Asylum seeker opts not to have abortion

#1143 for broadcast on 2CH Sydney, 25 October 2015

It is not lawful to have an abortion on the Pacific island of Nauru. So when 23-year-old Somali asylum seeker Abayan fell pregnant as a result of an alleged rape on Nauru, the Australian government flew her to Sydney for an abortion, which her lawyers insisted she wanted.

Now four months pregnant, Abayan has considered her options and decided to keep her baby, which is her right. As Murdoch columnist Miranda Devine observed, “It is not up to her lawyers, or the Greens or refugee advocates to fly into a rage and demand that the government force an abortion on her.”

Devine goes on:

It is an agonising decision for any woman to make, to kill the child she can feel growing inside her. If Abyan has decided not to have the abortion, that is a blessing for all involved, and her choice should be respected, not second guessed.

I’m Rod Benson for the NSW Council of Churches.