Well, here at the Topher Project, every now and again, it is my solemn responsibility to bring a more serious story.

And today is one such story. It should shock us all that here in Australia, babies that are born alive after an attempted a failed abortion are not automatically saved, even once they’re outside of the womb, even if they are still viable after that failed procedure. It is not a matter of course to save their life at that point. And unfortunately, that’s a situation that most Australians aren’t aware of and actually don’t realize how often this happens. I’ll admit that only a few years ago, I was quite ignorant as well. And it was the work of Dr. Joanna How that really brought me up to speed on that.

Well, there are people trying to change that state of affairs in Australia. And Dr. Joanna How is one of those people and joins me now on the Topher Project. Joanna, thank you so much for coming on.

[From video] Thanks, Topher. It’s great to be back again with you. [End video]

It’s a very solemn subject and one that I’m sure you’re probably on the one hand sick of having to talk about, but on the other hand, it’s obviously something that you care very deeply about and with very good reason. Can you, for those who don’t know, who are just hearing this for the very first time, what is the state of play in Australia, what are the laws regarding children, babies that aren’t born alive after a failed abortion?

[From video]

Okay. So on the one hand under our criminal law, it is a crime to kill a person in Australia. So, and the law in each of the states and territories tends to define that as a baby who’s expelled from the mother and has taken their first breath. [End video]

Sorry to interrupt this interview with Dr. Joanna How. This is a very very heavy kind of a story but a very necessary one and sadly one that really isn’t going to be covered by the mainstream media anytime soon. And as Dr. How talks about in this interview, there is where they talk about it at all there is usually misinformation being spoken. And this really is why I do what I do. I don’t necessarily enjoy bringing interviews like this. But it’s too important not to and I wouldn’t be doing right by you, my audience, and by the responsibility that I have as someone with an audience if I didn’t bring you stories like this from time to time.

So I would love for you to help and support Dr. Joanna How. She’s going to give you her details at the end of this interview on how you can do that. But also, I’d really appreciate your support for the Topher project to help me to be able to continue to do what I do and bring you stories like this one. You can do that by buying me a coffee via the button at topherfield.net or by heading over to goodpeoplebreakbadlaws.com and having a look at my books, my DVDs, and my merch. And every time you purchase anything, that is going to go towards helping me to keep the Topher project going and to bringing you the mix of stories that I do. Some fun, some interesting and political, and others really important and heavy and literally life and death for the poor children that are involved in this.

So, thank you for your support and please also make sure you do get behind Dr. Joanna How as well. We’ll give you those details later in the video. But for now, let’s get back to this interview with Dr. Joanna How.

[From video]

Um, but then on the other hand, we have laws on abortion that specifically say that well, we don’t have… sorry, let me rephrase. We have laws that allow abortion up to birth. And then in some of the states and territories, it explicitly says in the policy guideline that if a live birth occurs following an abortion, do not give life sustaining treatment. So that’s a direct quote. Do not give life sustaining treatment. That is in the Northern Territory guidelines for example that if a live birth follows an abortion, that is what is to happen. And the Northern Territory is the state of Jessica Jane in 1998. So going this is a problem that has been going on for a very long time. It’s only gotten worse because our abortion laws have gotten worse. So we’re seeing more and more late term abortions.

But Jessica Jane just a quick recap for people who don’t know. Um, she was born alive following a failed abortion. Uh, she was left on a kidney dish uh for 18 minutes um in an empty room until she died. And there was a coroner’s report by Greg Kavanagh in 1998 that said under Australian law this needs to be fixed. These children that survive their abortion, they should be treated like any other child. Um, they have been fully expelled from their mother. So, they should receive medical care just like if a child was born prematurely at Jessica’s gestation of 22–23 weeks, they would receive medical care. So, to dump her in an empty room for 80 minutes by herself, waiting for her to die while she’s crying and whimpering, that’s inhumane. Greg Kavanagh called that out. But still today, the Northern Territory in its policy guidelines says do not give life sustaining treatment if a live birth occurs.

So um it is a major problem that across Australia this this is being dealt with differently. So in South Australia where I’m from, um a child that survives their abortion needs to be treated no differently under the law. So there’s birth equality uh in South Australia but then in Queensland um 49 babies survived their abortion in 2022 and were left to die. It’s actually a legitimate method of abortion to induce these babies alive and to leave them to die.

And on my YouTube channel, I was working with Kathy, a midwife in New South Wales who talks about how in New South Wales when she was working in the system, there was a room like a medical slop room. And in there, there was trays of babies um who’d survived their abortion, their faces covered, and it would be someone’s job to go in there and just document the time of death. Um and and then that baby would be, you know, sent to pathology. So, it it is just shocking. [End video]

It’s it is. I barely have words. I mean, I was aware of this problem thanks to your work. I was already aware of this problem before this interview, but to have it laid out again like that and to think that not only have grown adults um who who we presume to be moral people approved of this state of affairs, but there are then the medical professionals on the front lines of this who presumably went into medicine for the purpose of saving lives who will then at an operational level participate in this and actually follow through on this. I find this shocking at at so many different levels.

