The Albanese Government’s payment of more than $4,000 to women who abort their babies after 20 weeks is a national disgrace. That this occurs under the guise of a “Stillbirth Parenting Payment” is a grotesque distortion of language and morality.

Australians are rightly shocked. The womb should be the safest place on earth for a baby—yet it has become a place where life can be deliberately extinguished with state sanction and, alarmingly, taxpayer support. 

Family First is a pro-life party. We believe every human life is sacred and worthy of protection from conception to natural death. At the upcoming state elections in South Australia, Victoria, and New South Wales, Family First will field candidates who will fight to abolish abortion—starting with the barbaric practice of late-term abortion.

Abortion after 20 weeks often involves injecting poison—potassium chloride or digoxin—directly into a baby’s heart before inducing early labour. This is not healthcare. It is the intentional destruction of a fully-formed, living human being.

The sheer scale of this horror should jolt the conscience of the nation. Eighty-two percent of late-term abortions in South Australia are performed on healthy babies. In Victoria, that figure is even worse—85%. These are not tragic cases of medical emergency. They are the cold, calculated killing of unborn Australians.

Adding insult to injury, hospital staff are now being forced to process government maternity payments for these abortions. One midwife was in tears after signing off on a payment for a mother who aborted her 28-week-old baby and planned to use the funds for a holiday in Bali.

Family First believes Australia must fall in love with unborn children again. This begins with truth-telling. A baby at 20 weeks has fingers, toes, a beating heart, and can feel pain. The fact that such babies are being killed while premmies in NICU are being desperately saved is an indictment on our laws and our culture.

Our parliamentarians will work tirelessly to protect the human rights of both mother and child. We will move to close the loophole that allows the stillbirth payment to be accessed after abortion. We will advocate for laws that restore the dignity of life in the womb. And we will not rest until abortion is unthinkable and every unborn child is loved and protected.

There is a better way. Pregnant women in crisis need support, not the false choice of abortion. Australia must reclaim its soul.

At the next election, vote for life. Vote Family First.