One Nation wants to roll back abortion rights in Australia and is emboldening activists seeking US-style laws

The headline act at a Sydney anti-abortion rally being held on Tuesday in support of Libertarian MP John Ruddick’s bill to restrict abortion will not be Ruddick. It will be the One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce, who left the Nationals last year, not long after he was rebuked for his statements about abortion.

The dramatic rise in the polls of his new party has given fresh impetus to a loose network of anti-abortion groups trying to chip away at reproductive rights. Since abortion was decriminalised in all states and territories almost three years ago, there has been a slew of attempts to wind back access. Bills have been brought by different parties and independents in several states, aiming to reduce access in a variety of ways, including banning late-term abortions, mandating medical care for babies “born alive” after abortions, and banning sex-selective abortions. They also form part of One Nation’s policy to “seek every opportunity to roll back brutal and extreme abortion law”.

In the US, this incremental approach to tackle abortion rights from multiple directions culminated in Roe v Wade being overturned in 2022 and continues now with states implementing abortion bans. Since then, it has become harder to get healthcare for miscarriages, to access fertility treatments and for obstetrician/gynaecologists to practise, and there has been a rise in infant mortality and pregnancy-related deaths.

Prudence Flowers, a senior lecturer in US history at Flinders University, says the resemblance is not a coincidence. “One of the reasons these policies are similar … is that the Australian anti-abortion movement is explicitly looking at historical measures in the US,” she says. “The reason it seems so coordinated is that there is a playbook people can look to.”