Australian Committee Proposal to Pay Mothers’ Late Abortion Costs for Disabled Babies Compared to Nazis

The Australian Parliamentary Group on Population Development has been slammed by Queensland Senator Ron Boswell for holding to Nazi-style eugenic ideology on the abortion of disabled children, as reported by LifeSiteNews.com. “The revisiting of eugenics principles is repugnant to a society that prides itself on the contribution of all,” Boswell said.

The pro-abortion group had made a submission, signed by forty-one Australian MP’s to the parliamentary committee that is examining the issue of abortion in Australia. The group said that paying women a Medicare rebate for second trimester abortions would save the government about $180,000 a year, due to the high costs of caring for handicapped babies who are allowed to be born. Removing the abortion rebate would place “emotional, physical, mental, and financial stress on families, denying women and couples the right to decide if they are equipped to raise a child with disabilities.”

According to Christian Today, so far seven MP’s whose names were affixed to the submission have disowned the statements about abortion and handicapped children. Boswell heavily criticized the submission, saying that its underlying premise “is based on eugenic principles that governments should prefer to kill the disabled rather than support them.” He said it holds that “some lives are worth less than others because they will cause too much to support. This is the kind of thinking that was typical of the thinking of the Hitler regime. They set themselves up as judge of who deserved to live and who deserves to die.”

In the period leading up to the Second World War, the Nazi government of Germany began to implement its eugenics policies, meant to “cleanse” the German people of undesirable “racial traits.” This meant in practice the killing of those children and later, adults, considered by the state to be genetically defective. Thousands of children and adults who suffered from mental and physical disabilities were starved and gassed to death and killed by lethal injection.

More recently, the utilitarian eugenics movement has gained popularity in scientific circles that propose to eliminate undesirable traits by killing unborn babies and, increasingly, newborns, who are found to be genetically deficient. Utilitarian philosophers and bioethicists like Princeton’s Peter Singer openly advocate the killing of disabled children in the womb and as newborns. Currently the abortion rate for babies with Down’s syndrome is estimated to be as high as 95% in many Western countries, indicating that modern utilitarian eugenics is already being implemented on a widespread scale.

Response:

We heartily sympathize with those parents who have the added responsibility and burden to raise children who are born with a disability. May the Lord graciously strengthen and give wisdom in those families where such children live. That such children frequently bring joy and love to a family has been shown time and again, and they frequently put others to shame by their loyalty and devotion to their loved ones. It has also been seen in the past that some have been known by the Lord from all eternity.

The terrible sin of abortion continues to grow and expand throughout the earth. In some countries such as China it is used for “population control,” limiting families to only one child. Others use it for family “planning,” thereby limiting the size of their families for frequently personal selfish means. In the above article we see it expanded further in aborting an unborn baby or killing newborns who have a handicap. The frightening estimated number of 95% of the abortion of all babies diagnosed with Down’s syndrome points to the extent to which this evil is practiced. We have even heard of members of our own denominational family who have been advised to resort to this sinful practice when it has been determined that the mother may be carrying a baby with a suspected disability. May the Lord graciously give wisdom and courage to those parents that they may place their trust in the Lord, be submissive to His ways, and not succumb to the pressures of a humanistic society. The arguments which are used for abortion frequently play on the emotions of the expectant parents and also suggest that it is a “fetus” and not a human life; therefore, there is no “wrong” in aborting such infants. When we read the Bible in the original languages, however, we find that God’s Word consistently uses the same word for a born or unborn baby. In the Divine inspiration of God’s Word, there is no difference between born and unborn life. All human beings are made in the image of God, and God’s Word is very clear in Genesis 9:6, “whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made He man.”

We see in this article that, to some, human life is measured in its cost to society and that they will take matters into their own hands in ridding society of such human life. The fact that it is a life created by God with a soul for eternity is not even thought of by most people. May our confession be that which we read in Lord’s Day 10 of the Heidelberg Catechism, Question 27: “What dost thou mean by the providence of God? Answer: The almighty and everywhere present power of God; whereby, as it were by His hand, He upholds and governs heaven, earth, and all creatures; so that herbs and grass, rain and drought, fruitful and barren years, meat and drink, health and sickness, riches and poverty, yea, and all things come, not by chance, but by His fatherly hand.”

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