Hear from our members

Health professionals who wish to remain pro-life are often criticised and are unable to speak freely. Here we present their stories.

Anonymous Midwife's account from a Queensland Hospital

Recently, a deeply distressing situation was witnessed in a Queensland hospital—one that raises serious questions about informed consent, patient care, and the support offered to women in crisis.

A young woman presented to the hospital after discovering she was approximately 21 weeks pregnant. According to those present, the process that followed moved with alarming speed. It was reported that she was not offered proper informed consent or counselling or given time to fully consider her options before the abortion process was initiated.

A midwife administered the first medication used in a medical termination and informed the woman that once the tablet was taken, the process could not be reversed. She was told that if she did not proceed, her baby would likely suffer severe disabilities. This information appeared to come as a shock to the woman, who had not been adequately prepared for the physical or emotional realities that lay ahead.

As the process unfolded, the woman gave birth. Tragically, her baby was born alive—something she reportedly had not been told could occur. The emotional impact of this moment was deeply distressing to the mother as she had not considered that this might occur.

According to the account, the baby was then left in the care of a nursing student for approximately 90 minutes before passing away. The circumstances surrounding this period were described as deeply confronting for those involved.

This account highlights the immense vulnerability of women facing unexpected pregnancies, particularly at later gestations. It raises serious concerns about whether comprehensive counselling, informed consent, and compassionate care are consistently being provided in such situations.

Seasoned Nurse/Midwife for 40+ years

I'm a nurse and midwife, and I've been a nurse since 1974 and a midwife since 1980. Last night I attended the rally for Save the Babies (Queensland Parliament House). And I did that because this was the first time since I was exposed to a ‘baby Samuel’ back in 1986. The first time I was free to speak out and to declare the horror that I felt at that time.

I have been traumatised, and seeing the picture of baby Samuel just brought it all back to me. And so for days I've been reliving that hideous experience in a public hospital in Victoria. And I just felt now that I've reached the end of my registration or professional career, I'm only now free to speak out.

I did challenge management at the time about the indignity of leaving that baby, which was close to 20 weeks in the pan room, and I was punished by management and by the unit manager. I was refused a promotion to clinical nurse specialist, and a lot of grief and trauma surrounded that event.

I'm now 70 years old, and I feel free to speak about the impact that that has had on my life. I refused to work in the birthing suite after that incident when I had no protection. Each weekend, I could come to work, and there could be one or two terminations in progress right next door to the other two birthing suites.

I finished my career working as a midwife in Catholic hospitals, where I knew I was safe from that sort of atrocity. And in 2022, I co-authored a book for women recovering from cesarean birth, which was a gap that I found in my practice, where very little care was given to women or education after cesarean birth.

So I speak with a real lightness in my spirit today, having travelled an hour and a half to the rally in Brisbane yesterday with a friend, and we were so uplifted and filled with hope to hear all the speakers last night and to know that there is a pro-life health professionals organisation in Australia.

If only that had been around in the 1980s to support my protests, that would have been wonderful. So thank you for the work you're doing, and I happily joined the membership before I left the rally last night. So, thank you!

Author: Anonymous seasoned Nurse/Midwife

Junior Doctor Priyanka

I just wanted to share some of my experiences of my time in Australia as a junior doctor. It's only been just over a year now, but in the last year of my time as a medical student, I faced a few instances of a lack of respect for freedom of conscience.

One of those instances, I was practically yelled at and told that, quote, “someone with my beliefs shouldn't be in medicine”. I think this is deeply damaging to someone who's just trying to do their best to be a good, kind, compassionate and caring doctor. Which I think not even just doctors, but anyone in healthcare, aims to do.

We have a right to conscientious objection at this time, but I think it's important that we continue to stand up and support junior doctors and create a safe space so that people still feel free, safe and respected to enter the profession. I think it's one of the most fundamental rights and freedoms of the human person that every single person has a right to freedom of conscience, and this needs to be respected in the healthcare profession as well.

Author: Priyanka – see PHPA’s socials for the video reel

Medical Student Perspective

I am a final medical student and have really enjoyed the course. I did medicine to help people. I have learned so much from some great mentors in how to do this well. The science is so good. It points to each one of us beginning life at fertilisation. Practice shows that life ends when the pathology just gets too much, and our help and skill then is to know when to stop futile treatments. I can’t wait to join this fantastic profession!

There are some practices that I’m concerned about that I may need to be involved in next year as part of my job as an intern. These are particularly those that deliberately end life, like termination of pregnancy and voluntary assisted dying. I didn’t sign up for healthcare to kill people. I’ve looked for answers to this dilemma and have been very encouraged by Pro-life Health Professionals Australia (PHPA) in giving me definite ways in which to navigate this.

I now understand that the specific way that health care workers help is to prevent, cure and palliate pathology. We help by accompanying people through these challenges with our hard-earned expertise.  I also see that the drive for these legal but wrong procedures comes from the health professions caving into societal mores. We are even causing pathology where none existed, going against what our true role is.

A highlight of my interaction with PHPA has been a four-week mentorship with a pro-life obstetrician and gynaecologist. This was for me an opportunity to articulate clearly my stance on issues that have an ethical twist. I also saw how the pro-life attitude of this colleague was the platform upon which all his self-giving to his patients was based. I witnessed him delicately articulate clearly what conscientious objection is all about. I also had the opportunity to work with another med student who also came around to the idea that these procedures were not really part of our therapeutic weaponry, and in fact, they led to a loss of trust in health care workers and were bad for our profession.

This experience has fortified my pro-life convictions and demonstrated that it is possible and, in fact, needed for us who care about people and their health to live out these principles. This is especially so today, when the institutions that should protect our great specialties have been so overtaken by a pro-death attitude to life.

Before this placement, I thought that a person like me doing obstetrics and gynaecology was beyond my abilities because there would be so many ethical traps on the way. I now know that this specialist and some of his colleagues have been able to train fully in the specialty of obstetrics in Australia without doing any terminations, and now can defend both child and mother at a most vulnerable stage. I’m so happy to have found an organisation that finally gets it.

Author: submitted anonymously