The Treasurer of New South Wales delivered a powerful speech last week in response to the Reproductive Healthcare Reform Bill 2019.
The bill, which passed the lower house 59 to 31, would essentially throw open the doors to late-term abortion, on-demand, by any method, no matter how abhorrent, up to 22 weeks, as Dr David Van Gend pointed out. Beyond that point, right up until birth, all that is required is the consent of two abortion doctors.
In his speech, Dominic Perrottet MP pointed out that the worst parts of our history have come from a refusal to recognise the rights of others.
The human story can be understood as a long winding arc to the transformational truth that all lives matter. That we all possess an inherent dignity, just by virtue of who we are. Male or female. Black or white. Born or unborn.
The best chapters in our history have been when we have recognised the innate dignity of others. But our worst have been when people with rights have decided that others shouldn’t have them too.
Mr Perrottet went on to rightly explain our human rights do not depend on how other people feel or our current circumstances.
Why is it that when a child in the womb is wanted it’s treated as a precious human life endowed with rights, but when it’s not wanted it seemingly has no rights at all. This is a question that has not, and cannot, be answered.
The truth is, our human rights are not subjective. They don’t depend on the feelings of other people or our current circumstances. And they exist whether a piece of paper recognises them or not, with the right to life the most important right of all.
