‘Women Haven’t Been Put at the Centre of This Reform’: Anti-Trans Rhetoric in Australian Abortion Debates, 2019-2025

This article offers unique insights into anti-gender political experimentation and tactical adaptation in the context of a liberal, secular and majority pro-choice democracy. It charts a nascent trend in Australia wherein anti-trans rhetoric and arguments appear in debates over abortion, mirroring global developments and the growing anti-gender movement. It summarises the status of anti-abortion and anti-trans politics in twenty-first century Australia before exploring the way that a small but influential group of politicians and activists have woven anti-trans claims into discussions of abortion legislation. Analysing case studies from New South Wales, South Australia, and federally, it identifies two emerging tropes that have worked to unite anti-abortion and anti-trans frames in Australia: discourses of protection, and a common sense of science and medicine. It also highlights the comingling in Australia of both conservative United States style ‘culture wars’ politics and the gender-critical feminist modes that dominate the United Kingdom. This iteration of anti-gender politics seeks to discredit progressive movements, dispute contemporary understandings of health care, and repurpose and subvert rights discourses. These developments are strategic and opportunistic, tapping into and amplifying transphobia (particularly towards trans women) in an attempt to puncture support for abortion.