Neonatologist urges NSW female MPs to back sex selection abortion bill

Rally outside NSW Parliament Tuesday 2 June, 6pm

Published in the DAILY DECLARATION 20th May 2026

President of Pro-Life Health Professionals Australia (PHPA), Dr Melissa Lai, is urging NSW voters to contact their MPs and ask them to support a new sex selection Bill aimed at stopping abortions being performed purely because of a baby’s sex.

Dr Lai, a senior Neonatologist and academic, said Pro-Life Health Professionals Australia (PHPA) found an Edith Cowan University study on sex selection abortions is a wake-up call, and a reflection of the extreme abortion laws across the country.

“Edith Cowan University’s (ECU) independent and exhaustive 2025 study of more than two million births between 1994 and 2015 found sex-selective abortion practices in NSW,” Dr Lai said.

“The natural ratio of boys to girls is 105 boys to 100 girls, but in the ECU landmark study, these numbers were abnormally skewed, showing parents were terminating girls in-utero”.

The sex selection abortion problem was particularly acute when a mother has already had two girls. In this case, some Australians of Chinese descent aborted at such an alarming rate, that the sex ratio blows out to a staggering 134 boys to 100 girls.

“This gendercide where Australians are able to abort their babies simply because they’re girls, is unsupportable and unacceptable,” Dr Lai said.

Dr Lai said the abortions are state-sanctioned sex discrimination. In NSW, baby girls are treated as expendable — their lives negotiable, their worth denied.

“A government that claims to stand for equality cannot remain silent while girls are eliminated simply for being female. This is a profound moral and political failure, and the NSW Parliament must act now to end sex-selective abortion,” Dr Lai said.

“We commend Libertarian MP John Ruddick, MLC, who has introduced a private member’s bill in the NSW Upper House to ban sex-selective abortions,” Dr Lai said.

Dr Lai urges everyone who believes in female equality, to attend the rally outside NSW Parliament on Tuesday 2 June at 6 PM, to support John Ruddick’s bill.

“Every NSW politician, who will be voting the next day (Wed 3 June), especially female MPs, must see this practice of aborting girls as unconscionable. Introduction of this legislation is long overdue”.

“Whether you support abortion or not, this practice of ending a baby’s life because of a son-preference must be voted against in the NSW parliament, from all sides of politics.”

“The peer-reviewed study by ECU shows that Australians of Chinese, Vietnamese and Indian descent were aborting, particularly baby girls, in preference for boys,” Dr Lai said.

“Ironically, sex selection abortions are illegal in China and India”.

“If this Bill does not pass, NSW is perpetuating discrimination against girls at the earliest stage of development. What message does that send and what example does that set for future generations?”

“We urge the NSW Premier to prioritise passing John Ruddick’s Bill. When other parties are calling for the removal of mandatory reporting, that includes documenting whether abortions are being performed for sex selection, proposed by the Green’s Abortion Law Reform Amendment (Health Care Access) Bill 2025, the need to protect girls in-utero has never been more urgent”.

“Mr Ruddick’s Abortion Law Reform Amendment (Sex Selection Prohibition) Bill 2025 would ban sex-selective abortions, with appropriate penalties to deter this unacceptable practice,” Dr Lai said.

“Just as most people are unaware that abortion has been legalised throughout the entire nine months, most fair-minded Australians would reject gender-based abortion,” Dr Lai concluded.