How the LNP crushes pro-life candidates

How the LNP crushes pro-life candidates

In 2019, before she was pre-selected to represent the Liberal National Party in the seat of Rockhampton, Donna Kirkland posted on social media “abortion is the greatest human rights abuse of our time”.

She is of course right.

How could any humane person watch Queensland midwife Louise Adsett’s testimony to a recent Parliamentary inquiry into late term abortion and not agree?

Adsett wept as she described babies in Queensland hospitals born alive after the abortion attempts on their lives and then left, gasping for breath sometimes for hours, to die.

At least one baby per week in Australia dies this way.

But LNP leader David Crisafulli’s foolish captain’s call last year to refuse to even hold an inquiry into something most Queenslanders oppose, means abortion is bedevilling his election campaign.

He’s treating the plight of unborn babies and their mothers, too many of whom are coerced by men into taking the lives of their offspring, like Kryptonite.

When asked for his views by the media, he recoils like Dracula at the sight of a crucifix.

“We have a plan, and we’ve ruled that (protecting unborn babies) out so that shows you a level of a sense of unity to deal with the issues that Queenslanders want us to deal with,” he parrots.

His imposition of ruthless party discipline has made him and his candidates look silly for days as they dodge legitimate questions.

He’s like Victoria’s hapless Liberal leader John Pesutto when it comes to girls’ and women’s rights – he’s spooked by Labor’s attacks and won’t mount a case for what he knows to be right.

Crisafulli has a commendable pro-life voting record. The self-described “conviction politician” should defend it.

Sadly Donna Kirkland, who Rockhampton locals tell me is a strong Christian, has had to join Crisafulli in resorting to the Groucho Marx approach: “Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others.”

Standing next to Crisafulli at a media conference this week she went from her principled 2019 position to parroting her leaders’ line.

“We’ve been very clear on this, we’ve ruled it out,” she said.

I’m sure Donna Kirkland is a good person. But this is a lesson in how the LNP crushes pro-life and pro-family people.

Since October last year, Crisafulli and the bullies in head office have muzzled MPs and candidates on the issue of human rights for unborn babies.

The LNP is effectively saying if you are pro-life you are only welcome in the party if you agree to support abortion publicly.

Two courageous LNP MPs, Jon Krause and Tony Perrott have broken ranks with their leader and said there are problems with Queensland’s abortion-to-birth laws.

In my old hometown of Toowoomba where four of Family First’s 59 candidates for the October 26 are running, the local paper quizzed the LNP incumbents.

“Toowoomba and Lockyer Valley LNP members David Janetzki, Trevor Watts, Pat Weir and Jim McDonald have all promised that abortion laws will not be appealed or amended if their party wins the State Election later this month,” the Toowoomba Chronicle reported.

Toowoomba is full of pro-life people who feel badly let down by these MPs who view social conservatives as their base.

The issue is not helped by fake reporting in the media.

The Australian’s Sarah Elks, who is described as a reporter “focussing on investigations”, interviewed a self-described Labor supporter who is also a young mother.

Sunshine Coast mother-of-three Charli Fouhy told Elks she and her friends are terrified of any restrictions being placed on Queensland’s abortion-to-birth laws (Elks didn’t tell her readers abortion is legal for any reason to birth; they will have to do their own investigations).

“I know multiple people who have had to have terminations (for medical reasons) while actively trying to have children,” Fouhy said.

The problem with this is it is extremely rare that an unborn baby needs to be killed in its mother’s womb for a “medical reason”.

Elks should investigate instead of being an activist.

These rare cases are hardly justification for Queensland’s open slather abortion-to-birth laws where most mothers and babies are healthy.

As former Deputy Prime Minister John Anderson says you can’t get good public policy out of a bad debate.

Here’s how Crisafulli chose to conduct debate as reported by The Australian’s Feeding the Chooks column.

Chooks: “You voted against decriminalising abortion, you didn’t give a speech in the parliament, so could you just lay out for voters now, why? Why did you choose to vote that way?”

Crisafulli: “Well, put that to one side –

Chooks: “Well that is my question, it is not to put to one side. Could you just explain to voters why you decided to vote that way?

Crisafulli: “I won’t trivialise an issue by pointing to you at different examples of other politicians who may have said other things. We are going to an election, and I’m putting forward our plan. I am putting forward our priorities. I am putting forward a commitment to Queenslanders and that is pretty definitive, and ultimately that’s what matters.”

Clear as mud.

ACTION: Join the fight for human rights for unborn babies and support for their mothers. Join the Family First Party today.