Australia Pays Moms as Much as $22,000 to Kill Their Babies in Late-Term Abortions

The Australian government is facing fierce criticism from pro-life advocates for a welfare policy that pays women up to $22,754 to abort their healthy babies after 20 weeks of pregnancy.

It’s a practice critics call a perverse incentive that undermines the sanctity of the unborn.

The policy, administered through Centrelink, allows women who undergo late-term abortions to claim either a Stillborn Baby Payment of $4,327 or Parental Leave Pay totaling $22,754, provided the abortion is certified as a stillbirth.

“Centrelink is paying $4,327 to Australian women who abort their unborn babies after 20 weeks, according to a leaked letter from the office of senior Labor frontbencher Senator Katy Gallagher,” reported The Daily Declaration on July 29.

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The article cited a letter from Ministerial and Parliamentary Services Director Katy Stevens, who wrote, “The eligibility criteria for Stillborn Baby Payment do not exclude circumstances where the stillbirth was due to a medical termination, including an intentional abortion.”

This payment structure, originally designed to support families grieving a stillborn child, has been extended to cases where women intentionally kill health babies after 20 weeks, often by injecting the baby’s heart with potassium chloride or digoxin to stop it before inducing labor.

“Killing a baby after 20 weeks and up until birth entails injecting the baby’s heart with potassium chloride or digoxin and is followed by the early induction of labour of that now stillborn baby,” said Dr. Joanna Howe, a pro-life lawyer, in The Daily Declaration. “This is a deliberate and wilful act to kill a healthy baby very late in pregnancy and deliver them stillborn.”

Pro-life advocates, including Ken Orr, president of Right to Life of New Zealand, condemned the policy as a moral outrage.

“It is a scandal that the Australian government is using taxpayers’ money to pay a baby bonus to encourage and fund the murder of innocent unborn children in late-term abortions,” Orr said in a July 23 LifeNews report. “The Albanese government should hang its head in shame for this betrayal of the sacred gift of life given by our Creator.” https://www.lifenews.com/2025/07/23/australia-pays-women-4255-to-kill-their-babies-in-late-term-abortions/

The policy stems from a loophole in Centrelink’s definition of a stillborn baby, which includes a child weighing at least 400 grams or at 20 weeks’ gestation who has not breathed or whose heart has not beaten since delivery. “

The definition of stillbirth provided in the memo from Senator Gallagher’s office is ‘a child who weighs at least 400 grams at delivery or whose period of gestation was at least 20 weeks; and who has not breathed since delivery; and whose heart has not beaten since delivery,’” The Daily Declaration noted, aligning with Services Australia’s guidelines.

Critics argue this incentivizes late-term abortions, particularly in states like South Australia, where 80% of such procedures involve healthy babies.

“The Howard Government’s Baby Bonus was criticised because it incentivised teen pregnancies. This is far, far worse,” Howe said. “Instead of receiving a $5,000 cash payment for birthing a baby at full term, the Albanese Government is now incentivising late-term abortion in half the time.”

The policy has sparked outrage among pro-life groups, with Dr. Howe’s petition gaining traction to demand its reversal.

“This upcoming Monday on The Dr Jo Show I will reveal an explosive letter from a senior Labor Minister confirming that women who have an ‘intentional abortion’ after 20 weeks can access the $4200 Stillborn Parenting payment,” Howe said.

Pro-life advocates call for urgent reform to close the loophole.

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