Analysis of: One Nation’s rise allows Australia’s anti-abortion groups to turn up the volume
The Guardian | June 1, 2026
TL;DR
Australia's far-right One Nation party surge is giving anti-abortion activists a coordinated platform to chip away at reproductive rights using US-imported tactics. This isn't about 'life'—it's about disciplining women's bodies and rolling back hard-won freedoms during a period of capitalist crisis.
Analytical Focus:Historical Context Contradictions Class Analysis
The dramatic polling surge of One Nation, Australia's far-right nationalist party, has created new political space for a coordinated campaign against reproductive rights. This article reveals how anti-abortion activists are explicitly importing the US 'incrementalist' playbook—the same strategy that successfully overturned Roe v. Wade—to chip away at abortion access through multiple legislative fronts across Australian states. Bills targeting late-term procedures, medical abortion prescribing rights, and 'sex-selective' abortions (statistically negligible at 3 confirmed cases in a year) are being introduced simultaneously, not to address genuine social problems but to normalize political debate over bodily autonomy. This offensive must be understood within the context of neoliberal crisis and the rise of reactionary politics globally. As economic contradictions intensify—housing unaffordability, wage stagnation, precarious work—far-right movements channel working-class anger away from capital and toward culture-war targets. Reproductive rights become a wedge issue that unites religious conservatives, nationalist movements, and capitalist interests seeking to discipline labor and reinforce traditional family structures. The involvement of figures like Barnaby Joyce, who defected from the Nationals to One Nation, illustrates how established political forces are being absorbed into this reactionary coalition. The material consequences are already visible in the US: restricted access to miscarriage care, declining fertility treatment availability, rising maternal mortality. These outcomes disproportionately harm working-class women who cannot access private healthcare or travel for services. The Australian campaign, despite its rhetoric about 'protecting babies,' is fundamentally about reasserting patriarchal control over reproductive labor and women's bodies—a project that serves both ideological and economic functions for capital during periods of instability.
Class Dynamics
Actors: Far-right politicians (One Nation, Libertarians, Katter's Australian Party), Anti-abortion activists and religious organizations, Working-class women and pregnant people, Healthcare workers (midwives, nurses, obstetricians), Medical professional organizations, Reproductive healthcare providers (MSI Australia)
Beneficiaries: Far-right political parties gaining legitimacy and votes, Religious conservative organizations expanding influence, Private healthcare providers who benefit from restricted public access, Capitalist interests served by disciplined reproductive labor
Harmed Parties: Working-class women, especially in rural areas, Migrant communities scapegoated by 'sex-selective' abortion rhetoric, Healthcare workers facing restricted practice scope, People requiring abortion care or miscarriage treatment
The article reveals a coalition between parliamentary far-right forces and extra-parliamentary activist networks, with activists like Joanna Howe directly coordinating with MPs on legislation. This represents a shift in the balance of forces—issues previously considered settled in Australian politics are being reopened as far-right parties gain electoral legitimacy. Medical professional organizations and reproductive rights advocates are positioned defensively, warning of harm rather than advancing new gains.
Material Conditions
Economic Factors: Healthcare access disparities between urban and rural areas, Cost barriers to private reproductive healthcare, Labor market conditions for healthcare workers, Economic precarity driving political discontent channeled into culture wars
The struggle over abortion access is fundamentally a struggle over the control of reproductive labor. Women's ability to control their fertility directly affects their participation in waged labor and their economic independence. Restricting abortion access functions to reinforce women's dependence on family structures and limits their labor market mobility. The targeting of nurse and midwife prescribing rights also represents an attack on expanded healthcare worker autonomy, potentially benefiting specialist medical professionals.
