Wednesday, 5 February 2025

Abortion law reform

Ellen SANDELL (Melbourne) (19:16): (987) My adjournment tonight is for the Premier Jacinta Allan. The action I seek is for the Labor government to permanently protect our right to abortion here in Victoria. In June 2023 the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the law which enshrined the right to abortion across America, and it set off a cascade around the world. Not only did states in America start to ban abortion or make it almost impossible to access, but right-wing politicians around the world, including here in Australia, were emboldened, and they started to follow suit.

In Queensland we saw the Katter party and some far-right LNP members pledge to unwind that state’s hard-won abortion decriminalisation laws, laws that were only passed in 2018. In South Australia the Liberals introduced a bill to wind back abortion rights in that state, and they came within just one vote of succeeding. This is a very scary time. It is a very scary time for women and for everyone who deserves to have 100 per cent autonomy over their own bodies. Right-wing men in parliaments should not be able to tell us how many children to have or determine what health care we get when we are pregnant. These choices are for us to make – for us alone – with advice from our healthcare providers.

Victoria is a progressive state, and we fought for decades for the right to legal and safe abortions until it was finally decriminalised in 2008. Some might think that here in Victoria we are protected, but let us remember it would just take a simple vote in Parliament to roll back abortion rights. Just one change of government with a few right-wing backbenchers potentially calling the shots in a new conservative government and all our rights here in Victoria could be unwound. That is why we need to take action now to permanently protect the right to abortion in Victoria by putting it in Victoria’s constitution. Fortunately, right now, if the Labor government had the courage, we could actually have the numbers to do this here in Victoria to permanently protect our abortion rights.

Putting it in the constitution makes it harder for our abortion rights to be overturned by a future government. We know it is a popular idea. More than 10,000 people just in the last little while have signed the Greens petition to back our bill which would put abortion in the constitution. It is not an unusual idea. France did it just last year. Victoria could be next if the government had the courage to do so. All we need is 24 out of the 40 votes in the upper house, but it is up to Labor and the Liberals. We know the Premier believes in this issue, but Labor so far is refusing to support the Greens bill. The new Leader of the Liberal Party Brad Battin says he is no conservative. We ask him to prove it, to provide that tripartisan support for this issue.