Labor group lobbies for binding vote in favour of legal and accessible abortions
A grassroots Labor group is pushing the party to bind its members to vote in favour of safe, legal and accessible abortions.
The Labor for Choice group has been running for more than a year in the lead-up to Labor’s national conference in July, led by two activists from the Australian Capital Territory, Grace Flanagan and Briony Roelandts.
It has scored a win with the national policy forum agreeing to present a new chapter to conference seeking a commitment to work with states and territories to decriminalise abortion, implement safe access zones and to examine public provision of abortion.
But Roelandts told Guardian Australia it was the proposal to remove a guarantee of a conscience vote on abortion, which has been in the party’s federal platform since 1984, that was proving “more controversial”.
Since 2015, when Labor changed its platform to bind members in favour of marriage equality in the next term of parliament, abortion has become the only issue on which the platform guarantees a conscience vote.
The Labor for Choice push is set to test social conservatives’ power and willingness to engage in policy fights. Social conservatism has been on the retreat in Labor since the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees’ Association dropped its opposition to marriage equality and Labor senators agreed not to vote for protections for so-called “religious freedoms” in the marriage bill.
Roelandts said “there are certain groups who are going to find this a difficult one to swallow but we haven’t had a lot of direct opposition”.
Nevertheless the group has taken a cross-factional approach and does not see abortion as a left-right issue.
Flanagan said it was “an important year to be campaigning on abortion, considering the change we’ve seen about how difficult access”.
State chapters of Labor for Choice have been tackling the issues with access in each jurisdiction – focusing on decriminalisation in Queensland, safe access zones in Western Australia, the last abortion clinic closing in Tasmania and full public provision
it is to in the ACT.
Roelandts said the status quo was a “patchwork of legislation” under which women in Albury, New South Wales, have access to surgical abortions but face protesters outside clinics because of the lack of safe access zones, opting instead for medical abortions available over the border in Wodonga, Victoria.
“It’s an inherent inequality that obviously needs to be addressed,” she said.
Flanagan said women “are making decisions on healthcare based on where they live, which isn’t fair”.
“Labor says its opposed to inequality so it’s not good enough that women’s health is the only issue exempted from collective action,” she said.
In August, in her Emily’s List oration, the Labor deputy leader and shadow minister for women, Tanya Plibersek, noted that abortion was a crime in jurisdictions where half of Australian women live.
“We need to make sure that women have autonomy over their bodies,” she said. “Reproductive freedom is intimately tied to gender equality. For Labor to be pro-women, we must be pro-choice.
“Australia still has unfinished business on reproductive health.”
The Australian Christian Lobby has argued that the push to bind MPs
raises the question of whether “prolife” women are still welcome in the Labor party.
“Will MPs be forced to vote against their conscience on any abortion and euthanasia legislation that is brought forth by Labor?” ACL’s Queensland director, Wendy Francis, asked in response to the decriminalisation push in that state.
Roelandts and Flanagan state that abortion is a personal choice for people who receive healthcare but government must act in the best interests of Australians. They said it was “not fair for women” that legislators’ personal views could be imposed on others.
Delegates to national conference are yet to be elected and it is unclear yet as to whether the push could be successful.