Core Value LIFE
Family First affirms the inherent dignity and right to life of every human being from conception to natural death. Recognising the challenges of the current legal and political environment, and as part of a principled and incremental approach toward the full protection of the unborn, Family First may support a range of measures that advance this objective. These include, but are not limited to, the following policy initiatives.
Beginning of Life - Family first will:
- Support women practically through legislative and financial support of crisis pregnancy centres, so no woman feels she has no other choice but to take the life of her unborn baby;
- Provide women with an alternative to abortion through legislative and policy changes to the adoption process. Making adoption a kind, gentle, supported and readily available option for birth mothers, their children, and adoptive families;
- Advocate through public education for the public to fall in love again with unborn babies so that abortion becomes unthinkable.
- Protect the rights of children and the dignity of women by banning surrogacy and other forms of parent-denying reproductive techniques such as egg and sperm donation;
- Amend legislation to provide for fully informed medical consent, including an ultrasound scan, full disclosure of all health risks, presentation of all available options and a cooling off period so women are given access to life affirming choices;
- Amend the Medicare item numbers to give abortion its own separate item code for tracking of national statistics and funding reviews;
- Advocate for detailed research and data collection on abortion reasons, procedures and outcomes for women including physical and mental health;
- Protect the rights of medical professionals and faith-based hospitals to conscientiously object to performing, or assisting with, abortion procedures;
- Completely separate all abortion procedures from maternity services to ensure the best standard of birth care for mothers and babies, as well as professional care for nurses and doctors;
- Support recent legislative proposals that would:
- Protect pain-capable unborn babies by banning late term abortions;
- Ensure medical care is rendered in cases where babies survive the abortion attempt;
- Protect the lives of baby girls by banning sex-selection abortions.
- Protect unborn children who are considered to be less than perfect, by banning the medical coercion to terminate when downs syndrome or other similar conditions are suspected.
- Make it a criminal offence for anyone to coerce a woman to kill her unborn baby;
End of Life - Family first will:
- Repeal euthanasia laws and properly resource palliative care.