Abortion is decriminalised Australia-wide. Why the hell are we debating it again?

The change came far too late, but it did, eventually, come. Abortion is now decriminalised in every Australian state and territory, but if you think that means the matter is settled, you’re wrong. The extraordinary success of the anti-abortion movement in the United States – where abortion bans now exist in 21 states – has clearly emboldened opportunistic local politicians.

Abortion prohibitions are now back on the Australian political agenda. In Queensland, where a state election will be held next weekend, abortion has unexpectedly been a key issue during the campaign. Liberal National Party leader David Crisafulli, who is the favourite to win the election, has refused to state clearly whether he is pro-choice.

Pro-life supporters outside the US Supreme Court in Washington last week. The issue will play a role in the US election.Credit: Bloomberg

He has insisted the legal status quo will not change. But he voted against laws decriminalising abortion (enacted in 2018) and will not say whether he will give his MPs a conscience vote on the issue, should it come up in the next parliament.

It almost certainly will, because Katter’s Australian Party leader Robbie Katter (son of federal MP Bob Katter) has said he will introduce a private member’s bill to repeal Queensland’s abortion laws. Under the 2018 laws, abortion on demand is available up to 22 weeks’ gestation. After that, it allows abortion if two doctors agree it is advisable “in all the circumstances”.

Queensland LNP health spokeswoman Ros Bates has preferenced anti-abortion party Family First second on her how-to-vote cards. Other LNP MPs have voiced support for rolling back the abortion laws, so a conscience vote could lead to a successful repeal of hard-won rights to late-term abortion for the women of Queensland.

Separately, in South Australia on Wednesday, the state’s upper house held a conscience vote on a bill to amend abortion rights. Described as “Trumpian” by its opponents, the bill would have forced women seeking an abortion after 27 weeks and six days to be induced, deliver the child alive, and then keep it or adopt it out.

The bill was narrowly defeated, by just one vote.

In Federal parliament, senators Matt Canavan and Alex Antic introduced a “Children Born Alive” bill (a term directly imported from the United States), in November 2022, which was sent to a Senate inquiry. In August this year, Senator Ralph Babet moved a Senate motion to “publicly recognise that babies born alive, regardless of their birth circumstances, deserve equal and humane care”. The motion was not carried but the Liberals’ Senator Maria Kovacic, who spoke in opposition to it, received a huge backlash, with 12,000 people signing a petition demanding her party dump her.

Late-term abortions are extremely rare, accounting for about 1 per cent of terminations. As my colleague Natassia Chrysanthos has reported, the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists says they are typically only sought for serious medical reasons or very difficult personal circumstances. Examples include major foetal abnormalities, or cases where it is judged that continuing the pregnancy would severely harm the mother’s health, mental or physical.

The barbarism of what is being proposed needs to be spelt out. We are talking about forcing women to give birth to fetuses which would grow into severely disabled babies, babies the mothers have agonisingly decided they can’t care for; babies so impaired their lives would be horribly short and full of suffering.

In other cases, the pregnancies may be the product of incest or rape. The women or girls affected are often from extremely vulnerable populations, and sometimes have not realised they were pregnant until after the 20-week mark, or even beyond. A 14-year-old raped by her stepfather. An intellectually disabled teenager who has fallen pregnant. A woman fleeing domestic abuse who knows she cannot adequately care for the child of her perpetrator.

The pool of prospective adoptive parents who want to or are able to care for severely disabled babies is tiny. These are the facts. But anti-abortionists do not want to look them in the eye, which is why we get motherhood statements (pun intended) about “pro-life”, mostly from male politicians who probably couldn’t isolate a uterus on a biology chart. These are seldom the same politicians who support better childcare subsidies or spending on child poverty.

These politicians are advocating laws that will bring about the unnecessary suffering of women, and in the worst cases, imperil their lives. But even if these politicians won’t admit to what abortion criminalisation really means, for women who have chosen to end a late-term pregnancy, we only need to look to the United States to see its consequences.

Since the overturning of Roe v Wade, stories have proliferated of women who have presented to American hospitals bleeding and in pain, only to be denied care until they are literally on the brink of death. Doctors are forced to betray their Hippocratic Oath, on pain of imprisonment. Many have fled abortion-ban states, meaning pregnancy care is severely curtailed in those places. The procedure for miscarriage is the same procedure as is used for abortion, meaning a miscarriage in the wrong state could endanger a woman’s life.

ProPublica has identified at least two US women who have died “after they couldn’t access legal abortion and timely medical care”, and says there are “almost certainly others”.

The story of 28-year-old Amber Thurman, who died after she was denied care, having taken abortion medication, is bone-chilling. She was a single parent and left behind a six-year-old son.

In Australia, late-term pregnancy termination is so rare that you have to conclude the anti-abortion revival is semaphore for something else. It is a flare sent up in the political atmosphere to communicate a set of right-wing values with the control of female bodies at their centre.

Jacqueline Maley is a senior writer and columnist.