FAQ

FAQ for Pro-Life Health Professionals Australia (PHPA), addressing common media questions about our stance on late-term abortions, the qualifications of our members, and their approach to maternal and fetal care. It explains our opposition to feticide, emphasising that it is not medically necessary, and highlights the distress it causes health professionals. References to relevant studies and clinical guidelines are also included to support our views.

1. What are the qualifications of members in your organisation?

We are health professionals across all disciplines in healthcare. We are specialists and academics in Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Neonatology, other Medical Specialties, General Practice, Midwifery, Nursing and Allied Health.

2. What relation does your work have with later gestation abortions in Australia?

Our organisation advocates for life-affirming care which precludes later gestation abortions. Research about elective late-term abortions show that these procedures place women at greater risk of post-traumatic stress disorder and adverse mental health outcomes (Coleman, Coyle et al.). Abortions performed at later gestations involve two steps: first ending the life of the fetus in utero by a lethal injection of potassium chloride into the fetal heart, and then the delivery of the stillborn infant. The intention of these abortions may be to end the pregnancy alone. But the intention may also be to deliberately end the life of the fetus, in which case the procedure is not treating a medical condition of the mother. Feticide is an elective procedure and not indicated for any maternal medical complication of pregnancy. If a mother's pregnancy needs to be ended for any other reason, standard care is to deliver the baby alive.

3. What are your thoughts on late term abortion? Do you think they are necessary and justifiable to save the life of the mother and when the fetus has a lethal fetal anomaly?

Since there is no medical condition which requires a feticide, it is never medically necessary to deliberately cause the death of the fetus, in order to save the life of the mother. In a true maternity medical emergency (e.g., severe pre-eclampsia), feticide is never performed as standard practice, because the priority of obstetricians and midwives is to proceed directly to delivering the baby as soon as possible. In a true maternity medical emergency, the additional time and intervention required to perform the feticide only delays delivery and puts the mother’s life at greater risk. There is no medical basis for this assertion that a feticide is necessary to save the life of the mother. Even clinical guidelines that outline care for a mother at risk of suicide (Guideline 2023, Queensland 2024) do not offer feticide as an appropriate treatment, because there's no evidence to support this recommendation. Feticide is a treatment used by abortion advocates to end the life of the baby, because of the belief that this a compassionate course of action, and has become legal under our current abortion laws, right up until full term. Since the laws have been changed, the number of feticides have increased significantly and now include terminations of normal fetuses. The evidence to support feticide in cases of fetal anomaly is biased and doesn't answer the question, "is feticide the best course of action in cases of lethal fetal anomaly". There is no research that supports this question in an unbiased way, so it should not be used to support feticide as a treatment that's evidence-based. If a baby with a lethal fetal anomaly survives delivery, standard care is to provide the baby with neonatal palliative care, which focuses on comfort rather than prolonging life. In summary, when it comes to late term abortion, we support a mother’s right to end the pregnancy, but we advocate for the baby not to be deliberately killed in the process.

4. When do you think an abortion should be classified as late term?

After 20 weeks gestation, a baby born without signs of life is described and recorded as a stillbirth instead of a miscarriage. This gestational age cut oƯ is also used to describe late term abortions.

5. When does a fetus become viable?

A fetus becomes viable when life can be sustained independent of the mother. Standard neonatal care in most centers around Australia offers resuscitation routinely from 23 weeks' gestation onwards and overall survival in Australia and New Zealand, at this premature age is just over 50%. There are some centres who have started offering resuscitation from 22 weeks' gestation in certain circumstances with some survivors.

6. Is a midwife's primary duty to the mother and then her child? How does that play out in neonatal care and abortion?

Midwives are trained to support life for mother and child as their primary duties. In recent years since greater advocacy for abortions have occurred under the concept of reproductive healthcare (which affords no rights to the fetus) the laws have been changed to support legal termination, up until full term. As a result, some midwives have been required to become involved with abortions, taking care of the mother and the dead, or dying baby after the process. This has resulted in increasing distress amongst the profession, as it is an intentional ending of a baby's life (usually without fetal anomalies) by the doctor for psychosocial reasons, such as depression, anxiety, domestic violence or financial hardship rather than a tragic unexpected perinatal loss. In summary, as a result of these new laws, there are cases where normal babies are being intentionally killed, and it is causing significant distress to midwives whose primary duty is sustain life for mothers and their babies.

References:

Coleman, P. K., et al. (2010). "Late-term elective abortion and susceptibility to posttraumatic stress
symptoms." J Pregnancy 2010: 130519.
Guideline, S. A. P. P. (2023). Suicidal Ideation and Self Harm. D. f. H. a. Wellbeing, Government of
South Australia.
Queensland, Q. H. C. E. (2024). Perinatal Mental Health. M. a. N. C. Guideline, Queensland Clinical
Guidelines.