State Member for Dubbo Dugald Saunders has declined to comment on the Australian Christian Lobby's (ACL) decision to send residents a flyer that is critical of his support for abortion decriminalisation.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
In August Mr Saunders voted to change the law so abortion would no longer be considered a crime.
He said abortion was a health issue, rather than a criminal one.
Many religious groups and conservative members of the NSW Government were outraged by Premier Gladys Berejiklian's decision to support the law change, which secured majority support and passed parliament's lower house last month.
A debate is now underway about proposed amendments to the abortion legislation, which NSW Parliament's upper house is expected to vote on in the next few weeks. If the legislation is amended it will need to be sent back to the lower house and voted on again.
Some amendments anti-abortion MPs want introduced would pave the way for health practitioners to conscientiously object to performing abortions. Abortions would also be banned if they were being carried out because of sex selection reasons.
Other amendments flagged would ensure the lives of babies born alive during failed terminations would have to be preserved and abortions after 22 weeks would only be allowed if they were necessary to save the life of the mother or foetus.
This week ACL flyers, which contained attacks on National Party members of parliament who supported abortion decriminalisation, arrived in mailboxes across NSW.
"This bill is an extreme piece of work, it allows late-term abortion, sex-selective abortion, and does nothing to protect babies born alive as a result of an abortion attempt," ACL NSW Director Kieren Jackson claimed.
"The fact that only two Nationals Party MPs out of thirteen voted against the bill shows just how out of touch the party is on this issue," he said.
"Nationals MPs in the upper house now have an opportunity to show they have woken up to the extreme nature of this bill.
"We have seen how this issue has damaged the Liberal Party, but it's also damaged the Nationals who have shown themselves to be out of touch with their voter base."
The abortion issue has divided the government and two MPs have threatened to quit and sit on the crossbench in a move which would force Gladys Berejiklian into minority government.
"Over the past 20 years or so all states and territories across Australia have moved to reform laws on abortion, but not in NSW," Health Minister Brad Hazzard said.