A Legal and Political Assessment of Challenges to Abortion Laws by Anti-choice Activists in Australia and the Progression of Abortion Law in Australia and the United States

Abstract

Historically, in Australia the issue of abortion had not attracted the violent protests that are frequently part of the American political landscape. Nor had it featured prominently in parliamentary debates. This began to change in 2004 when the issue was put on the political agenda by a small but vocal group of conservative members of the Federal Parliament. It also emerged as an issue at the state government level between 2008 and 2019 with the decriminalization of abortion in four Australian states and one territory. These changes in turn, led to a response by opponents along three lines as follows: first, legal challenges to safe access zones around fertility clinics; second, the pursuit of legal recognition of fetal personhood in state parliaments; and third, ongoing attempts to prevent Medicare (public) funding of abortions in relation to the occurrence of sex-selection abortion. All three strategies have been influenced by, or are copies of, the actions of antiabortion activists in the United States. To date, none of these strategies have proven successful in Australia. Nonetheless, anti-abortion activists are resolute in their desire to overturn recent gains in decriminalising abortion law in Australia. While Australian developments are in conformity with global trends towards liberalization of abortion law, the recent overturning of Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court of the United States and the restrictions introduced across various states in America, has emboldened opponents of abortion who hope to replicate similar bans and restrictions in Australia.