Abortion: Queensland’s Defining Election Moment

With less than two weeks to go before the polls close in the 2024 Queensland election, abortion has become a key issue – and for this we are thankful.

It is a key issue because since Labor introduced its Termination of Pregnancy Act in 2018, which allows for abortion for any reason up to birth, tens of thousands of innocent unborn Queensland children have been killed.

For more than 50 years, Cherish Life has been advocating for laws to protect the most vulnerable in our society and we have been closely watching events unfold in the last few days with both encouragement and disappointment.

Let’s start with encouragement. We are delighted with the continued pro-life stance of Katter’s Australia Party. KAP consistently has been vocal in its support for the protection of the unborn and these pronouncements were backed up with action in March of this year when Robbie Katter introduced his Termination of Pregnancy (Live Births) Amendment Bill, which unfortunately Labor prevented from being debated.

Mr Katter has committed to re-introducing into the new Parliament his private member’s Bill to give care to babies born alive after abortion, and because life issues are always dealt with as conscience votes, we hope that with an LNP government in place, there would be a majority of pro-life MPs in Parliament to vote this into law, as has been done in New South Wales and South Australia.  

Now to disappointment: Late last year, LNP leader David Crisafulli, stated that he would do nothing on abortion reform in the first 4 years of an LNP government. This statement was obviously deeply disappointing to all pro-life Queenslanders, but also confusing as it came out of the blue since Mr Crisafulli was on the public record as being opposed to late-term abortion. So when he repeated his “no change” position on abortion at the recent debate with Premier Steven Miles, it didn’t come as a surprise.

Of course, it would have been far better if Mr Crisafulli had simply promised a review of the abortion law, and put Labor on the back foot by attacking them for their support of late-term abortion (with which only 6% of Queensland voters agree) and the absence of protections for women such as free independent counselling (which 88% of Queenslanders support) and informed consent requirements (which 85% support).

Despite our disappointment with Mr Crisafulli’s stance, we still encourage you over the next two weeks to do all that you can to defeat the pro-abortion Labor Government – as a change of government is the only way that the abortion law can be wound back.

Please still offer your time to help your local Pro-Life candidate, whether it be handing out how-to-vote cards at pre-poll or election day, or letterboxing or roadsides, or delivering our Cherish Life PUT LABOR LAST flyer.

Today, Cherish Life has also released a tool on our website where you can type in your postcode and find out exactly where your candidates stand on abortion after 22 weeks of pregnancy. LINK TO TOOL HERE.

We have given every candidate an opportunity to respond. An unwillingness to respond could be considered a response in itself. However, candidates have to follow the instructions of their party, so if the tool does not provide you with enough guidance, we recommend that you contact your candidates directly.

Matthew Cliff

Chief Executive Officer