Extract from ABC News
Analysis
In-depth: How abortion has become a Queensland election issue. (Alexandra Blucher)
Abortion rights have become a live issue in the 2024 US presidential election.
In Australia, despite strong public support for access to abortion and it being seen as settled policy politically, the debate has re-emerged in Queensland and South Australia.
How the abortion issue exploded in Queensland
In Queensland, if the polls are correct, the Liberal National Party (LNP) will win in a landslide and crush Labor, putting them out of office in this weekend's election.
The abortion issue exploded recently when Robbie Katter, the KAP leader, vowed to introduce a private member's bill to wind back abortion rights and access, that would — if it came to it — spark a conscience vote.
The prospect of a conscience vote has disrupted the Liberal National Party's statewide campaign, as the opposition leader, David Crisafulli, and his candidates refuse to detail their personal views, but consistently say changing abortion laws is "not part of our plans" and has been "ruled out".
Crisafulli believes it is a Labor scare campaign to keep this issue on voters' minds but he is only partly right on that. Is Labor exploiting this issue politically? You bet they are. Labor wants to shift some votes away from the LNP and thinks that raising questions around whether abortion will remain decriminalised will motivate some women to question the motivations of some candidates.
But sometimes scare campaigns go off when they have a foundation of truth — and the truth here is that there are people who may get elected in coming days who would like to roll back abortion. Would they be successful? Well, it depends on a whole bunch of stuff — but the fact that some want to change abortion access is surely worthy of full disclosure and questioning.
Medical groups weigh in on Qld abortion debate
There are MPs who could potentially be re-elected who voted to keep abortion on Queensland's criminal code in 2018 and others who publicly expressed anti-abortion ideas. This isn't in dispute.
An LNP candidate for the Queensland election was recorded telling a voter "I am pro-life" and claiming that abortion "can increase the risk of breast cancer", but that she couldn't "say anything yet because we have got to get elected", according to the Guardian.
The audio of Stretton LNP candidate Freya Ostapovitch, secretly recorded at a pre-poll booth this week, was obtained by Guardian Australia on Friday and further fuelled this narrative that abortion was an issue that some MPs would like to see revisited.
Queensland leaders debate crime, taxes and abortion laws in second debate.
Crisafulli told the Queensland Media Club that abortion laws would not change under an LNP government — despite not ruling out a conscience vote — because "I've got a team that backs that position".
At the leaders debate this week you could see his frustration — he clearly isn't running on a platform to roll back abortion. But given some of his own MPs are anti-abortion, politics being politics means it will continue to be an issue that's raised with him.
Keeping the issue in the spotlight today, healthcare groups have issued an open letter calling on all leaders to protect the abortion rights enshrined in the Termination of Pregnancy Act (2018) and treat abortion as health care. The letter, co-signed by doctors' groups for obstetricians and gynaecologists (RANZCOG) and GPs (RACGP), as well as Children by Choice, Women's Health Services Alliances, Qld Sexual Assault Network and others, reads:
"We are deeply concerned by recent discussions suggesting the potential re-criminalisation of abortion. This would be a harmful step backward, risking the health and safety of pregnant people and undoing years of progress.
"Access to abortion is essential healthcare. Restricting it leads to dangerous consequences, with vulnerable communities facing the greatest harm. We must ensure that decisions about pregnancy remain personal and healthcare-based, not politicised."
Is this a first-order issue for voters in Queensland? It's pretty clear that the cost of living and crime are their biggest concerns. But never underestimate the resolve of particularly women on this issue — and don't forget that we have a generation of young women growing up on TikTok who have become politicised during the era of Roe v Wade being overturned and imagery of the Handmaid's Tale going viral. TikTok knows no national boundaries and this issue is huge online.
Queensland LNP Senator Matt Canavan told me this week that Labor is deluded if it thinks this issue is a motivator for people to switch votes.
"I don't think it is a top-of-mind voting issue. Labor's Queensland abortion campaign smacks of desperation because they have no credible answers for the major issues at the election: inflation, crime and housing," he said.
A close vote in South Australia
The Live Births Amendment Bill, introduced by Liberal MLC Ben Hood, would have required mothers seeking abortions after 27 weeks and 6 days — an extremely rare occurrence — to deliver their babies alive.
After three hours of heated debate, controversial abortion reforms were voted down by South Australia's upper house — nine members voted in favour of the bill and 10 against.
Controversial bid to change South Australia's abortion laws defeated in Upper House.
Liberal MP Michelle Lensink rushed back to parliament despite being on leave for chemotherapy treatment to ensure she could vote against the changes after her "pair" broke what she believed to be a deal.
She told me, "There's a lot of particularly women who work together, who understand that these are not simple choices that other women make when they go through them, that they're very challenging."
"We know people's circumstances who've been through this. So, you know, we work to try and make sure that that is respected and that the parliament understands that these are decisions that people have to make with the advice of their doctors and midwives and they shouldn't have the parliament sort of sticking its nose in randomly at the most stressful point probably in their entire lives."
A state issue entering federal debates
While there are no national laws governing abortion, conservative senators have tried to debate the issue several times this term.
In 2022, Senator Canavan and SA Liberal senator Alex Antic introduced a "children born alive" protection bill. A senate inquiry found the bill could affect the "availability of pregnancy support and termination services", there was no evidence it was needed, and ultimately made no recommendations.
Then a few months ago, United Australia Party senator Ralph Babet, who supported that 2022 bill, moved a motion calling on the Senate to recognise the rights of "babies born alive as a result of a failed abortion". It was defeated 32 votes to 18.
Federal Minister for Women Katy Gallagher told this column she was concerned that this issue was back on the political agenda. "Women should control decisions about their bodies including access to abortion services without being constantly threatened with a winding back of hard-fought-for rights to access abortion services in Australia," she said.
She said attempts to remove or reduce abortion access threatened every woman's right to make very personal decisions and would send a chill down the spines of women across Australia because it won't stop there.
"What will be next?" she said.
"Abortion should not be a political football picked up and thrown about during election campaigns."
Federally, Labor could be doing more on abortion if it wants to elevate its commitment. It has been more than a year since a Senate inquiry into reproductive health recommended, amongst other things, all public hospitals within Australia be equipped to provide surgical pregnancy terminations for timely, affordable pathways. This used to be Labor policy before the 2019 election but the ALP hasn't yet moved to embrace the policy again.
The LNP would argue that it is Labor who is exploiting the issue. But what is clear now is that the idea that abortion is settled forever is a fiction.
Patricia Karvelas is the presenter of RN Breakfast and co-host of the Party Room podcast. She also hosts Q+A on ABC TV Mondays at 9.35pm.
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