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A Queensland IVF clinic receives two to three inquiries about gender selection every week, and some patients report killing their 10-week-old preborn baby after a blood test revealed the baby was the “wrong sex”.
Queensland Fertility Group director Dr David Molloy said that dozens of IVF patients support his legal push for IVF gender-selection, in a legal framework that already permits genetic-based abortion.
“I think couples come to me because they know I have always been an advocate of gender selection, but the National Health and Medical Research Council upheld the ban on non-medical gender selection in its 2017 review,” Dr Molloy told The Courier Mail on March 7.
“This move disappointed a lot of Queenslanders and we are still lobbying for change,” he said.
Part of Dr Molloy’s legal argument for change is that parents who have an “all-consuming desire” for a boy or a girl can become so disappointed with the outcome that they end up in psychiatric care.
“I have seen hundreds of patients who are disappointed when they hear of the gender of the child they are expecting but it doesn’t mean they don’t adore the baby when it arrives. For most, the disappointment passes quickly. Sadly though, I do see some who end up broken and in psychiatric care,” he said.
FamilyVoice Australia spokesman Darryl Budge says that sex-selection abortion is a further attack on the sanctity of life.
“All Australian states have legalised abortion that is allegedly justified for the mother’s mental health or because tests on the baby point to an unwanted disease or abnormality,” Darryl Budge said.
“This legally translates to the erasure of a preborn baby’s right to life by the mother’s own preference for her quality of life.”
Mr Budge commended that Queensland LNP MP George Christensen, who addressed a FamilyVoice webinar on March 8 regarding his Human Rights (Children Born Alive Protection) Bill 2021, had expressed the need for legislation to protect children born alive after abortion, and his desire to prevent gender-based abortions.