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MELBOURNE, Australia, May 12, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A prominent columnist has said a campaign to have abortionists attempt to save the lives of babies born alive during abortions is the work of a “lunatic fringe” MP.

Geoff Shaw, an Independent MP in the Victorian Legislative Assembly, proposed a ban on infanticide and sex-selective abortions throughout the state of Victoria.

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The measure angered columnist Susie O'Brien of the HeraldSun, located in Victoria's capital city of Melbourne.

“There is absolutely no need for 'pain relief for fetuses' and resuscitation attempts for fetuses which survive and there is no need for special provisions which protect against gender selection or partial births,” O'Brien wrote.

“We must fight to protect abortion from these attacks,” she said in a column entitled, “Abortion Laws Must Not Be Changed.”

“This is about trying to make abortion … politically and socially abhorrent,” O'Brien wrote, adding that she regards Shaw as part of the “lunatic fringe of anti-abortion activists.”

Shaw's reforms, his critics warned, would touch off a “toxic” debate in the populous state. Beginning in 2008, the state of Victoria has allowed abortion-on-demand through 24 weeks of pregnancy. Abortions after that point must have the approval of two doctors.

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Shaw has just departed Australia on a fact-finding mission about abortion laws in the United States. He plans to visit and review the state of abortion law in Georgia, Ohio, Nevada, California, and New York.

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Live Action has documented abortionists in the United States willing to allow children to be born alive and die outside the womb, as well as to perform an abortion for a woman who explicitly stated she did not want to have a female child. In Australia, non-binding ethical norms discourage sex-selective abortion during IVF, “except to reduce the risk of transmission of a serious genetic condition.”

Dr. Cesare F. Santangelo of Washington, D.C., told an undercover reporter that if a baby were accidentally delivered during a late-term abortion, “we would not help it.”

The footage was shot just one month after Planned Parenthood lobbyist Alisa LaPolt Snow told the Florida legislature that if a child is born alive during a botched abortion, its survival should be left up to the woman, her family, and the physician.”

Whatever he finds during his U.S. tour, the Victorian Parliament may have to give due consideration. Shaw holds the balance of power in a politically divided chamber.