Abortion bill passes first hurdle
BREAKING: A controversial abortion bill has passed its first hurdle, despite claims its architect tried to delay the debate at the final stretch.
Upper House MLC Sarah Game’s late-term abortion bill has passed with 10 votes in favour and nine against, to a packed gallery.
The bill would immediately progress to the lower house for debate, Premier Peter Malinauskas saying this morning he would not allow the issue to “hijack” the government’s agenda.
InDaily understands Joanna Howe had called members of parliament asking them to drag out the debate so it would not progress to the lower house tonight.
It comes after Game – who joined the Family First party today – told InDaily on Wednesday morning that a fast-tracked approach was “not what I would have chosen”.
“Look, ideally we would have had more time to campaign and get our message out,” she said.
Howe was contacted for comment.
As the vote took place, a rally coordinated by Howe, who has a doctorate in law philosophy, took place on the Parliament House steps, with cheering crowds heard from inside parliament’s upper house.
Supporters handed out red balloons and placards saying “thou shall not kill” and “ban lethal injections”.
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One Nation MP Chantelle Thomas spoke to protesters, saying she would “speak up for these babies”.
“They don’t have a voice, but we do. And that is why I stand here today to be the strong voice for these babies that are not heard,” Thomas said.
“So let’s keep fighting and let’s keep speaking out about it and educating people that don’t know better.”
Joanna Howe described the decision as a “David and Goliath victory”
“If we can get it through one house in three years, we will get it through the whole damn place in the next three,” Howe said.
“There is still a mountain to climb, but tonight we are halfway there.”
Howe said the “rise of Pauline Hanson” had contributed to the passing of the Upper House bill, and that people were “no longer listening to mainstream media.
“We’re not gonna take the BS from ABC, Channel 9, Channel 7, The Guardian, or InDaily, we want the facts,” she said.
The newer One Nation members who joined the upper house in March voted in support of the bill, while Greens MLC Melanie Selwood and Labor MLC Hilton Gumbys voted against it after about an hour and a half of debate.
Most continuing members of parliament’s upper house voted the same way they did at Game’s last attempt to pass similar legislation in November.
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The bill would restrict abortion access after 24 weeks and six days, and Game said it would remove existing clauses about mental health and “serious feotal abnormalities” as reasons to perform an abortion.
Current laws allow abortions after 23 weeks if the pregnancy involves “significant risk to physical or mental health” of the pregnant person, or significant foetal abnormalities and requires approval by two doctors.
Labor MLC Tung Ngo amended Game’s bill, meaning the version of it that passed still allowed for a termination if there was “risk of serious foetal abnormalities…that would be incompatible with survival after birth”.
Ngo said he did not support late-term abortion, but his amendment was for “those rare and heartbreaking circumstances” where families have to choose.
“Both houses deserve the chance to debate this,” Ngo said.
Liberal Michelle Lensink formed a pair with Laura Henderson who was sick and therefore absent for the vote.
Greens MLC Melanie Selwood, Labor’s Mira El Dannawi, Hilton Gumbys, Russel Wortley and Deputy Premier Kyam Maher all spoke against the bill.
Liberal members Heidi Giralamo and Dennis Hood, Nicola Centofanti and Ben Hood spoke in favour of it, as did Labor MLCs Tung Ngo and Clare Scriven.
Centofanti said she supported moving abortion law out of the criminal code in 2021, but that “the law, as it currently stands, provides insufficient protection for viable unborn children”.
Maher pointed out that one per cent of all abortions conducted in the state were late-term abortions, according to SA Health data.
Selwood said her office had received “1800 emails asking us to oppose this and only 60 asking us to support it”.
Members in both houses of parliament wore orange ribbons to show their support for abortion access, including Liberal Michelle Lensink, Deputy Premier Kyam Maher, Labor members Ian Hunter, Mira el Dannawi, Hilton Gumbys, Justin Hanson and Greens Robert Simms and Melanie Selwood.
Lower house members, including Health Minister Blair Boyer, Transport Minister Joe Szackas, Multicultural Affairs Minister Nadia Clancy, Katrine Hilyard, Rhiannon Pearce, Catherine Hutchesson and Cheyne Rich were also wearing orange ribbons.
Game wore a blue ribbon.
About 40 people were in the gallery to watch the debate, about 18 wearing orange.
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