Game’s high hopes as abortion debate returns to parliament
Sarah Game has introduced a new anti-abortion bill in parliament, backed by a coalition of religious groups. One of the bill’s authors, who had a lottery-style game referred to the state’s consumer watchdog, says she hopes to play again.
Upper house MLC Sarah Game expects her latest abortion bill to pass the upper house unless there is “deliberate sabotage”.
Game introduced the bill, which would restrict abortion access after 24 weeks and six days, to parliament’s Legislative Council on Wednesday night, in the second sitting week of the year.
Game told InDaily that based on the new members in the chamber, she believed she had the numbers to get the legislation the first tick of approval it would need to become law.
“Unless there is deliberate sabotage, looking at how people have voted in the past, I don’t see why this shouldn’t pass,” Game said.
It was Game’s second attempt, and the third in two years, with Liberal Ben Hood also introducing an abortion restriction bill in 2024, which lost by one vote.
Game said her latest bill had the input of anti-abortion lobbyist Joanna Howe and the Australian Christian Lobby.
An alliance of religious groups announced they backed Game’s Bill in a joint media release on Wednesday night, including the Australian Christian Lobby, the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia and Family First – a political party that ran candidates at SA’s March election.
SA Unions and the SA Abortion Action Coalition slammed the bill, with its President Jennie-Marie Gorman saying SA women were sick of “seeing women’s healthcare rights being used for political theatre”.
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“We know that South Australians support the right for people to access abortion health care when they need it, but bills like this create stigma, and they can reinforce a sense of exceptionalism around abortion, whereas we know that abortion is a commonly accessed safe healthcare procedure,” SA Abortion Action Coalition spokesperson Zoe Keys said.
The latest attempt comes three months after Game’s last bill, which drew controversy in the chamber after Howe ran a “fun game” where her followers could “buy words” they guessed would come up in the debate and win prizes.
The Attorney General referred the “game” to the government department responsible for lottery compliance, Consumer and Business Services.
A spokesperson told InDaily, “Consumer and Business Services reviewed the matter and reminded Ms Howe of the legal obligations when conducting a lottery”.
When asked if she would run the game again, Howe told InDaily, “I think Attorney-General Kyam Maher really liked our game, so in order to not disappoint him, we will play it again”.
Maher told ABC Radio Adelaide on Thursday morning that he thought the matter of abortion had been “settled” in the chamber, and he believed it was “pretty unbecoming how the debate was handled last time”.
The November bill did not pass, with eight votes in support of it and 11 against. Former politicians Jing Li, Connie Bonaros and Tammy Franks, who voted against it, were not returned to parliament at March’s election.
Since the March election, three new One Nation members joined the chamber, a party with a formal ‘pro-life’ policy.
Game – a former One Nation member who started her own Fair Go for Australians party last year – said she had spoken to SA One Nation leader Cory Bernardi about the issue.
Bernardi told InDaily that he had not seen specifics of the bill yet, but One Nation does oppose late-term abortion.
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“We’ll see how it’s defined in the bill, and we’ll look at the details of it, but that has been a longstanding policy of One Nation federally and state-wide,” Bernardi said.
South Australian parliament decriminalised abortion in 2021 and currently permits abortions after 23 weeks if the continuation of the pregnancy would involve “significant risk to the physical or mental health” of the pregnant person.
Game said her bill would remove the mental health clause and “serious fetal abnormalities” as reasons to perform an abortion, believing that after 25 weeks “a baby should be born and can be saved”.
The Greens – who have two members in the upper house and none in the lower house – have a policy position in favour of abortion access.
Both Labor and Liberal parties confirmed they would treat the issue of abortion as a conscience vote, allowing members to vote individually and not on a party position.
If Game’s bill passes the upper house, it would also need to pass the lower house before it can take effect.
Current politicians who voted in favour of decriminalising abortion in the lower house include Labor’s Zoe Bettison, Blair Boyer, Michael Brown, Katrine Hilyard, and Joe Szakacs, according to Hansard records.
Labor treasurer Tom Koutsantonis voted against decriminalisation, as did former arts minister Andrea Michaels, and independent member Geoff Brock.
Koutsantonis said today, “I’ll have a look at [the bill], but I’ve got a long-standing record on these sorts of things, so I’ll stick with my convictions”.
Premier Peter Malinauskas voted in favour of decriminalisation in 2021 and voted in support of amendments that would restrict access in some circumstances.
Liberal Leader Ashton Hurn was not a member of parliament in 2021 when the decriminalisation bill was voted on.
Current Liberal members in the lower house who were in parliament at the time include Josh Teague, who was the speaker of the house at the time, and Tim Whetstone who was marked as absent for the decriminalisation vote and voted for safe access zones around abortion clinics.
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