which found sex ratios at birth in NSW and Western Australia were male-biased,\u00a0and exceeded the biological norm of a 1.05 sex ratio at birth.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\nRally\u00a0organiser\u00a0and long-time anti-abortion activist Dr Joanna Howe said the primary goal of both the bill, and the pro-life movement more broadly, was to protect the human rights of unborn children, \u201cwho\u00a0don\u2019t have a say in the matter.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe horrible reality is that in NSW, close to 20,000 unborn babies are killed every year, and in NSW, unborn babies have\u00a0no human rights protection through all 40 weeks of pregnancy,\u201d she said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not healthcare, this is not protective of women, and we are here to say tonight that it ends with us.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Bishop Tony Percy\u00a0began the evening\u00a0by leading the crowd in praying the Lord\u2019s Prayer before\u00a0sharing\u00a0an anecdote\u00a0about the\u00a0\u201cmiracle of God which exists in all babies.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIn February this year, I was invited to do a wedding, and at the reception, I was introduced to a wonderful young woman who said she was going to be\u00a0baptised\u00a0at Easter this year,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cShe told me she\u00a0had fallen in love with this wonderful Catholic man, got married, fell pregnant not long after, and when she gave birth to her baby, and [the nurses] placed the baby in her arms\u00a0and she thought, \u2018I did not do this, this is a miracle. This must be God.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to have our babies, we need to let them breathe, live and contribute to this great nation and to this wonderful world we live in.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ruddick\u00a0also\u00a0addressed the crowd, saying there were, \u201cno good arguments against this bill,\u201d and\u00a0asking the crowd to, \u201cmaintain the rage.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
He claimed the universities study had \u201cproven\u201d sex-selective abortions are happening on\u00a0a\u00a0\u201cfrightening scale.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis may be a bill about abortion, but\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0also about whether we think little girls or little boys have equal value,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Federal One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce had been promoted as a key speaker at the rally, and he\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0disappoint the crowd, telling them that supporting pro-life legislation, \u201cis the right thing to do.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Sydney](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/IMG_5566-768x1024.jpg\")
Sydney pro-life advocates hold signs as they gather outside Parliament House on 2 June. Photo: Alex Woolnough<\/p>\n
\u201cIf, by some perverse form of logic, it\u00a0was legal to kill toddlers because they were\u00a0the wrong sex, we would have a demonstration that would go from here, over the Harbour Bridge, all the way out to Blacktown, but for some unknown reason, it\u2019s ok to kill babies in utero,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do\u00a0this,\u00a0we stand here tonight because it is the right thing to do, for those people who\u00a0can\u2019t\u00a0stand up for themselves.\u00a0[The babies]\u00a0aren\u2019t\u00a0just\u00a0foetuses,\u00a0they\u2019re\u00a0people, and we need to keep the fire burning.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The testimony from the speakers certainly lit a spark in the already-fervent\u00a0crowd\u00a0that began\u00a0filling the streets\u00a0around\u00a0Parliament House\u00a0nearly an\u00a0hour before the event.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Banners were raised aloft for much of the rally, proclaiming\u00a0\u2018unborn lives matter\u2019 and \u2018make women, not war,\u2019 while many supporters brought their babies and young children to the event in a symbolic act of support for Ruddick\u2019s bill.\u00a0Some had even arrived from regional areas including\u00a0Tumut\u00a0and Newcastle to\u00a0advocate\u00a0their position.\u00a0<\/p>\n
At one stage, Howe led the crowd in chants of \u2018Nats must act\u2019 after she revealed four Nationals senators were in opposition to the proposed legislation, before associates from Bird Flip led\u00a0the crowd in chanting \u2018the time is now,\u2019 starting from a whisper and exploding into one, loud and unified chant.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dr Melissa Lai,\u00a0president of Pro-Life Health Professionals Australia (PHPA) addressed the crowd later in the evening,\u00a0telling them\u00a0even though the preference for a son is \u201cvery strong\u201d in some cultures, Australians cannot let young baby girls lose their chance at living a fulfilling life.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery woman was once a girl, and every girl was once a baby, and every baby begins their life in the womb,\u201d she said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cPopulation surveys show that all Australians agree that it is unacceptable to\u00a0terminate\u00a0a baby simply because she is a girl, and we must stand to build a country that protects\u00a0women, and\u00a0protects them from when their life begins in the womb.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
It was\u00a0a rousing rally, which led many attendees to express their steadfast support for Ruddick\u2019s bill.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Joseph Hoffman of Our Lady of the Rosary Parish in St\u00a0Marys\u00a0in Sydney\u2019s west\u00a0said the proposed legislation was, \u201cthe most\u00a0commonsense\u00a0bill\u00a0I\u2019ve\u00a0ever heard in my life.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u00a0is vitally important that we\u00a0not\u00a0remain\u00a0silent about these views, and the views of the politicians who will\u00a0voting\u00a0on whether to pass this bill are no longer reflective of\u00a0we,\u00a0the people,\u201d he added.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For Simon Dahdah, who travelled from Winston Hills to attend the rally, said the event signalled a firm opposition to abortion in NSW. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cA good friend\u00a0once told me if you\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0stand for anything, you fall for everything, and I\u00a0can\u2019t\u00a0imagine deserting people who\u00a0haven\u2019t\u00a0been born yet,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u00a0basically are\u00a0living in this silent genocide with abortion in this country, and I feel it\u2019s a good hill to die on to speak for those who\u00a0can\u2019t\u00a0speak, and\u00a0never had the chance to.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sydney pro-life advocates gathered outside Parliament House on 2 June to provide their support for legislation to ban…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24136,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[7791,15151,22502,22503,247],"class_list":["post-24135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sydney","tag-hero","tag-joanna-howe","tag-pro-life","tag-sex-selective-abortion","tag-sydney"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24135\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Sydney](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/photos-1.jpg\")
Sydney pro-life advocates gathered outside Parliament House on 2 June to provide their support for legislation to ban sex-selective abortions in NSW. Photo: Rachel Johnson<\/p>\n