Ignorance or arrogance? The contradictions of a US-style campaign in Queensland

Where I grew up in Brisbane, everyone knew about the abortion clinic across the NSW border in Tweed Heads.

In the schoolyard, it was the subject of rumour. In private circles, the clinic was viewed as a lifeline for teenagers navigating the complexities of adolescent sex, sexuality, and contraception.

The conversation has shifted in the years since. Abortion is now decriminalised in every Australian state and territory, and most people treat it as a regular component of women’s healthcare. About 80 per cent of Australian adults support a woman’s right to choose, and seven in 10 say abortion should be legal in all or most cases.

A 1990 rally in Brisbane calling on the Goss government to decriminalise abortion.Credit: Children by Choice

Six years after the Queensland laws were changed, it would be easy to take these rights for granted. In reality, we’ve still got a long way to go. Abortion remains heavily stigmatised, and geographic and financial barriers prevent many women, especially those in regional and marginalised areas, from accessing contraception and abortion services.

The recent election campaign also highlighted the fragility of Queensland’s progress.

Two weeks out from polling day, Katter’s Australian Party leader Robbie Katter vowed he would “quick as you like, put a repeal back into the Queensland parliament on those abortion laws”.

The move put the spotlight on the LNP, and the many MPs who voted against decriminalisation. One of those, leader and now premier David Crisafulli, was asked about abortion more than 130 times during the campaign. He repeatedly said there would be no change, without saying how MPs would vote on any Katter bill. And then, in the final leaders’ debate, Crisafulli strayed from his talking points to say he personally supported a woman’s right to choose.

Katter has become the face of a fresh wave of anti-rights sentiment, but there are other politicians, including LNP candidates, who share his views: Amanda Stoker, Kerri-Anne Dooley and Ros Bates, to name a few.

Even with their fringe views on abortion, all won their seats, stirring a culture war in the process. And with a new conservative government elected on the weekend, some experts worry there’s a risk that access to abortion may be wound back.

One of those is former Children by Choice chief executive Daile Kelleher, who led the campaign to reform legislation in Queensland in 2018 and recently completed an international research project on abortion rights and access in Australia. She has held various roles in the sector but has strong personal views.

“These bills are taken directly from the US playbook,” Kelleher says. “They are designed to be emotive to people who don’t actually understand the reality of any of this.”

Katter’s opposition hinges on the rarest circumstance of abortion: babies terminated during the second and third trimesters. When defending his plans to reintroduce his failed babies born alive bill, he employed language popular with ultra-conservative and far-right groups: “[So] that they’re not thrown in waste bins, and that they’re not left to die on a table with no warmth or care.”

It’s a callous, insulting and dangerous misrepresentation of women who seek abortions at this stage, and of the medical professionals tasked with providing what is often life-saving care.

It’s estimated that between 10,000 and 14,000 abortions take place each year in Queensland. In 2022, the most recent year for which data was available, 8284 women had terminations in an admitted patient setting. Of those, 36 were clinically recorded as live births, after 20 weeks gestation or more, and where doctors deemed medical intervention to be futile.

Former Children by Choice chief Daile Kelleher led the campaign that resulted in Queensland’s decriminalisation of abortion in 2018.Credit: Winston Churchill Trust

The data doesn’t show whether women in these circumstances tried to access services earlier, what barriers they faced, or the underlining reason for terminating a pregnancy.

“We know that second and third trimester abortions are incredibly rare. Our abortion law in Queensland goes up to 22 weeks’ gestation with no reason. After that, two doctors have to sign off [in order to access an abortion],” Kelleher says.

“In the circumstances of doctors signing off, it’s usually fatal foetal anomalies. It could also be severe mental health and wellbeing, or because of the health of the pregnant person.”

These are often harrowing decisions that are not reached lightly.

“When we think about our healthcare system in Australia, we’re talking about tertiary-level hospitals with maternal foetal medicine specialists providing world-class pregnancy care in all circumstances. So why are we questioning this?” she says, adding that .

“Are we not putting trust in our medical professionals to be providing the most compassionate care? And if we’re not, that’s a real issue.”

If Katter and other outspoken pro-lifers were concerned by the real issues, they would be talking about the barriers to safe and timely healthcare and the reasons why some women struggle to access an abortion in the first trimester.

They would cite recent research, such as the Women’s Health Victoria report, highlighting geographical inequalities and the disproportionate effect on disadvantaged communities seeking abortion services and contraception. They would discuss the often poorer health outcomes for people living in remote and regional areas compared to metropolitan areas, and the issues around access to healthcare during pregnancy, birthing and the postnatal period.

They would use their platforms to underline the relationship between abortion and domestic and family violence and reproductive coercion and control. Research shows unintended pregnancies are two to three times more likely to be associated with intimate partner violence than planned pregnancies.

“The stats show that pregnancy is one of the high-risk factors of domestic and family violence,” Kelleher says. “And for some people who don’t have control over their contraceptive methods or when they have sex, abortions might actually be their only option to not continue a pregnancy.”

Katter should know better than anyone how close to home this issue is for the community he is elected to represent. Last month, a local senior sergeant described Mount Isa as having a domestic violence rate about 7½ times greater than the state average.

Is Katter’s motivation purely ideological, or is it populism where he comes from?I suspect it’s steeped where most anti-progressive arguments are: in misogynistic ideals designed to uphold a patriarchal society that devalues women, keeps them subjugated, and strips them of agency.

Queensland has done well to shake off its stereotypes, which have always been unimaginative, at best. We’re not a state of rednecks and bogans, or America’s Deep South. But now we have a conservative government, and it makes politicians like Robbie Katter feel empowered.

Ideological or inflammatory? What motivates Katter’s Australian Party.

So far, Crisafulli appears to be reading the room on some things, telling Queensland his LNP government will not “do what we say we wouldn’t do”.

Kelleher wants Katter to also reconsider.

“A clear message was sent at the election. Queenslanders don’t want abortion to be treated like a political football.”

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