When politicians start talking about abortion laws, it’s often more about politics than law. If this happens during an election campaign, the likelihood of this happening only increases.
Similar debates have emerged since Robbie Katter sparked a fire in the final weeks of the Queensland election campaign with talk of rolling back abortion laws under a potential future Liberal-National government. It is moving south and sneaking into the Federation field.
Northern Territories Liberal MP Jacinta Nampijinpa Price’s sudden intervention on the issue has raised questions about a collaborative strategy among conservatives to put the issue back on the national agenda.
Abortion is legal in all Australian states and territories under specified conditions. Headlines in nine newspapers on Wednesday said Mr Price said he could not support abortions past the first trimester and called full-term abortions “infanticide” despite the statistics showing they are rare. He suggested that he would reconsider.
Before the breakfast coffee had cooled, senior members of the federation (women) began denying any suggestion that this was a position of authority. Rather, it was my personal opinion, even if I didn’t like the way it was expressed.
“The federal Liberal Party is not going to change its settings on this issue,” Deputy Opposition Leader Susan Ley told Sky News, stressing that abortion laws are a state and territory issue.
An hour later, Shadow Treasurer Jane Hume reinforced the message on the same network, saying abortion was a personal issue and any talk of change was being promoted by “fringe parties” in the context of the Queensland election. He declared that he was there.
“That’s not going to happen,” Hume said.
This has always been a matter of conscience in the Liberal Party and “it was a given.”
“There are some deeply held views across the country, and that’s OK,” Hume said. “That’s why they call it a choice. But I can assure you, your viewers, and all voters that the Dutton-led coalition has no interest in any plan or policy to weaken women’s reproductive rights.” That means there aren’t any.”
Asked for her personal opinion, she said: “I don’t think the law needs to change.”
Nationals Senate leader Bridget McKenzie backed this up, saying she did not think Mr Price’s comments were “helpful”.
“The LNP has a lot to lose or gain.”
Perhaps the most telling comment came afterwards from a man who happens to be from Queensland and who is usually a strong and outspoken opponent of abortion. Sen. Matt Canavan told reporters it was a sensitive issue and not one best prosecuted “in the heat of a campaign.”
“I don’t think there’s anything to be gained by doing it in a retaliatory process,” he said.
Indeed, the LNP in Queensland has much to lose or gain.
Away from the electoral context, Mr. Canavan did not hesitate to express his opinion on the issue. He sponsored a private senator’s bill in Congress that would force health care workers to save the lives of babies born alive after an abortion. They are waiting for the government’s green light, which will never come.
The bill was co-sponsored by Victorian United Australia Party senator Ralph Babett and South Australian Liberal senator Alex Antic. They seem to want to move things along.
On August 20, Ms Babette tabled a motion in the House of Lords, saying Australia’s health care system enables inhumane deaths through abortion, saying: “Babies born alive as a result of botched abortions do not deserve to be cared for. There is,” he pointed out.
Speakers in favor included Mr Canavan and another South Australian Liberal senator, David Fawcett.
A month later, Ben Hood, South Australia’s most senior Liberal MP, introduced a bill in the state parliament aimed at banning abortions after 28 weeks of pregnancy. With a Labor state government and only support from a section of the Liberal opposition, the bill was doomed to fail.
But abortion was a convenient issue for South Australia’s far right. After the party was decriminalized in 2021, far-right factions used the debate to launch a recruitment campaign, successfully filling party branches with new members, especially conservative Christians.
Their efforts paid off in the Senate primaries earlier this year, when Mr Antic, a right-wing federal rearguard, was defeated by the more moderate and much more senior front-runner, former minister Anne Ruston, as the top senator in the Senate race. took the seat.
Recent efforts to re-promote abortion as an issue in South Australia are seen by those outside the far-right as a repeat of that successful sectarian effort.
Federal observers monitoring all these developments say the issue is a matter of conflict between honest people and opportunists, those who truly believe they are anti-abortion, and who take certain public positions. It states that it brings together the interests of those who see political benefits.
When introducing the proposed South Australian bill in September, Mr Ben Hood paid tribute to University of Adelaide law professor Dr Joanna Howe, who is campaigning for the ‘Babies Born Live’ Bill across Australia. did.
“Mr. Katter is aiming to win more seats.”
In Queensland on Monday, as the state entered its final week of election campaigning ahead of Saturday’s vote, Robbie Cutter said, “Babies born alive” before calling for the repeal of Queensland’s abortion laws. She announced that she wants abortion laws to be amended to require care for women with disabilities.
This is the same language used by like-minded Queenslanders and those further south, but there are doubts within the Union about whose interests are being served.
Mr Cutter has his sights set on winning more seats in Queensland, particularly in the north. He is not a fan of the LNP. The same goes for the Queensland Labor government.
In late March, Premier Stephen Miles’ government introduced legislation allowing nurses to administer abortion pills in Queensland.
The move attracted huge public support and divided the LNP. The party’s leader, David Crisafulli, was asked for his views and ruled out abolishing the abortion law if he wins the state election.
Three weeks later, when Western Australia’s Labor government passed legislation removing legal barriers to abortion, Stephen Miles posted a congratulatory message on his Instagram account, along with an advertising slogan:
“Abortion is currently legal in all states and territories,” the report said. “Let’s leave it like this.”
Seven months later, Miles has been able to reinforce that sentiment as Cutter spontaneously reignited the abortion debate in Queensland. His poll numbers suddenly improved after he opposed loosening current laws and announced that he was a convicted felon.
Mr. Crisafulli, who has repeatedly refused to discuss his personal position on abortion since Mr. Cutter fired the Molotov cocktail, was unable to avoid the issue in Tuesday night’s final pre-election debate. . When pressed, he declared himself “pro-choice.”
His comments came after a video was released in which he told an audience at Griffith University last year that he did not support the recriminalization of abortion, but when asked if he was pro-abortion, he said, “I don’t support second-term abortion.” It was. ”.
This whole issue sucked the oxygen out of the LNP campaign in the final weeks before the election. Miles’ sudden, siren-like song of faith may also have helped to stem Labor’s feared exodus to the Greens, by disenchanting deserters.
It certainly raised Robbie Cutter’s profile significantly.
In the world of politics, there are true believers, opportunists, and people who are a little bit of both. Sometimes it can be very difficult to distinguish them all.
