Chanting 鈥淣ot the church, not the state, women will decide our fate鈥,聽 supporters of women鈥檚 right to choose gathered outside NSW parliament on November 15 to oppose conservative MLC Fred Nile鈥檚 third attempt to introduce a foetal personhood bill in the Legislative Assembly.
Zoe's law
News that NSW MLC Fred Nile is using the last sitting weeks of state parliament before the March 2019 election to push his 鈥淶oe鈥檚 law鈥 bill 鈥 which would give foetuses legal rights 鈥 is galvanising those supporting choice.
The misogynist Fred Nile has opportunistically seized the moment 鈥 provided by Tanya Davies, the new NSW 鈥減ro-life鈥 minister for women 鈥 to reintroduce a bill to give foetuses legal rights.
Nile, a NSW MLC, introduced the Crimes Amendment (Zoe鈥檚 Law) Bill 2017 on March 9. The wording is the same as his last attempt.
Nile first tried to push his anti-choice law in 2010. He managed to get it through the Legislative Assembly in 2013 (63 votes to 26) with Davies鈥 support.聽
Every activist has at some point been told that activism is pointless today, that it achieves nothing and hasn鈥檛 since the 鈥70s. Others say that there鈥檚 no point to feminist activism in particular because we already have gender equality. A quick look at the issues feminists are struggling for, and the wins we鈥檝e had recently, show that neither claim is true, nor are they likely to be for some time.
1. Zoe鈥檚 Law
Supporters of women's reproductive rights gathered outside NSW Parliament on November 13. The push to amend the NSW Crimes Act to grant a foetus personhood rights is likely to collapse after a controversial Private Member鈥檚 Bill failed to be debated in the Legislative Council.
Controversial private member鈥檚 bill 鈥淶oe鈥檚 law鈥, which aims to give legal rights to foetuses, was again set aside in the NSW Legislative Assembly on October 31. Only a few MPs turned up to the third second-reading debate; four spoke against and three spoke for it.
Those against were: Andrew McDonald (ALP Macquarie Fields); Leslie Williams (Nationals Port Macquarie); Jamie Parker (Greens Balmain) and John Williams (Nationals Murray Darling).