HANSARD
SITTING CALENDAR
SEARCH
LIVE BROADCAST
Hansard Dynamic Subject Index
Legislative Council - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2025-09-17 Daily Xml
Contents
Xml

Abortion

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS (15:30): I rise today to stand with the over 80 per cent of Australians who support the statement that was polled in 2020 and reported in the Journal of Public Health that a woman should have the right to choose whether or not she has an abortion—and, indeed, that is the law of our state—with her medical professionals. It is in the hands of the person who is pregnant and their medical professionals who are treating them to provide that abortion.

I am not alone, and those 80 per cent plus of Australians were heard by this parliament when in 2022, two-thirds of the members of this parliament supported taking abortion out of the criminal code in this state and putting it under health law. The parliament decided and voted to treat abortion as health care, not as a potential crime, but in these last few years, and in these last few weeks, much is changing in this parliament as well as across the nation.

We only have to look overseas at the overturning of Roe v Wade, which sent shockwaves through that country, to see why it is sending so many chills down Australian spines that we are yet again debating in a parliament a woman's right to choose, and the fact that abortion should be criminalised rather than treated as health care.

Indeed, Roe v Wade and the Trump administration overseas seems to have emboldened forces here in Australia who think that Australian politics is like American politics. I tell you what, they need to do their numbers a little better than that. Here in Australia, we have a preferential voting system. We do not send out our messaging to get out the vote. We do not in this country have a system where it is first past the post and the loudest voice wins, even if they are simply a vocal minority.

Women and girls need compassion and care, guided by medical advice, not politicians pontificating about what would be best for them and their medical treatment. Understanding that health care is the choice of the pregnant person and the medical team is key here. Let's start with some basics. There is simply no such medical procedure as a 'late-term abortion'. Term is term and late-term is not actually a thing but, then again, people are also pretending to be potentially medical doctors in this debate.

I note that abortion can be an incredibly difficult choice, and diagnoses of foetal anomaly in fact are involved in about half the abortions that are performed after 20 weeks' gestation. They include neurological abnormalities, genetic syndromes and cardiac malformations. Do you want a politician deciding what your choices are when you are presented with that medical information? I imagine most South Australians will say no, but this issue is being put fair and square on a political agenda.

This parliament, for the second time in a year, will soon be debating a second bill around what they call late-term abortion. I have to say it is incredibly disappointing, but I do urge members of this parliament to remember we are not America and that the vocal minorities, while they might have a lot of clout online and while they might raise enormous amounts of money perhaps for individual campaigns or roll out the volunteers for a sitting member here or there or a potential candidate here or there, will not sway public opinion.

I remind members that when it comes to abortion in Australia, religious groups, no matter the denomination, do not overtly oppose abortion. Indeed, data shows that no religious group falls below 80 per cent in support of allowing abortion in some circumstances, and it does not rise above 10 per cent in opposition to it in all circumstances. I note the proponents of the bill that we are potentially debating soon say they want to make abortion unthinkable. The Australian people are not calling for that. They are calling for medical choices to be made by medical professionals and for the politicians to butt out.

PARLIAMENTARY BUSINESS
MEMBERS
GET INVOLVED
ABOUT PARLIAMENT
VISIT
LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY
CONTACT