Queensland’s Termination of Pregnancy Act 2018 provides for safe, legal and compassionate access to abortion care in Queensland.
Specifically, the law removed abortion from the criminal code; recognises abortion care as healthcare; and provides for legal access to abortion care in line with the recommendations of the Queensland Law Reform Commission. The Act also provides safe access zones to prevent harassment and intimidation of patients and staff within 150m of premises that provide abortion care; and includes provisions to prevent a medical practitioner’s personal beliefs from getting in the way of their patients’ access to reproductive healthcare.
Cross bencher Robbie Katter has announced that he will introduce a Bill to repeal or amend this 2018 law in the next parliament. Given issues of abortion are generally treated as matters of personal ‘conscience’ vote, candidates’ personal positions will determine whether or not such a Bill succeeds.
Therefore, Fair Agenda is asking all candidates to go on the record about whether they would vote to protect the current legal framework for safe, legal and compassionate access to abortion care in Queensland.
Fair Agenda is an independent community organisation made up of 41,000 Australians campaigning for a fair and gender equal future. Our members care deeply about reproductive healthcare access; and were part of the campaign to ensure passage of the Termination of Pregnancy Act in Queensland in 2018.
As such, Fair Agenda is collecting information about candidates’ position on this issue (specifically: whether you would vote to protect the current law).
We will publish candidates’ responses; public statements; and voting records (if they served in parliament during the 2018 reform process). These will be published in the coming days at voteprochoice.org.au, updated regularly as responses are received, and shared with our members, the public, and the media.
You can get in touch with the Fair Agenda team via qld-election@fairagenda.org. Thank you in advance for your response.
