{"id":730069,"date":"2026-06-11T17:18:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T17:18:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/730069\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T17:18:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T17:18:12","slug":"a-shadowy-overseas-group-is-trying-to-influence-australian-abortion-policy-who-are-they-and-what-do-they-want-abortion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/730069\/","title":{"rendered":"A shadowy overseas group is trying to influence Australian abortion policy. Who are they \u2013 and what do they want? | Abortion"},"content":{"rendered":"

Among the hand-drawn signs warning of the \u201cevil\u201d of abortion at last week\u2019s Sydney rally<\/a> were some more professional placards.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe greatest liberty is the right to life,\u201d the blue-and-white posters read, under a small logo for CitizenGo.<\/p>\n

CitizenGo will not be a familiar name to many in Australia but in Europe it looms large in the anti-abortion, anti-LGBTQ+ rights world. An offshoot of the ultra-conservative Spanish group HazteO\u00edr<\/a> (Make Yourself Heard), it was founded in Spain in 2013 and claims to have 20 million members across 50 countries.<\/p>\n

Its sources of funding have been disputed.<\/p>\n

A European parliamentary inquiry<\/a> into foreign interference in the European Union\u2019s democratic processes described CitizenGo in 2021 as \u201can organisation founded by US and Russian ultra-conservatives that has sought to coordinate the activities of far-right parties in Europe\u201d but CitizenGo has denied receiving money from \u201cRussian oligarchs\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A UN research institute for social development report<\/a> published in 2024 called CitizenGo an \u201cultra-conservative Catholic organisation\u201d and a global leader of anti-gender ideology.<\/p>\n

Outside Europe it has also been particularly active in Africa. In Kenya, Marie Stopes was temporarily banned from providing abortions<\/a> in 2018 after complaints from CitizenGo, among others.<\/p>\n

Its methods typically include initiating mass online petitions for its cause, which it describes as \u201cstopping radical lobbies from imposing their agenda on society\u201d.<\/p>\n

Petitions have made headlines for trying to get a Cadbury\u2019s Creme Egg ad pulled off air<\/a>, and for succeeding in getting a DC Comics series on Jesus cancelled<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In Australia, CitizenGo \u2013 which is on the foreign influence register \u2013 says it advocates \u201con issues of family, faith and liberty from a biblical perspective\u201d.<\/p>\n

Its campaigners include the former Nationals MP and failed One Nation Senate candidate George Christensen, and Christopher Yates, a former adviser to the independent Fowler MP, Dai Le. The former Australian Taxpayers\u2019 Alliance executive director Brian Marlow <\/a>(who is now running a rightwing political movement called Revive Australia<\/a>) joined in 2024 but it is unclear if he is still involved.<\/p>\n

To date, the impact of CitizenGo in Australia has been modest.<\/p>\n

One petition in support of the anti-abortion activist Joanna Howe, which claims \u201cthe political elite are trying to destroy her\u201d, has been signed by almost 14,000 people. About 7,400 people have signed Christensen\u2019s petition to ban sex-selective abortion, and about 22,300 have signed a petition calling for the dissolution of federal parliament for a range of reasons including \u201cmass migration\u201d and inflation.<\/p>\n

But researchers say CitizenGo is another potentially influential part of the burgeoning ecosystem of anti-rights groups energised by the rise of One Nation in the polls and populist movements worldwide.<\/p>\n

Dr Joanna Howe addresses protesters outside state parliament in Sydney. Photograph: Dean Lewins\/AAP<\/p>\n

Lucy Hamilton, a doctoral researcher at the University of Technology Sydney and far-right expert, uses the word \u201cco-belligerence\u201d to describe CitizenGo\u2019s role in that ecosystem.<\/p>\n

The word is used to describe people who fight alongside each other for a common cause, without necessarily having a formal alliance.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a variety of \u2026 Christian groups representing different faith traditions [that are] co-operating \u2026 to drive their shared projects,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Hamilton says such groups embrace multiple issues \u2013 such as abortion, immigration and climate change \u2013 to broaden out.<\/p>\n

\u201cBasically they\u2019re all extending their messaging to include as many factions as possible so that a group that might not be focused on abortion feels itself included. These become part of an ideological package that threatens the safety of many Australians,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Kurt Sengul, a research fellow at Macquarie University and far-right expert, echoes that idea, and says coalitions have emerged in the far-right space that \u201cnever would have seen eye to eye on anything before\u201d.<\/p>\n

CitizenGo is in the mix but has \u201cdefinitely flown under the radar\u201d in Australia.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey haven\u2019t got a lot of traction,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou get the sense they feel like the opportunity structure is there now, the possibilities have broadened, that could be why they\u2019re making some moves now.\u201d<\/p>\n

The recent prominence of abortion as an issue \u2013 there are three bills before state parliaments<\/a> trying to reduce access \u2013 has given CitizenGo an opportunity to insert itself into the campaign.<\/p>\n

Yates was at last week\u2019s rally, organised by Howe, who works with state and federal politicians to introduce laws to restrict abortion access.<\/p>\n

Yates said in a Facebook post he could have printed out three times as many of those blue-and-white posters and that \u201cideally\u201d abortion should be entirely banned.<\/p>\n

Dr Adam Simpson, a senior lecturer in international studies at Adelaide University\u2019s school of society and culture, says cost-of-living pressures since Covid have driven people to unite on a range of grievances.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s been the vector for the move to these rightwing populists that bring with them a whole range of other complaints,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI strongly suspect that there\u2019s quite a few of those [One Nation] supporters who are broadly pro-choice but \u2013 because they\u2019re susceptible to the far-right, populist view \u2013 they become more susceptible to views they might not have thought about before or might no have strong views on, like abortion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guardian Australia has contacted CitizenGo, Christensen, Yates, Le and Howe for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Among the hand-drawn signs warning of the \u201cevil\u201d of abortion at last week\u2019s Sydney rally were some more…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":730070,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-730069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=730069"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730069\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/730070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=730069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=730069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=730069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}