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Tragically, and despite the best efforts of many, South Australia’s lower house of Parliament passed the abortion-to-birth bill in the early hours of Friday, 19 February 2021.

The final vote was 29-15, with several apparent abstentions.

This vote, however, cannot be viewed in isolation as a complete guide to how MPs voted over the course of the debate.

Many good amendments were proposed, but defeated. Among these was a brave proposal by Liberal MP David Speirs to wind back the late-term abortion elements within the bill.

The Speirs amendment was narrowly lost in a vote of 26-20, meaning a mere 4 MPs changing their minds would have seen some of the worst parts of this law removed.

How your MP voted on this amendment is just as crucial as how they ultimately voted on the bill.

We encourage you to see how your MP voted, remembering that unless an MP voted both FOR the Speirs amendment and AGAINST the final bill, then they effectively supported late-term abortions at some point in the debate.

For ease of reading, we have colour-coded RED those who effectively supported late-term abortion at some point, and those who were consistently pro-life in their voting in GREEN.

Those who supported the Speirs amendment but then disappeared for the final vote, we have left in black.

The 14 MPs who were consistently pro-life during these two votes (marked in green) deserve your thanks.

There will be time for further reflection on the debate — some of which was inspiring, some of which was downright shameful — but for now we simply want to get this information out.

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Voted FOR the abortion bill (29 MPs)

Basham, David (Finniss – Liberal)

Bedford, Frances (Florey – Independent)

Bettison, Zoe (Ramsay – Labor)

Bignell, Leon (Mawson – Labor)

Boyer, Blair (Wright – Labor)

Brown, Michael (Playford – Labor)

Chapman, Vickie (Bragg – Liberal)

Close, Susan (Port Adelaide – Labor)

Cook, Nat (Hurtle Vale – Labor)

Cowdrey, Matt (Colton – Liberal)

Gardner, John (Morialta – Liberal)

Gee, Jon (Tayor – Labor)

Hildyard, Katrine (Reynell – Labor)

Hughes, Eddie (Giles – Labor)

Luethen, Paula (King – Liberal)

Malinauskas, Peter (Croydon – Labor)

Marshall, Steven (Dunstan – Liberal)

McBride, Nick (MacKillop – Liberal)

Odenwalder, Lee (Elizabeth – Labor)

Piccolo, Tony (Light – Labor)

Picton, Chris (Kaurna – Labor)

Pisoni, David (Unley – Liberal)

Power, Carolyn (Elder – Liberal)

Sanderson, Rachel (Adelaide – Liberal)

Stinson, Jayne (Badcoe – Labor)

Szakacs, Joe (Cheltenham – Labor)

Treloar, Peter (Flinders – Liberal)

Wingard, Corey (Gibson – Liberal)

Wortley, Dana (Torrens – Labor)

 

Voted AGAINST the abortion bill (15 MPs)

Brock, Geoff (Frome – Independent)

Cregan, Dan (Kavel – Liberal)

Duluk, Sam (Waite – Independent)

Ellis, Fraser (Narungga – Liberal)

Harvey, Richard (Newland – Liberal)

Knoll, Stephan (Schubert – Liberal)

Koutsantonis, Tom (West Torrens – Labor)

Michaels, Andrea (Enfield – Labor)

Mullighan, Stephen (Lee – Labor)

Murray, Steve (Davenport – Liberal)

Patterson, Stephen (Morphett – Liberal)

Pederick, Adrian (Hammond – Liberal)

Speirs, David (Black – Liberal)

Tarzia, Vincent (Hartley – Liberal)

van Holst Pellekaan, Dan (Stuart – Liberal)

 

Didn’t vote on bill (3 MPs)

Bell, Troy (Mount Gambier – Independent)

Teague, Josh (Heysen – Liberal) * N.B. Was in the chair

Whetstone, Tim (Chaffey – Liberal)

 

Voted FOR the Speirs amendment (20 MPs)

Bell, Troy (Mount Gambier – Independent)

Brock, Geoff (Frome – Independent)

Brown, Michael (Playford – Labor)

Cowdrey, Matt (Colton – Liberal)

Cregan, Dan (Kavel – Liberal)

Duluk, Sam (Waite – Independent)

Ellis, Fraser (Narungga – Liberal)

Knoll, Stephan (Schubert – Liberal)

Koutsantonis, Tom (West Torrens – Labor)

Malinauskas, Peter (Croydon – Labor)

Michaels, Andrea (Enfield – Labor)

Mullighan, Stephen (Lee – Labor)

Murray, Steve (Davenport – Liberal)

Patterson, Stephen (Morphett – Liberal)

Pederick, Adrian (Hammond – Liberal)

Piccolo, Tony (Light – Labor)

Power, Carolyn (Elder – Liberal)

Speirs, David (Black – Liberal)

Tarzia, Vincent (Hartley – Liberal)

van Holst Pellekaan, Dan (Stuart – Liberal)

 

Voted AGAINST the Speirs amendment (26 MPs)

Basham, David (Finniss – Liberal)

Bedford, Frances (Florey – Independent)

Bettison, Zoe (Ramsay – Labor)

Bignell, Leon (Mawson – Labor)

Boyer, Blair (Wright – Labor)

Chapman, Vickie (Bragg – Liberal)

Close, Susan (Port Adelaide – Labor)

Cook, Nat (Hurtle Vale – Labor)

Gardner, John (Morialta – Liberal)

Gee, Jon (Taylor – Labor)

Harvey, Richard (Newland – Liberal)

Hildyard, Katrine (Reynell – Labor)

Hughes, Eddie (Giles – Labor)

Luethen, Paula (King – Liberal)

Marshall, Steven (Dunstan – Liberal)

McBride, Nick (MacKillop – Liberal)

Odenwalder, Lee (Elizabeth – Labor)

Picton, Chris (Kaurna – Labor)

Pisoni, David (Unley – Liberal)

Sanderson, Rachel (Adelaide – Liberal)

Stinson, Jayne (Badcoe – Labor)

Szakacs, Joe (Cheltenham – Labor)

Teague, Josh (Heysen – Liberal)

Whetstone, Tim (Chaffey – Liberal)

Wingard, Corey (Gibson – Liberal)

Wortley, Dana (Torrens – Labor)

 

Didn’t vote on the Speirs amendment (1)

Treloar, Peter (Flinders – Liberal) N.B. Was in the chair

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Originally published by the Australian Family Coalition.
Photo by Matt Walsh on Unsplash.