On a busy Friday night on 11 October, a lively crowd of 400 gathered outside South Australia’s parliament. Spilling across the pavement, protesters brandished homemade signs reading “Abortion care is healthcare”, “Hands off my body” and “Forced birth = violence”.
Young women and men, workers who had just clocked off for the day, families and trade unionists were there to rally against a new anti-abortion bill being proposed this month. If passed, these changes would force people who are more than 27 weeks and 6 days pregnant to give birth regardless of their wishes or the advice of their doctors.
The crowd was protesting to defend the hard-won right of women to control their own bodies and to decide their own futures. Loud booing and jeering followed the mention of Ben Hood, the Liberal MP introducing the private member’s bill. Hood aspires to be a culture warrior in the mould of US conservatives who spent decades chipping away at abortion rights until Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022.
Abortion was decriminalised in South Australia in 2021 with widespread support. According to a 2019 <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1753-6405.12997">study</a> in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, 80 percent of South Australians support decriminalisation, 65 percent support widespread and readily available abortions and 63 percent support late-term abortions.
Most South Australian politicians are disinclined to attack abortion rights. So Hood’s bill is unlikely to pass either house of parliament. But the battle over abortion is far from finished.
As Prudence Flowers, Flinders University lecturer and co-convenor of the South Australian Abortion Action Coalition (SAAAC), told the crowd, a small but committed hard-right minority view undermining abortion access to organise their forces. Last month, around 1,000 anti-choice campaigners <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-09-25/ben-hood-abortion-bill-supporters/104397276">reported</a>ly gathered at parliament in support of Hood’s bill. This included prominent anti-abortion activist and academic Joanna Howe, who describes herself as advocating for “an Australia where abortion is <a href="https://www.drjoannahowe.com/about_dr_joanna_howe">unthinkable</a>”. For the hard-right and religious conservative wing of the Liberal Party, this is an opportunity to enthuse their base, recruit to their cause and drag their party—and the rest of society—even further to the right.
There is an important tradition of coming out onto the streets to defend abortion rights in South Australia. Rallies were held in 2021 in the lead-up to decriminalisation, and when Roe v. Wade was overturned in the US, many thousands marched in solidarity with the protests there. Friday’s rally continued this proud tradition. Those who took to the streets were united by anger, defiance and a commitment to action. Grey, a former health worker, told Red Flag: 
“I used to be a nurse, so this kind of issue is incredibly important to me. When I was a nurse, the times we went on strike were the only times things happened and people paid attention. Australians can be laid back people, but we need to get out and scream about it. People trust the government too much.”
Many placards and speeches called not just for the right to abortion, but to make it free, accessible and available without conditions. Barbara Baird, a long-time abortion activist and co-convenor of SAAAC, told the crowd “There are still access problems that haven’t been solved by decriminalisation”. These challenges particularly affect people in remote, regional and rural areas, 80 percent of whom must travel to Adelaide to access abortion care. It also involves significant costs for many women and requires them to take time off work. 
Labor has played an appalling role. Despite sixteen years in government before 2018, Labor did not decriminalise abortion. The party is expected to allow a “conscience vote” on Hood’s bill, which is an inexcusable concession to bigotry inside the party. Maddy Tapley, rally chair and convenor of the Defend Abortion Action Group told Red Flag: 
“The Liberals’ hard-right faction is attacking abortion while the Labor Party is committed to pandering to anti-women bigots inside and beyond its own ranks. A conscience vote would let Labor members vote against abortion rights with no repercussions. The real opposition won’t happen in Parliament—it’s going to happen here, in the streets.”

Abortion rights rally in Adelaide

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