Care for late-term abortion survivors 'has to be fixed'

a parliamentary Hearing in Queensland heard horrific accounts from a courageous Midwife who explained what happens when unwanted babies are born alive to give you a first example a mother made a decision to abort her baby at 21 plus weeks gestation the process began in the morning with um mus prel given throughout the day the process took all day and the baby was only delivered during the early hours of a Night Shift where skeleton staff was on duty Louis at said who is a clinical Midwife and has worked in maternity and birthing units for around 14 years also told a hearing about how babies cling on to life for hours receiving no medical assistance to save their lives or to alleviate their pain this baby moved vigorously gasp for breath and had a palpable heart rate to make it clear this baby was alive it was over 400 G so the baby was a good weight the parents of this baby did not desire to see or hold this baby midwives and doctors were left holding this little life while it continued to while they continued to provide cares for other women who were birthing and weling their babies into the world this baby boy fought for his life for 5 hours before taking his final breath this is not an uncommon occurrence 5 hours 5 hours the inquiry into babies born alive was looking into enshrining legislative protection for babies to survive abortion either in the form of paliative care for those who will not live long or medical care for those who will joining me now is Professor of law at the University of adelay Dr Joanna how Dr how that testimony is harrowing it certainly moved United Australia Senator Ralph babet to introduce an urgency motion asking Senators to vote on the importance of medical care for babies who survive abortion but uh It Was Defeated it's unbelievable reader 32 votes to 18 that was voted down which tells you something about the quality of people that are in our Senate universally unanimously labor and the greens voted against that motion and it was a simple motion it was a motion that said if a baby is born alive after an abortion they should be entitled to equal protection under the law so it is absolutely it's just disturbing like I I actually can't understand how anybody any Australian could vote against a motion calling for equal treatment for those children especially after the harrowing groundbreaking courageous testimony of Louise adset the day before who blew the lead on this whole thing well why aren't we seeing other midwives nurses doctors speaking out if this is happening regularly and and surely more would be speaking out out reader they can't so Louise adset had parliamentary privilege she was giving a uh she was giving evidence to a parliamentary inquiry in Queensland and so you an employer can't take punitive action against you for something you say to a parliamentary inquiry but any other Midwife who speaks out about this will lose their job that is just the reality of this immediately after Louise gave that extraordinarily Brave testimony Dr Alicia room from the same Hospital who's an obrian gave evidence to the inquiry saying babies are not born alive and left to die so essentially disputing the very credibility of this incredibly Brave Midwife who came forward to say this the reality is the peak bodies rans scog AMA they're all lined up and any any Midwife or nurse who's on the ground dealing with these babies who are gasping for air who are struggling to breathe who are left in metal on metal plates for you know up to hours these midwives and nurses are not protected but I have now since Louise gave that testimony I've actually had five more midwives come to me and to speak to me about this so I'm going to be airing these on my YouTube but I'm going to have to disguise their voice and their face because otherwise who knows what will happen to them so you know this is a a tragedy occurring under our very noses in our hospitals every single week in this country it has to be fixed we do need more people to come forward but the reality is the medical profession is not safe for people like Louise to talk about this in ordinary life to people like you and me on camera it's it just won't protect them because this is legal and you can only blow the whistle on stuff that's not illegal and so sorry can only blow the whistle on things that are illegal and and the reality is it is legal in our country and it happens once every seven days that a baby's born alive and left to die without a right to Medical Care the nurses you've spoken to the midwives that uh have come forward since Louis's testimony uh are they also in Queensland what have they told you so I've had um one come forward from Victoria and the others are from Queensland and they have told me about these little babies who are born and one of them actually offered to adopt the baby and she fought with the people above her to say look I want to take care of this baby this baby can live and she was shut down and the baby was left to die and and that is just a heartbreaking story but I've had other midwives and nurses come forward to tell me stories of these babies who um they want to hold them but they're not counted as patience so under Queensland law the miles government actually did change the Midwife to Patient ratios in a positive way a few weeks ago but these babies who are born alive after an abortion they're not counted as patients so one Midwife told me of a situation where she wanted to hold this baby that was born alive and she wrapped the baby in a blanket but then the cor bell rang so she had to put the baby down and just leave that baby gasping for air in the dirt you know and and and they go in the dirty pan room so they go where the dirty dishes are and that's where they're left gasping for air until they pass so it's an absolute National Disgrace these Senators who did not vote for this last week it's it's just hard to comprehend and it shows you that we need it it a massive wakeup call on this country and it wasn't just the greens and labor we had uh liberal senators and what is the concern from these people I mean it seems to me insane not to be giving assistance to a baby that is gasping for breath that somehow holds on to life for 5 hours despite not getting any medical assistance are they scared that if you acknowledge that this happens and have some sort of a uh process where they have to receive treatment that it will put late term abortion under threat is that why they're voting against this motion it's it's hard to understand why anybody would be against giving assistance to a baby that is struggling uh for breath there were four liberals Senator Hume Senator Birmingham Senator Bragg and Senator Maria kovich who voted against giving equal treatment to children born alive Senator Maria kovich stood up in the Parliament and gave four reasons as to why she was Voting against equal treatment for these babies she said that we haven't had enough time to discuss this she said this is not urgent she said these babies um the the data she questioned the data on on this not being one baby a week and she also said this is a decision between a woman and her doctor now the reality is the Senate has had a born alive protection bill for 18 months on the books So Co chick needs to do a job and get up to speed the data is very clear it's one baby a week and that's just in son of Victoria one baby a week who was born alive without a legal right to care and this argument a woman and a doctor how it's it doesn't make sense read I just think it yeah if you think the data is wrong if you think it's been overstated fine you can still pass the legislation the legislation isn't related to data it's related to making sure a baby that's born alive after a failed abortion get some medical care so whether it's one a week one a year why would that prevent you from passing the legislation I think we need far more scrutiny particularly from those uh liberal Senators you mentioned Dr Joanna how thank you for your time this evening