A Melbourne doctor was investigated by health authorities after stating that women who had abortions deserved to die, it has emerged.

The GP, known as Dr K, was investigated by the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency after using Facebook to admit he did not always follow Victorian abortion laws, as well as declaring his views on a scenario where a woman died from peritonitis after a back-alley abortion.

Dr K responded by writing: “Yep. And that’s exactly what she deserved for trying to kill her own child.

“I have a 3 month old baby. If someone snuck into his room with a knife and tried to kill him, but accidentally slipped over and stabbed themselves through the heart, that would be exactly what they deserve.

“If a man attacked my wife with a gun, but in the process the gun misfired and blew his head off, that would be his just deserts.”

Dr K then quotes the Bible: “He who lives by the sword shall perish by the sword.”

He went on to reply to another person in the Facebook conversation by writing: “It’s a shame that more men don’t die from complications of abortion. It disappoints me that men can sire children, decide to kill them, and that they do not need to risk their neck in the process. Life is not fair.”

Dr K said he gets a request for abortion referral “about once every three or four months”, but that he did not always follow Victoria’s abortion laws.

“I tell the woman politely that it is against my moral principles to advise on this issue, and they need to find someone else to help them,” he wrote. “In a few instances I have attempted to talk them out of it.

“Yes, I’m breaking Victoria’s new abortion laws, but I don’t give a stuff – I am not going to soil my conscience by being complicit in the slaughter of children.”

The exchange, which took place in 2011, has emerged via the blog of Daniel Mathews, a co-founder of WikiLeaks who is now a lecturer at Monash University.

Mathews calls Dr K an “anti-abortion martyr” on the blog, adding: “Doctors are the people we turn to when we are weak, sick, and infirm. In my view, they should care for patients, not express views to strangers about how they and those they love deserve to die, while boasting about their routine illegal behaviour.”

A number of MPs in Victoria have called for section eight of the state’s abortion legislation, which was passed in 2008, to be repealed.

The section requires a doctor who is opposed to abortion to refer his or her patient to a doctor who does not have such an objection. The Victorian government has so far declined to rule out any change to the legislation.

A petition, circulated by a group called Doctors Conscience, calls for section eight to be amended, citing the case of Dr Mark Hobart, who said he was being investigated because he refused to give a couple an abortion referral because they wanted a boy.

Doctors Conscience said in a statement it “utterly repudiates” the idea that “any woman deserves any kind of harm for any reason whatsoever”.

Rita Butera, executive director of Women’s Health Victoria, told Guardian Australia that there was no need to amend section eight.

“We have concern over the campaign to make changes because this is an excellent law,” she said, adding: "It’s not a referral for an abortion – it’s only a referral to another doctor.

“The most important thing is to protect women’s health needs and ensure they get the best, unbiased medical information they need. I’m not sure why this is happening now, from a small concerted group of doctors. It’s quite concerning.”