Cognitive dissonance, thy name is Victoria.

How else to explain a state in which the miscarriage of a wanted baby is commemorated with a certificate, while the killing of an unwanted baby is protected by law?

Premier Daniel Andrews last night announced the creation of a certificate for parents who lose a child through miscarriage.

“Parents who have experienced early pregnancy loss can now apply for a commemorative certificate from Births, Deaths and Marriages Victoria,” he announced via Twitter.

“Hopefully it’ll help bereaved parents mourn the child they never got to meet. 

A message on the government’s website says: “To be able to provide these certificates to parents is such an important way to acknowledge their baby, and to acknowledge their loss.”

The initiative is to be applauded. But it does make one marvel at the mental gymnastics required to accept that an unborn child is a “baby” when miscarried, and something else when aborted. 

It’s a classic case of doublethink.

Or is it? Perhaps the clump of cells growing in a womb magically becomes a baby when it is wanted. 

Daniel Andrews last night lamented that “around one in five pregnancies ends in miscarriage before 20 weeks” leaving “bereaved parents.” 

But on the other hand, Mr Andrews is responsible for laws permitting abortion on demand up until week 24 of a pregnancy and, where two medical practitioners agree, right up until birth.

The definition of human, like gender, is now seemingly fluid – blowing this way or that according to an individual’s sensibilities or, in this case, the audience Daniel Andrews is addressing.

What becomes of a society that decides the value of one human being on the basis of whether another human being wants them to exist?

If an unborn baby is a mere lump of cells, then we are lying to the bereaved parents by presenting a commemorative certificate lamenting the child they never got to meet.

But if an unborn baby is human, then we are lying when we assure the woman seeking an abortion that it’s all about her ‘choice’ concerning her body and her ‘reproductive health’.

Both positions cannot be true.

So is the commemorative certificate from Births, Deaths and Marriages Victoria confirmation that the unborn are indeed human, just as two and two are four?

“Sometimes, Winston. Sometimes they are five. Sometimes they are three. Sometimes they are all of them at once. You must try harder. It is not easy to become sane.”