Australia – Why politicians are talking about abortions again

November 2, 2025
Hosts: Billi FitzSimons • Sam Koslowski
Podcast – 12:41 minutes

Last week, late-term abortions came up as a point of contention in Australia’s Parliament.

It’s all because of a new proposed bill that would make it illegal for companies to cancel paid parental leave if a baby dies or is born stillborn.

So what’s the connection between that and late-term abortions? And how common actually are late term abortions?

Continued: https://thedailyaus.com.au/podcast/why-politicians-are-talking-about-abortions-again

02.11.2025

parental leave for abortion

Baby Priya brought compassion to the parliament. Then four men hijacked the debate

Jacqueline Maley
November 2, 2025

Politics can be a cynical and nasty business, but outbreaks of grace and compassion do occur. One happened on Wednesday during a parliamentary debate for the second reading speech of “Baby Priya’s Bill”. MP after MP rose to speak with sensitivity about one of life’s most devastating experiences – the birth of a stillborn baby.

The bill will amend workplace laws to ensure employee entitlements to parental leave extend to parents whose baby has been stillborn, or who has tragically died in infancy. The bill is named after baby Priya, who was born prematurely at 24 weeks in June 2024. For six weeks, she battled for life in the neonatal intensive care unit. Then she died.

Continued: https://archive.is/bgAUt
(https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/baby-priya-brought-compassion-to-the-parliament-then-four-men-hijacked-the-debate-20251031-p5n6s7.html)

Australia – Barnaby Joyce and Andrew Hastie rebuked for ‘playing politics’ on abortion in debate on stillbirth leave

Experts warn the fearmongering about late-term terminations is straight out of the anti-abortion handbook

Tory Shepherd, Krishani Dhanji and Josh Butler
Thu 30 Oct 2025

A group of Coalition parliamentarians, including Barnaby Joyce and Andrew Hastie, have seized on a proposed new law to give paid parental leave to parents of a child who is stillborn or dies, arguing it should not be available to anyone needing a late-term abortion.

A senior doctor has labelled the comments as “terrible, cynical, awful” things to say about an often heartbreaking decision, as experts point out that the vast majority of later terminations are forced by major health issues and warn fearmongering about the issue is straight out of the anti-abortion handbook.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/oct/30/abortion-stillbirth-leave-barnaby-joyce-andrew-hastie-playing-politics

Australia – Hastie, Joyce ignite late-term abortion fight over paid leave for stillbirth law

By Natassia Chrysanthos
October 29, 2025

Four Coalition MPs have renewed a debate over “late-term abortions” in federal parliament, raising concern that laws guaranteeing paid leave for parents of stillborn children will be used by mothers whose pregnancies are terminated.

Outspoken MPs Andrew Hastie and Barnaby Joyce aired the issue during debate over “Baby Priya’s Bill” – a proposed amendment to existing laws that would ensure employers can’t cancel paid parental leave because a child is stillborn or dies.

Continued: https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/hastie-joyce-ignite-late-term-abortion-fight-over-paid-leave-for-stillbirth-law-20251029-p5n6c4.html

A doctor’s story shows ‘late-term’ abortion access is politically charged – but crucial

September 2, 2025
Prudence Flowers, Senior Lecturer in US History, College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, Flinders University

Review: Beyond Limits: Stories of Third-Trimester Abortion Care – Shelley Sella, MD (Random House)

In the United States, around 1% of abortions occur after 21 weeks. Yet these abortions are intensely vilified. Recall Donald Trump’s graphic and false claim that US laws allowed doctors to “rip the baby out of the womb in the ninth month, on the final day”.

For two decades, Dr Shelley Sella provided abortion care in the US into the third trimester of pregnancy: that is, after 26 weeks gestation. Her new book Beyond Limits offers an intimate account of health care and politics, written from the front lines of America’s abortion wars.

In Australia, abortion after 20 weeks gestation is also statistically rare – and most Australians agree that people need abortions after 20 weeks for a variety of medical and social reasons. However, in the last year or so, the focus on later abortions seems to be intensifying here, along with misinformation.

