The Prime Minister apparently wishes it would all go away. It might be a bit late for that. He should have stomped on Tony Abbott before the election when the Minister for Health first stared his campaign against legal abortion. But the PM has evidently been able to call in some powerful allies to help him, as this item from today’s crickey.com.au illustrates:
3. The Australian’s abortion backflip
Is this proof that The Australian takes its riding instructions from John Howard? Before the PM intervened here’s what the paper had to say about the abortion debate:
“If Health Minister Tony Abbott and his parliamentary secretary Christopher Pyne want to engage in a debate about abortion, they have every right to do so without being shouted down by hysterics.” – Australian editorial November 3
Now Howard says the abortion debate is bad – guess what?
“It is therefore a pity that debate on what might be achieved has been hijacked by the sideshow over abortion.” – Australian editorial November 15
If a politician had done this, The Australian would have called it a backflip.
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…or, in American, a flip flop!
But, as per your earlier post, I’m not so sure it’s a sideshow. Howard at first treated Pauline Hanson with disdain and then took her ideas up with enthusiasm. He is treading cautiously for now, but wait until he really gets a sense of the public mood.
So many people, even women, judge the abortion issue on the basis of personal sentiment or religious belief rather than as a matter of women’s rights. The focus in this debate – at least in recent times – is on the foetus, not on the woman. It’s so easy to arouse emotion over a foetus that looks half human. Apparently not so easy to arouse the same emotion over a woman who is (and looks) 100% human!