‘Backwards step’: Senior Liberal woman’s take on Roe V Wade

The US’s reversal of abortion rights has received bipartisan criticism in Australia, including one minister sharing his “anger, frustration and the grief” over the move.

The US’s reversal of abortion rights has received bipartisan criticism in Australia, with the second most senior Liberal calling it a “backwards step for women in the US”.

The decision from the US Supreme Court has received criticism from across the globe after it overturned a 50-year-old Roe V Wade ruling that provided a constitutional right to abortion for women nationwide.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and French President Emmanuel Macron are among the world leaders to criticise the ruling.

Education Minister Jason Clare said he was thankful abortion was not an issue which divided the Labor and Liberal parties.

Federal Education Minister Jason Clare. Picture: Bronwyn Farr.

“I’m thinking at the moment for the women who live in some of those states that will be basically being told today that if you want to have an abortion, then get on a bus and travel a couple of 100 kilometres,” he told Sky News.

“I share the anger, frustration and the grief that people are experiencing and talking about in the United States and right across the world at the moment.”

Deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley said that there was no constitutional right to abortion in Australia and that laws regarding it were in the jurisdiction of state government’s.

But she added that she agreed with former US President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, in saying “abortion should be safe, legal and rare”.

Deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

“This has been a step backwards for women in the US,” Ms Ley told Sky News.

“I’m very discomforted by anything that puts a personal and sensitive issue that a woman has to grapple with in many instances, or a family has to grapple with, in the same sentence as criminal and we absolutely should never do that.

“We should always approach these issues, the sensitivity and respect.”