Conservative senator and human stain Cory Bernardi has used the day after a historic vote for same-sex marriage to attempt to wreak his particular brand of god-bothering fuckery all over the rest of parliamentary legislation. What a bloke.
Today, he introduced a motion in the Senate that would attempt to get Medicare to drop funding for abortions. Astonishingly, he also went in on anti-domestic violence organisation White Ribbon, because they, too, support safe and legal abortions.
And grossly but unsurprisingly, he was assisted in his attempts to take several steps backwards from equality for all, by none other than Pauline fucking Hanson.
Pauline Hanson just tried to stop medicare funding for abortions. Srsly.
— Dee Madigan (@deemadigan) November 16, 2017
The One Nation leader sided with Bernardi along with a bunch of Liberal senators and the freshly departed former One Nation senator Fraser Anning.
The motions would have stripped Medicare funding for abortions undertaken in order to choose the sex of a baby, and would have brought White Ribbon under increased scrutiny for its support for accessible abortions.
Fortunately both motions were voted down, 36 to 10 and 31 to 21.
White Ribbon has responded to Bernardi’s parliamentary BS with the following statement:
Contrary to some of the views said in Parliament today, the real position of White Ribbon is solidarity with the basic right of women to control their own reproductive health, through nationally uniform laws and protecting human rights.
White Ribbon Australia supports the autonomy of women to make their own choices about their basic right to health care, including contraception and abortion.
We support the decriminalisation of abortion and nationally consistent access to safe and legal abortion and support for women throughout the process and afterwards.
They’ve also said that they aim to prevent reproductive coercion, a form of domestic violence.
Should we be surprised at Hanson’s antagonistic stance towards the anti-domestic violence group? Considering that her own party’s DV policies are largely informed by men’s rights activist groups – probably not.
