Prime Minister Scott Morrison says a debate about abortion will divide Australia. Labor says it is a straightforward public health issue.
Two years ago, Labor MP Sharon Claydon travelled around Australia asking hundreds of women what mattered to them.
As part of its strategy, Labor will review Medicare rebates around medical terminations and help more GPs provide medical abortions. The plan will also look at increasing contraceptive pill prescriptions from one to three years and ways to increase the uptake of long-acting reversible contraceptives , which are 99 per cent effective but only used by about 10 per cent of Australian women.
"This is not about the Catholic Helen Polley. It's about Helen Polley who is a senator and a mother and a grandmother. And it's about women's health." King notes that as the plan was developed, "a few concerns were raised along the way by some of the more conservative elements of the party". But the framing of the plan as an access to healthcare issue has helped overcome this – along with assurances that religious freedoms will be protected.
Labor MPs also say the policy reflects the fact that women now make up almost half of the federal caucus.
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