In the last Federal election (2007) the Australian Labor Party won convincingly. Those who naively believed that the ALP would be harmless regarding life issues have been shown to be wrong. As of June 2008 the process to facilitate abortion as public policy has begun. The government is considering lifting abortion-related restrictions on overseas development aid which was introduced by the Howard Government 12 years ago.

“Foreign Minister Stephen Smith, who has the power to lift the restrictions without any change in legislation required, has asked the Labor caucus to debate the matter and make a recommendation on whether he should do so.” (www.acl.org.au/)

In spite of reminders of the explicit abortion policy of this party they However, as we showed the explicit policy on abortion in the ALP would not take long to surface. As of and even on same sex unions. How is this possible?

The ALP allows individuals who are for abortion and those against abortion to be members of the party. It means that the matter of abortion may be disucssed within the ALP, but since all members are bound to the policy, there is no freedom for any member to publicly campaign against any party policy. To do so would incur expulsion.

For those who have never read the policy or the conscience clause you will find them here.

If you wish to read the the abortion policy in the Platform on the ALP site c.f. no 21 for which can be found here.

The 1984 Conference resolution enshrining the conscience vote in the Platform on the ALP site can be found here.

The reasoning behind the free vote has been outlined by a prominent member of the party for at least thirty years, Mr Bob McMullan. You can find his speech on this issue here.