Continued; https://theconversation.com/a-doctors-story-shows-late-term-abortion-access-is-politically-charged-but-crucial-263920

02.09.2025

anti-choice lies

anti-choice terrorism

third-trimester abortion

Tony Abbott

Telehealth has improved abortion access for women around Australia. We can’t let it lapse

A dearth of political leadership means abortion drugs remain inaccessible, unsafe and unaffordable for many women

Gina Rushton
Published on Tue 14 Jul 2020

It has been 24 years since the federal government chose the partial privatisation of Telstra over the rights of Australian women to safely terminate a pregnancy with abortion drugs. In 1996, anti-abortion independent Brian Harradine, who held the balance of power in the Senate, agreed to support John Howard’s one-third float of the telecommunications company if the government amended legislation to give the health minister veto to prohibit the import, manufacture or use of abortion drug RU486 (mifepristone).

A perpetual dearth of political leadership in the subsequent quarter century has meant the drugs remain inaccessible, unaffordable and at times unsafe for many women in Australia outside of a certain income or major city.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/commentisfree/2020/jul/15/abortion-drugs-remain-inaccessible-unsafe-and-unaffordable-for-many-australian-women

Australia – Scott Morrison targeted in anonymous leaflets over NSW abortion bill

Scott Morrison targeted in anonymous leaflets over NSW abortion bill
Flyer repeats series of false claims about the abortion reform bill currently the subject of a conscience vote in the NSW upper house

Paul Karp
Tue 24 Sep 2019

Anonymously authored anti-abortion leaflets in Canberra have targeted Scott Morrison for remaining “silent” while states including New South Wales have pushed to decriminalise abortion.

The flyer – which is not authorised but is marked as from the End Violence Against Unborn Babies Coalition – is almost identical to one targeting the Berejiklian government with inflammatory rhetoric comparing abortion to murder in Nazi concentration camps.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/sep/25/scott-morrison-targeted-in-anonymous-leaflets-over-nsw-abortion-bill

Abortion bill faces resistance in Australia’s New South Wales

Abortion bill faces resistance in Australia's New South Wales
State's upper house drags feet in passing law legalising abortion despite an overwhelming 75-percent support by voters.

by Kate Walton
Sep 17, 2019

Canberra, Australia - Debate has begun in the upper house of the state of New South Wales (NSW) to decriminalise abortion, but what was expected to be a straightforward legislative process has triggered a furious backlash from conservative politicians and religious groups.

The Reproductive Health Care Act 2019, which seeks to bring the state in line with the rest of Australia, would allow abortion up to 22 weeks. It was passed by the state lower house in August, with 59 votes in favour and 31 against.

Continued: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/09/abortion-bill-faces-resistance-australia-south-wales-190917075212482.html

Abortion bill in NSW used to push Australian politics further to the right

Abortion bill in NSW used to push Australian politics further to the right

By Cheryl Crisp
16 September 2019

Legislation to decriminalise abortion in Australia’s most populous state, New South Wales (NSW), is being used by forces within the state’s ruling Liberal Party to push politics even further in the direction of extreme right-wing populism.

The Reproductive Health Care Reform Bill 2019, which passed in the state’s Legislative Assembly (lower house) on August 8, is scheduled to be voted on in the upper house (Legislative Council) tomorrow, September 17. A delay was demanded by its right-wing opponents in order to gain time to block the bill’s passage in its present form.

Continued: https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/09/16/abor-s16.html

NSW abortion bill: Sunrise and Seven News air false pro-choice chant claim

NSW abortion bill: Sunrise and Seven News air false pro-choice chant claim
Barnaby Joyce falsely claims rally chanted ‘put the foetus in the bin’ despite organiser confirming chant was ‘bigots’

Amanda Meade
Mon 16 Sep 2019

Seven News and Sunrise have repeated a false claim that pro-choice activists campaigning in favour of the New South Wales abortion legislation chanted “put the foetus in the bin” as supporters and opponents of the bill clashed in Sydney on Saturday.

The actual words were “put the bigots in the bin”, but Sunrise co-hosts David Koch and Samantha Armytage allowed Barnaby Joyce to repeat the claim unchallenged on Monday morning in a live interview on the program.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/sep/16/nsw-abortion-bill-sunrise-and-seven-news-air-false-pro-choice-chant-claim

16.09.2019