwives to provide reproductive care of all kinds, including abortion care.”

In other words, ACM didn’t see the dissonance because they didn’t even see the words “abortion care” as a contradiction in terms.

Logic, preborn children, and the English language aren’t the only victims.

Free speech and conscientious objection also take a hit.

The Greens’ coercion bill will also censor doctors who value human life in all its stages, by stopping them from providing information about abortions.

This includes stopping doctors from explaining to patients why they object.

Instead, doctors will only be allowed to refer a mother to a “medical practitioner” who has no problem with terminating even a healthy pregnancy, under the guise of “healthcare.”

Opposing the bill, NSW Libertarian John Ruddick – member of the NSW Legislative Council – told Caldron Pool, “Mandating hospitals to perform abortions is a blatant assault on freedom of association; it deeply offends anyone with pro-life convictions.”

Explaining the Libertarian Party’s reasons for opposing The Greens’ amendments to existing abortion laws, Ruddick said, “All Libertarians agree that murder violates the non-aggression principle and should be unlawful.

“This is a view shared by anyone with a moral compass.”

The “real debate,” he explained, “hinges on when life begins.”

“Some libertarians argue life begins at conception, others at birth, and many place it somewhere in between.”

For most, including himself, Ruddick said, life beginning at “conception is the most logical starting point.”

“It is the moment of greatest transformation, a clear shift in circumstances.

“Attempts by lawmakers to arbitrarily say that after – for example – three months of pregnancy, then life begins,” simply have no answer to: “Well what about five minutes before the three-month deadline?”

It’s by “rationality, not faith, that I arrived at a pro-life position.”

The Green’s “bill isn’t about even whether the State should step in to protect a child’s life,” he continued.

“Instead, it shifts the way the State sees abortion from something that’s simply ‘not illegal’ to a positive right that every hospital is morally obligated to provide.”

“Every libertarian, regardless of their stance on abortion itself, should stand against this overreach,” asserted Ruddick.

He then added, “The most persuasive Pro-lifers I have met are Pro-life libertarians.”

For instance, Ron and Dr. Rand Paul – the faces of the American Libertarian movement – as well as Argentina’s star president, Javier Milei are all radically Libertarian, and radically Pro-life.

Cautioning critics, Ruddick remarked, “Pro-life Libertarians don’t make the case on faith.”

Although, granted the early church was “arguably the first pro-life campaigners.”

“All other arguments aside,” he concluded, “the world and especially the West are facing a potentially catastrophic population decline.

“That being the case we need to foster a culture of revering human life, not a foster a culture that makes it an optional lifestyle extra.”

The Australian Christian Lobby, and relentless, Australian Pro-life campaigner, Dr. Joanna Howe are also opposing the bill.

ACL boss Michelle Pearse described Cohn’s bill as being “ideologically driven.”

Pearse warned Australia’s healthcare system could collapse under the weight of The Greens’ proposals because healthcare professionals would simply walk away.

“Most healthcare professionals do not want to participate in ending a life.”

Forcing doctors, nurses, and midwives, to go against “do no harm,” seems counter-productive.

Dr. Joanna Howe took Cohn and The Greens to task for “attacking Christian health workers, with a bill that could force Catholic hospitals to close.”

Using her Instagram account, Dr. Howe called for Labor Premier, Chris Minns to “block the terrifying bill,” committing to “holding him responsible every day until the election.”

I’ll assert it again, because I think the point needs to be heard en masse (see here and here):

The NSW Greens and their collaborators appear to have a fresh fetish for “life unworthy of life” fascism.

If two patients enter a hospital, and only one leaves alive, because the 2nd has been denied the right to life, we can neither call that healthcare nor claim to be protecting human rights.

In the name of life, liberty, and the Imago Dei, Caldron Pool stands with the Honourable John Ruddick, The Libertarians, The Daily Declaration, ACL, and Howe, in defiance of The Greens inciting war on the preborn.

Ultimately, Cohn’s legislation destroys dissent and works to weasel in a justification for mass murder on an industrial scale.