Christian Democratic Party Leader Fred Nile has announced a suite of legislation that he plans to introduce in coming weeks and months.
Keeping in mind the fact Fred holds the balance of power in the NSW Upper House, his proposals are scary.
Several of the pieces of legislation on his agenda aim to restrict abortion rights in NSW. He has officially announced his plans to re-introduce Zoe’s Law, a bill giving legal personhood to fetuses that has been introduced twice before but never passed. The bill, sparked by the death of Brodie Donegan’s unborn child, allows for the death of a fetus as a result of a criminal act to be considered manslaughter or murder under the law.
Each time Zoe’s Law has been proposed, it has sparked a large backlash from the community. Medical and legal experts as well as community activists have spoken out against the bill because of theconsequences it might have for women’s rights to abortion in NSW.
But Nile is nothing if not determined. He will try a third time to enact the bill in the current parliamentary session. And he won’t stop there – he also plans to introduce a series of separate pieces of legislation that directly limit abortions rights.
One of Nile’s proposed bills requires all women considering an abortion to be shown an ultrasound image of their unborn child. The bill also forces women to undergo counseling about the risks of abortion.
Another separate bill requires that women seeking an abortion are told that the procedure may cause their fetus to feel pain. The notion that fetuses are capable of feeling pain was proven false in a recent study responding to a similar bill in the US.
Nile also plans to introduce bills outlawing “conduct that causes serious harm to or the destruction of a child in utero” as well as “the destruction of any child in utero with a detectable heartbeat”.
But Fred’s chosen remit is not limited to restricting abortion rights. He’s keen to ban full face coverings in public places, raise the legal drinking age from 18 to 21, ban alcohol and gambling advertising in NSW and ban x-rated movies.
He recently told ABC’s 7.30 that he wants to use his political power to further the causes of “God and the family”.
Nile will also introduce a private member’s bill authorising the use of the term “state senator” to refer to a member of the NSW Upper House, such as himself. Nile will introduce 20 separate bills in total over the parliamentary sitting.
Nile is set to be a key player in the current parliamentary session because Premier Mike Baird needs to win his and his Christian Democratic Party colleagues’ votes in order to pass his key electricity privatisation legislation.
Hold on folks. With Fred in power things are going to get bumpy.