There are some good people working to try and change this state of affairs. There was a a federal born alive bill brought before parliament previously uh to try and make it Australian law that every single child uh that that survives an abortion needs to be properly treated and properly given medical care as if they were any other birth. But that bill failed Joanna and it blows my mind that knowing and understanding the state of affairs people could be opposed to that. Uh but the fight is continuing. Tell us where things are up to now.

[From video]

Okay. So, the last bill that was introduced in the last parliament uh lapsed. It was never brought to a vote. But something that we did get from that born alive bill was an inquiry for the first time federally into the born alive issue. And so that was fantastic because we had evidence that was then brought forward to show that this is a problem into our federal senate.

And following that, Queensland actually changed its termination of policy guidelines from do not give life sustaining treatment to individualized care for the child once born. And according to best practice. So, so there was an improvement in one of the states and territories following that inquiry. This is so incremental too. I mean I think if every Australian knew about it, we would fix it overnight like that. [End video]

Yeah.

[From video]

But they just because there is such a cover up around it. So the mainstream media won’t report on it. If they do report on it, they say that it’s a myth. So Ken, the Guardian have articles by Tory Shepard saying that this is this is a bill about a myth. It doesn’t exist. And they quote abortion providers like Mark Stoops who want to cover it up.

So we’ve made some progress incrementally. I’m really excited that Matt Canavan has announced that he’ll bring this bill back very soon. So so likely before the end of the year we will see um the Children Born and Alive Human Rights Protection Bill brought back into the Senate. It would be wonderful to get another inquiry on it. But what we really need is a vote. We actually need to bring this to a vote so that we can see where the senators stand. Um, and then it would be great to have someone introduce it in the lower house like Bob Kata so that we get a vote in the lower house of the federal parliament because I think at the end of the day we need to really flush out these politicians that stand on the side of leaving these babies to die.

One of those is Dr. Monique Ryan, one of the TLMPs. She’s come out and said this is a problem. This is a bill for a problem that doesn’t exist. And yet in our own state of Victoria and if we combine that with Queensland 724 babies who have survived their abortion and left to die between 2010 and 2020. In the Victorian health data, they’re recorded as a neonatal death. So they’re a baby who survives their abortion and then they die within the first 28 days in hospital and they’re recorded as a neonatal death. And so, um, it is definitely a problem that exists in her own state and it needs to be addressed. [End video]

It’s it’s absolutely, absolutely appalling. And just from a from a tactical point of view, if she’s so certain that this problem doesn’t exist, then she should have no problem with the bill being passed because it’s not going to affect anybody, is it? Uh, and so I think we can call her out on we can call her out on her own BS on that front.

Well, I’m I’m with you. I applaud Senator Matt Canavan and there are others as well that are that are getting around this and supporting this and I would certainly encourage everyone to do so. If people wanted to support you, to support your work, to support other organizations that are standing on this issue, where would they find you and how could they get behind you?

[From video]

Thanks Topher. So I think the first thing is I would love it guys if you checked out my YouTube channel. I put a daily podcast up called The Doctor and I said Dr. Joanna Howe that that’s where you’ll find the information about this because I think once you know the information, you can’t unhear or unsee it and you’ll want to stop it. That’s what’s happened to me as I’ve delved more into this. You can also follow me on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and X at Dr. Joanna Howe and then the website drjoannahowe.com.au. [End video]

Yeah. Uh I’ll put all of those links in the description of this video. Dr. Howe, thank you so much for taking the time to speak to me here on the Topher project and I wish you every strength, every success and I thank you for the incredibly important and I’m sure very difficult work that you’re doing.

[From video] Thanks Topher. [End video]

Well, thank you for watching that interview with Dr. Joanna Howe. It is such an important topic and I’m very grateful to people like Dr. Howe as well as various senators and so many other good people that really are keeping up the good fight and standing up for the right to life for these babies that have survived an abortion. And there’s so much more work to do on that front as well, but one step at a time. And this is a battle surely that we can win that a child who survives an abortion has the right to live. How have we ever got to the point where that’s not already the case in this country?

Well, at the Topher Project, I do what I can to try and make the world a better place. And that means bringing stories of a very wide range, including some heavy ones like this one. So, I really appreciate those of you that support my work by buying me a coffee via the button at topherfield.net. And also those of you that take the time to check out goodpeoplebreakbadlaws.com and having a look at my books, my DVDs, my merch, etc. I really do appreciate the support and helping me to continue doing what I do.

But actually, more importantly in this video, would you please use the links in the description to go and look up Dr. Joanna Howe and make sure that you’re following her and that you’re supporting her work because what she’s doing really is very, very important and I would be very grateful if you would support her in that.

Thank you for watching to the end. The algorithm loves you and so do I. Please like, comment, subscribe,

And as always, think free.