Nationals MPs ‘targeted’ over NSW sex-selection abortion ban, MP claims

A Nationals MLC targeted over a bill to ban sex-selection abortion in NSW has accused campaign organisers of being “politically mischievous” amid a surge in support for One Nation, and that the Bill was a “dog whistle” for debate around “migration and differences of religion”.

Wes Fang took to social media over the weekend to call-out “misinformation” around Libertarian MLC John Ruddick’s abortion Law Reform Amendment (Sex Selection Prohibition) Bill 2025, which is expected to be debated during a conscience vote later this year.

Speaking with the NewsWire, Mr Fang accused Dr Joanna Howe, who headlined a campaign rally last week in support of the Bill, of unfairly targeting the four Nationals MPs in the NSW upper house.

“She openly says that she’s targeting the four Nationals upper house members, and if we don’t vote the way that she wants us to, she intends to target our lower house members in the upcoming election,” Mr Fang said.

“That’s unacceptable and it’s misleading as well because there are members of the Labor Party and Liberal Party who all get a vote.

“It seems politically mischievous to progress the idea that somehow the four members of the Nationals, who are about 10 per cent of the upper house, somehow control the passing or not of this vote.”

Mr Fang accused Dr Howe of having “hitched her wagon to One Nation” after New England MP Barnaby Joyce attended a rally outside state parliament.

Mr Joyce later admitted opposition to abortion is not the “majority view” in an interview with the ABC.

According to One Nation’s website, the right-wing populist party is “pro-life”.

“Pauline Hanson’s One Nation acknowledges the scientific fact that a human being’s life begins in the womb,” it stated.

“We were horrified when state governments passed legislation which legalised abortion up until birth for any reason.

“One Nation will seek every opportunity to roll back brutal and extreme abortion law so that both unborn babies and pregnant women will have a level of legal and medical protection once again.”

The Nationals voted with the majority of the parliament, including Labor and the Greens, to decriminalise abortion in NSW in 2019.

Responding to Mr Fang’s comments, Dr Howe denied being aligned with any political party.

“We work with any politician who seeks an end to abortion,” she said, noting collaboration with Mr Ruddick and federal MP Bob Katter.

“The focus on the NSW Nationals is for two reasons.

“First, it is because we need their four votes to pass our bill banning sex-selective abortion in the Legislative Council. With their votes, we believe this Bill will pass the upper house.”

“Second, as a self-proclaimed conservative party, the Nationals should be accountable to the conservative voters they claim to serve.

“A recent Roy Morgan poll which we commissioned found that over two thirds of voters in Nationals-held seat support a ban on sex-selective abortion. It is extremely frustrating to see a party that holds seats in socially conservative areas forward an agenda that is aligned with the Greens on abortion.”

‘Dog whistle’

Mr Fang said that while he did not “like the idea of sex selective abortions happening”, there were a number of reasons a person may seek a single sex for their child.

“You can’t discount that there are parents that would be desperate for a daughter and may look to ensure that they have a daughter where the circumstance exists that they have a number of sons,” he said.

“So what is really happening here is a targeting of a religion or ethnicity.”

In misnaming the bill the Save Our Girls Bill, Mr Fang claimed organisers were using “effectively a dog whistle” for questions around migration and differences of religion.

“We really need to weigh up how we approach the vote in that. Is this a significant issue that is widespread?” he asked.

“Ultimately, this is a Trojan horse to try and provide pro-life activists a backdoor way of seeking to start and restrict abortions in NSW, and that is something that needs to be considered.

“But, I also think that the average person wouldn’t necessarily support sex-selective abortions either, so we need to weigh up not only the advocacy of people like Joanna but we need to listen to the stakeholders like NSW Health, we need to listen women’s reproductive health advocates, we need to listen other religious groups.”

Dr Howe denied the Bill was a “dog whistle”, stating that the claim was “just a predictable attempt to impugn his motives, so as to avoid having to acknowledge the very real problem his bill seeks to address”.

She continued: “The bill is a stand-alone bill which has a sole objective of banning sex-selective abortion. It does not impact a woman’s ability to access an abortion through all 40 weeks of pregnancy so it does not create a “backdoor” to anything.”

Advocates of the Bill, including Dr Howe, point to a study last year from Edith Cowan University which examined birth data from 1994 to 2015, which found an imbalanced sex ratio among Australia’s migrant populations.

Sex-selection abortions are already banned under NSW Health policy and was formally opposed by parliament in 2019.

The bill being put forward by Mr Ruddick would see fines of up to $22,000 or up to five years in prison, but faces a number of amendments to remove its more “draconian consequences”, Mr Fang said.

While it will be debated in parliament, the bill will not be voted on for sometime – when it is, it is likely to find support among Labor or the Greens, and will likely fail.

Premier Chris Minns, who addressed the media over an expansion of the Labor government’s program to enable pharmacists to prescribe and dispense the contraceptive pill last week, said it was already illegal to seek an abortion on the basis of gender.

“I’ve looked at the data. The demographic data does not indicate that there is sex selection terminations taking place in NSW and we know that because we see in minute detail the number of people and pregnancies that are born each and every year,” he said.

“People have got a right to protest … but I wouldn’t support the legislation if it did make the lower house.”

Health Minister Ryan Park said there was “no evidence that sex selection is occurring in NSW”.