Game joins pro-life party as abortion debate fast-tracked
Sarah Game’s controversial abortion bill could be fast-tracked through parliament tonight as she reveals she has joined a new party. Meanwhile, the anti-abortion campaign has ramped up with a $1000 a day social media spend.
Upper house MLC Sarah Game said it was her personal view that abortion should be “completely banned”, as her bill to restrict late-term abortions looks set to pass at least one chamber of Parliament tonight.
Game’s comments come as she revealed she was joining the conservative party Family First, just one year after leaving One Nation to head her own party, Fair Go for Australians, in the March state election.
And InDaily can reveal controversial anti-abortion campaigner Joanna Howe has spent about $1000 a day on Meta advertising in the past week.
In the last seven days, Howe has spent about $7540 across 10 advertisements on Meta, which includes platforms Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, according to the Meta Ads Library. Last year, Howe was one of the top three spenders in the country on Meta advertising.
At the time of writing, four ads are still active, all concerning abortion. Two of these were promoting tonight’s rally, which Howe said would “make history by passing Australia’s first prolife bill through a house of parliament”.
The Australia Institute was running advertisements against the bill in South Australian media outlets, including InDaily and The Advertiser over the past week.
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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.
Game expected her bill to pass the upper house, and if it does, Premier Peter Malinauskas said it would be dealt with in the lower house tonight.
“From the government’s perspective, we’re not going to have this hijack our agenda, which is why, if it does pass the upper house, I’ve made it clear that in the lower house we intend to bring this bill on immediately, and then debate it forthwith,” Malinauskas told ABC Radio on Wednesday morning.
But Game said the 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.
Game added that Labor MLC Tung Ngo would bring an amendment to her bill, which would allow for a termination if there was “risk of serious foetal abnormalities…that would be incompatible with survival after birth”.
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When asked if he thought the abortion bill would reach the lower house, Malinauskas said he was told “there’s literally a vote in it” and that if it does, he would “carefully examine it”.
Malinauskas voted in favour of decriminalising abortion in 2021 and voted in support of amendments that would restrict access in some circumstances.
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.
“I’ll consider the bill in whatever form it comes to the lower house, but my view is that abortions should be safe, they should be legal, and they should be rare,” Liberal Leader Ashton Hurn said.
Asked whether she would bring future legislation to parliament to restrict abortion access if tonight’s bid failed, Game said: “I’m definitely not ruling anything out”.
“I’m more focused on seeing what realistic outcome I can get with the composition of the houses at the moment than necessarily coming back again and again with a more restricted version of the bill,” she said.
Today is Game’s second attempt in eight months to pass legislation of this kind, the third in the upper house since 2024.
After announcing she was joining Family First, Game became the conservative pro-life party’s first member in SA Parliament.
Family First is part of an alliance of groups, including the Australian Christian Lobby, the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia and Joanna Howe’s Australia Life, that backed the bill and would rally in support of it at Parliament House tonight.
Greens leader Robert Simms said his party’s policy was “uniform, every vote, every time, opposing efforts to encroach on the reproductive rights of women”.
“I hope that the upper house sends this bill where it deserves to be, and that’s in the bin,” he said.
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