Resources at Stake: Women's bodily autonomy and reproductive labor, Public healthcare service provision, Political legitimacy and electoral influence, Control over the terms of political debate
Historical Context
Precedents: US incremental strategy culminating in Dobbs decision (2022), Historical criminalization of abortion in Australian states (only fully decriminalized 2023), Rise of One Nation in late 1990s under Pauline Hanson, Global pattern of far-right parties weaponizing 'family values'
This development reflects a pattern visible across the capitalist core: as neoliberalism enters crisis, far-right movements emerge to channel working-class discontent away from economic critique and toward cultural reaction. The explicit importation of US tactics—identified by academic Prudence Flowers—demonstrates the international coordination of reactionary forces. The timing is significant: abortion was only fully decriminalized across Australia in 2023, and immediately a counter-offensive began. This mirrors historical patterns where advances in women's rights are met with organized backlash during periods of economic instability, as capital seeks to reinforce traditional social structures that discipline labor and externalize reproductive costs onto the family.
Contradictions
Primary: The fundamental contradiction lies between the stated justifications for these bills and their actual effects. Claims about 'protecting babies' and 'preventing sex-selection' are contradicted by evidence: late-term abortions are rare and medically necessary; sex-selective abortions are statistically negligible (3 confirmed cases per year). The real function—restricting women's bodily autonomy—contradicts the individualist rhetoric these same political forces deploy in other contexts.
Secondary: One Nation claims to represent 'ordinary Australians' while pursuing policies that harm working-class women's healthcare access, The 'sex-selective abortion' framing scapegoats migrant communities while claiming to protect them, Politicians advocate 'small government' while demanding state control over reproductive decisions, Rural communities that support One Nation would be most harmed by restricting nurse/midwife prescribing
These contradictions may intensify as the material consequences of restricted abortion access become visible—as they have in the US with rising maternal mortality. The coalition between libertarian, religious, and nationalist forces is unstable, held together by shared enemies rather than shared vision. However, without organized working-class counter-mobilization, the resolution may favor reaction. The medical profession's defensive stance—issuing statements of 'alarm'—suggests limited capacity for offensive resistance.
Global Interconnections
Australia's anti-abortion movement is not an isolated phenomenon but part of a transnational reactionary network. The explicit adoption of US incrementalist strategy demonstrates how successful tactics circulate globally among right-wing movements. This connects to broader patterns of far-right internationalism: sharing playbooks, funding networks, and ideological frameworks across national borders while deploying nationalist rhetoric domestically. The timing reflects global dynamics of capitalist crisis. As the neoliberal order faces legitimacy crises—visible in housing affordability disasters, climate catastrophe, and pandemic-exposed healthcare failures—far-right movements offer displaced explanations that protect capital while targeting marginalized groups. Reproductive rights become a site of struggle precisely because they touch on fundamental questions of bodily autonomy, labor, and social reproduction that capitalism requires but refuses to adequately support. The attack on abortion access in Australia thus connects to broader global struggles over who bears the costs of social reproduction under late capitalism.
Conclusion
The Australian anti-abortion offensive reveals how far-right electoral gains translate into material attacks on working-class women's bodily autonomy. This is not merely a 'culture war' distraction but a struggle with concrete stakes: healthcare access, economic independence, and ultimately who controls the conditions of social reproduction. The defensive posture of medical organizations and reproductive rights advocates—issuing warnings rather than advancing demands—suggests the need for more militant organizing that connects abortion rights to broader working-class struggles. The contradictions within the reactionary coalition are real, but will only become opportunities if exploited by organized forces capable of articulating how reproductive freedom serves working-class interests against both patriarchal control and capitalist discipline.
Suggested Reading
- Women, Race & Class by Angela Davis (1981) Angela Davis's analysis of how reproductive rights movements intersect with class and race provides essential framework for understanding who bears the burden of abortion restrictions and why working-class women are disproportionately harmed.
- Prison Notebooks (Selections) by Antonio Gramsci (1935) Gramsci's concept of hegemony illuminates how far-right forces are working to shift 'common sense' around abortion through incremental normalization of political debate—the key tactic identified in this article.
- The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein (2007) Klein's analysis of how crises enable rollback of rights helps explain the timing of this offensive during a period of economic instability and political realignment in Australia.