The major parties have moved to avoid an election debate about abortion, with Labor confirming it would not revisit a scrapped policy that would force publicly funded hospitals to provide the procedure to receive federal funding. Source: ABC News.
Neither Labor nor the Coalition have plans to change the status quo when it comes to abortion, which is legal in all Australian jurisdictions, with both parties insisting that it is an issue for the states.
But the Greens want abortion access on the election agenda, with a promise to provide an extra $100 million in federal funding each year to ensure public hospitals offer termination services.
In a party room meeting last week, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton sought to shut down backbenchers who had begun to float the issue at a national level, warning his colleagues that it would be a distraction in a federal election context.
Mr Dutton yesterday offered his first public comments on the matter since the meeting, reiterating that abortion should not become an election issue and warning that if Labor tried to make it one it would “probably be the cheapest, most crass political effort in recent history”.
Asked about his personal views on the matter, the Opposition Leader said he supported “a woman’s right to choose”.
In 2019, while in opposition, Labor promised that if re-elected it would make the federal funding the government allocates to major public hospitals conditional on them providing abortion services.
It later dumped the policy and now takes the position that abortion is a matter for the states and territories.
“That’s not our policy and I don’t have any intention to revisit it,” Health Minister Mark Butler told reporters yesterday.
“States and territories are responsible for the operation of their hospital systems, they are answerable to their communities for that, we are a part-funder of hospitals but we are not an operator of hospitals, we don’t really have that expertise.”
FULL STORY
Major parties move to avoid an election debate about abortion, as the Greens pledge more funding for services (By Maani Truu, ABC News)
