Parliament last night passed a Bill that will provide three days’ paid bereavement leave for women who have experienced a stillbirth or miscarriage.
The Bill’s sponsor, Labour MP Ginny Andersen, argued that
stillbirth and miscarriage can have traumatic consequences, and the House unanimously agreed.
Interviewed this morning on Morning
Report by Suzy Ferguson, Andersen acknowledged that the Bill wouldn’t apply
to women who have had abortions, as some submitters had urged.
She explained this was because the legislation was
introduced before last year’s radical overhaul of the abortion laws and she wanted
to remain focused on her principle objective.
However, when asked whether the new legislation could be
amended to cover abortion, Andersen answered: “I think that’s a really good
idea and definitely should be considered.”
This may have been a more significant statement than she realised.
Andersen was one of the 37 Labour MPs who voted for the dismantling of the
abortion laws on the basis that the right to abortion is all about women’s
health. But by acknowledging that the procedure can have harmful consequences,
she has exposed that argument as a brazen fallacy.
