When it comes to female empowerment, the left are not the friend of girls.

Self-described “grumpy old hack” Dennis Atkins is a legend of the Canberra press gallery.

He was the Courier Mail’s National Affairs editor for more than a decade and was a regular fixture on the ABC Insiders’ couch.

Back in Brisbane, these days he is writing political commentary for a start-up news website called InQueensland.

It has some great writers, Atkins among them, and the diversity in this one newspaper town is welcome.

His political analysis is razor sharp but reflects the left-leaning groupthink of the gallery.

This week Atkins flew a kite about Senator Matt Canavan parachuting into the Queensland Parliament and becoming premier.

Pigs might fly.

But in pumping up Canavan’s tyres, Atkins baulked at his stance on social policy.

“His social views are more controversial and divisive,” Atkins wrote.

“In April 2017, Canavan was one of only 10 senators who swung behind former Liberal Cory Bernardi’s motion to ban abortion on gender grounds.

“These edgy social views place Canavan firmly in the camp of the so-called ‘Christian soldiers’ faction of the Queensland LNP but party power brokers say this wouldn’t be a deal-breaker if the former minister did want to make the leap into state politics.”

It’s worth unpacking these “controversial, divisive and edgy” social views. What does Atkins mean when he uses the phrase "ban abortion on gender grounds"? He doesn't say.

Here's what happened.

Former Senator Cory Bernardi’s motion to remove taxpayer funding of abortions for gender selection was actually moved in November 2017 and, along with some other social policy motions, was designed to highlight the left’s hypocrisy. Which it did.

Canavan was voting for a motion on the floor of the Senate to take away Medicare money, which comes from the taxpayer, from parents who abort baby girls because they want a boy. Ultrasounds have long been able to reveal a baby's gender from early in the pregnancy.

It is not known how common gendercide is but it is known to happen, particularly among some of Australia’s ethic communities who value boys over girls.

Under Victoria’s extreme abortion-to-birth laws, upon which Queensland’s are modelled, Dr Mark Hobart was disciplined  because he blew the whistle on an Indian couple who came to him seeking a referral to have their unborn baby girl killed because they wanted a boy.

The left, who are supposedly all about female empowerment, turn a blind eye to atrocities like this because unfettered access to abortion-to-birth is part of their public policy canon.

The Guardian Australia’s Katherine Murphy, also a regular on the Insiders’ couch, couldn’t bring herself to call out this gendercide in her report of what happened in federal parliament the day Bernardi moved his motions.

It is worth reading her article, as it demonstrates how sophistry is used to obscure evil.

When we are playing with the lives of unborn baby girls who are to be killed simply because they are girls, writers like Atkins and Murphy are collaborating with very dark forces.

To then demonise a Parliamentarian’s principled stance on behalf of baby girls is to participate in the evil itself.

It’s not Canavan’s views that are “controversial, divisive and edgy”. You can see why the term “fake news” is favoured by conservatives everywhere when journalist like Atkins throw around pejorative and misleading labels with gay abandon.

As for a “Christians soldiers” faction in the LNP, which Atkins’ InQueensland colleague Sean Parnell on Thursday labelled a “nefarious Christian soldiers faction”, seriously? This needs to be seen again as the left’s demonisation of good people, possibly briefed out by a party insider with anti-Christian animus.

What is it with InQueensland’s obsession with Christians? Don’t we want cultural and religious diversity in our political parties?

If the average Australian knew that their taxes helped pay to abort baby girls simply because they were girls, support for abortion would continue to fall away, just as support for late-term abortion is plummeting.

What is nefarious is using sophistry and a media platform to pull the wool over readers’ eyes about gendercide. Girls deserve better.