As the NSW Parliament considers widening access to abortion and forcing doctors to facilitate it – regardless of their conscience – two medical professionals urge Christians to speak out.

I’ve been a doctor for 15 years and I love my work – I just love it. In general practice I’m in the privileged position of doing something I love, helping people and caring for them through all stages of life. 

Christians are called to love others, and this is a job where you really can do that in practical ways. You have all sorts of people who walk into your room; you might not agree with or get on with all of them, but you are called to care for them and love them. This affects how you approach your work and the time that you give to people.

Consultations are already tricky if someone comes to me with an unexpected pregnancy they want to terminate – personally, it’s very sad but you can’t show that professionally. You can ask what support they have and encourage them towards that, and you can give them information if they decide to go ahead. Importantly, you can also provide support afterwards if that is their decision.

However, if the Bill being considered by the NSW Parliament passes unamended, not only would nurses be able to prescribe abortion medication but doctors, no matter what their beliefs, would be required to write a referral or make a call to an abortion service.

Christian GPs will be faced with the alternative of compromising either their faith and beliefs or their medical qualifications, and that’s a fairly nasty position to put people in. 

 It could stop some of us from practising medicine altogether ...

I was reading an ABC news article where Amanda Cohn, the Greens MP who drafted this Bill, said that a clause in the existing law – which requires practitioners only to provide a patient with information or refer them on – was “being weaponised by whole institutions or whole departments, which is never what it was intended for”. But I feel as though her Bill would weaponise an entire workforce to make them do something that they might not want to do.

What will it mean to Christian doctors if this Bill is passed? Some of the practicalities are unclear, but I do think it could stop some of us from practising medicine altogether – if we are obligated to make a call or a referral that, in all conscience, we don’t want to make, or perform or assist in a procedure we are unwilling to do. 

We need to pray that this doesn’t happen, and contact our local MPs to express our opposition to the Bill.

Jan*, Sydney Anglican GP  (*not her real name)

As a former registered nurse and intensive care paramedic, I have been surrounded by tragedy, disaster, grief and constant death throughout my life. 

With my background, where I have been in the never-ending vortex of battling to save lives, I have struggled to understand why in Australia, and indeed across the world, death by abortion is so widely and easily accepted – even encouraged. 

… the Hippocratic Oath to protect life, not end it.

A Christian friend of mine had to watch a recording of an abortion as part of her work (she had just begun work for a group opposed to abortions). She said she could not view such destruction ever again. It is not just gentle suction that is used. It is cruel, painful and inhumane.

Every life is the product of God’s handiwork and we are made in the Creator’s image with special significance attached. The Bible gives strong warnings against taking human life.

Despite all this, there is encouragement for young women to terminate their unexpected pregnancy, or at least to consider it, telling them that it’s easily accessible, safe and (sadly) one of Australia’s most common surgical procedures.

With the undignified and immoral clamour for more abortions, widening access in NSW – especially in the public hospital system – I would want to say, “Let’s turn on the ultrasound for a moment”. Yes, I can see a heartbeat. A life. A potential future. 

Will you speak up for them? And for the medical professionals? If enacted, this bill will force medical professionals to disregard their faith conscience and refer patients to abortion services upon request, conflicting with their beliefs and the Hippocratic Oath to protect life, not end it.

Patrick Kennedy, Engadine-Heathcote Anglican Church