Medicare funding of abortion

Senator Guy Barnett has moved a motion in the Senate to remove the Medicare funding of second trimester and late term abortions.

The motion was brought up in the Senate and then referred to the Senate Finance and Public Administration Committee for Inquiry.

UPDATE: 14 November 2008
The Committee’s Report was presented to the Senate yesterday.
The Report analyses both sides of the situation but, as expected, doesn’t make a recommendation.

The Report is posted on the Committee’s webpage: click here.
Click here for the FULL Report – pdf document - 633 KB.

When the Report was presented to the Senate, Senator Ron Boswell spoke in the Senate, criticising the submission made by the pro-abortion group the Australian Reproductive Health Alliance to the Inquiry.
The ARHA said it would cost the government a lot more to care for children with disabilities than the amount the government would save by removing the Medicare rebate (estimated saving - $180,000).

Senator Ron Boswell described the submission as “offensive”. He told the Senate “Its underlying premise that some lives are worth less than others because they will cost too much to support, this is the kind of thinking that was typical of the Hitler regime."

Media reports:
Abortion cheaper than care, says Reproductive Health Alliance
AAP, Herald Sun, November 13, 2008
“A REPRODUCTIVE health lobby group has told the Senate Medicare funding for late term abortions is cheaper than funding disability care. . .”

Disabled baby abortion call angers MP
The Age, November 13, 2008

Author: Jenny Stokes | Modified: 20 November 2008