{"id":903243,"date":"2026-09-24T03:10:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T03:10:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/903243\/"},"modified":"2026-09-24T03:10:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T03:10:11","slug":"victorian-labor-makes-abortion-access-easier-amid-fears-one-nation-could-try-to-wind-it-back-victorian-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/903243\/","title":{"rendered":"Victorian Labor makes abortion access easier amid fears One Nation could try to wind it back | Victorian politics"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Victorian government is announcing new measures to improve access to medical abortion, as it puts reproductive rights on the election agenda and claims One Nation<\/a> could use abortion as a negotiating chip with the Coalition in the event of a hung parliament.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, the deputy premier and minister for women, Gabrielle Williams, and the health minister, Ingrid Stitt, will announce a rollout of new portable ultrasound machines for the state\u2019s 20 sexual and reproductive health hubs.<\/p>\n

The machines, costing $480,000, will help confirm early pregnancy sooner, making it easier for women, particularly in regional Victoria<\/a>, to access medical abortion \u2013 a drug-induced termination that can be carried out up to nine weeks\u2019 gestation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt means women, particularly in regional Victoria, will be more likely to be scanned within that nine-week window for medical abortion, rather than having to wait or travel long distances to get a scan, and by then potentially only have surgical abortion options available for them,\u201d Stitt said.<\/p>\n

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Abortion was decriminalised in Victoria in 2008, with women able to obtain a termination during the first 24 weeks of pregnancy, and later if they obtain the agreement of two doctors.<\/p>\n

Stitt said since then Labor had been working to make public abortion care safer \u2013 via the introduction of safe access zones around clinics<\/a> in 2015 \u2013 and more accessible, including through the mobile women\u2019s health clinic<\/a> and virtual women\u2019s health clinic<\/a>. The latter reported nearly 60% of its appointments in its first year supported medical abortion.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t want to see any winding back of women\u2019s rights to choose or their access to safe care across the state,\u201d Stitt said. \u201cWe\u2019re proud of the investments that we\u2019ve made, and we will be fighting hard to protect them in the election campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, the Victorian opposition leader, Jess Wilson, emphatically ruled out any changes to the state\u2019s abortion laws under a Coalition<\/a> government.<\/p>\n

It followed the release of a video by a market research company linked to Labor, which claimed that Wilson had \u201chandpicked Liberal candidates who want abortion banned\u201d and stated that One Nation\u2019s Victorian leader, Warren Pickering, wanted to make abortion a crime.<\/p>\n

Warren Pickering. The One Nation Victoria leader said in 2024 that the state\u2019s abortion laws were \u2018some of the most draconian on the planet\u2019. Photograph: James Ross\/AAP<\/p>\n

\u201cVictorians can\u2019t risk a Liberal One Nation government and the polls show the Liberals can\u2019t govern without One Nation,\u201d the video said.<\/p>\n

Wilson told the Age: \u201cAbortion law will not change under a Liberal and Nationals government. Full stop.\u201d<\/p>\n

She repeated the comments in a video with the Herald Sun at the weekend.<\/p>\n

But the deputy premier said Wilson \u201cmight not be the one calling the shots\u201d, given current polling suggested the Coalition was short of an outright majority.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the way the polling is lining up, this is potentially a situation where One Nation aren\u2019t a minor partner \u2013 they\u2019re potentially an equal partner \u2013 so her ability to push back on that might be restricted,\u201d Williams said.<\/p>\n

One Nation\u2019s national platform pledges to \u201cseek every opportunity to roll back brutal and extreme abortion law\u201d.<\/p>\n

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The federal leader, Pauline Hanson, has said she was not against abortion in the first trimester<\/a>, a position that has not been reflected in the party\u2019s formal policy.<\/p>\n

Last week, its New South Wales leader, Mark Newman, attended a rally alongside the controversial campaigner Joanna Howe that was calling for the NSW parliament to restrict abortion access.<\/p>\n

At the rally he said One Nation \u201cwant to stop\u201d abortion and that if elected, would ensure there was a \u201cright to life \u2026 that babies live\u201d.<\/p>\n

He later said One Nation does not advocate for an outright ban on abortion and had been speaking about late-term abortions and terminations for sex selection.<\/a><\/p>\n

Barnaby Joyce appeared<\/a> at a June event that was organised by Howe, who also campaigned in the lead-up to the Queensland and South Australian state elections.<\/p>\n

In 2024, Pickering joined pro-life activists at a \u201cMarch for Babies\u201d in Melbourne and posted on Facebook that Victoria\u2019s abortion laws were \u201csome of the most draconian on the planet\u201d.<\/p>\n

Williams said: \u201cIt\u2019s not unreasonable to be asking at what point the Liberal National Coalition are prepared to walk away from One Nation if this is the position they are taking to the election \u2013 as their counterparts have in other states.\u201d The deputy premier denied Labor was conducting a scare campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a genuine question being asked on the back of positions that are being expressed by One Nation around the country,\u201d she said. \u201cWhere\u2019s the line?\u201d<\/p>\n

Pickering has been approached for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Victorian government is announcing new measures to improve access to medical abortion, as it puts reproductive rights…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":903244,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-903243","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\/903243","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=903243"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903243\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/903244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=903243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=903243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=903243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}