A SOCIAL media stoush has broken out between Oodgeroo MP Mark Robinson and Deputy Premier Jackie Trad over proposed abortion laws.
Mr Robinson labelled Ms Trad “Jihad Jackie” and Labor “the abortion party” in a Facebook post.
Ms Trad responded on social media calling Mr Robinson an “extremist”.
The feud has broken out two weeks after a government announcement that a termination of pregnancy bill would be introduced into the Queensland Parliament in August.
Ms Trad said in her Facebook post that she would not be intimidated by racists.
“I won’t politely defer to men who like to keep women in their place,” Ms Trad’s Facebook post stated.
“See, Mark Robinson has resorted to calling me racial slurs as well as spreading absolute mistruths about abortion.
“But to be blunt, I’ve been fighting to decriminalise abortion since I was a teenager and there is absolutely no way I’m going to let an extremist like Mark Robinson get in the way of delivering full equality for Queensland women.”
Mr Robinson said the ALP cabinet and caucus had supported “extreme and dangerous abortion-to-birth laws”.
He said LNP leader Deb Frecklington had called previous abortion bills completely abhorrent.
“The draft Trad Labor Abortion Bill 3.0 appears to be at least as bad, if not worse,” Mr Robinson wrote in his social media post.
He said research had showed that Queenslanders were opposed to Labor’s abortion laws.
“It’s time for the premier to stand up to Jihad Jackie for the sake of women & their preborn babies, and say 14,000 abortions every year in QLD is enough,” Mr Robinson wrote.
In response to a comment on his Facebook post about the use of the term “Jihad Jackie”, Mr Robinson replied: “Jackie is on a jihad (read: mission) to force extreme abortion laws on Qlders”.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said last month she was delivering on an election commitment to bring forward a bill based on the Queensland Law Reform Commission’s report into laws relating to the termination of pregnancy.
Deputy Premier Jackie Trad said at that time the proposed legislation would bring Queensland into the 21st century.
“All other Australian jurisdictions, except NSW, recognised that these are not criminal matters,” Ms Trad said.
“They are health choices that people should be able to make privately in consultation with health professionals.
“Queensland’s current laws create uncertainty among doctors about how the law works and the possibility of prosecution of health professionals and women impedes the provision of safe, accessible healthcare.
“This leads to fear and stigma and disproportionately impacts women who are already disadvantaged, including women in low socio-economic groups, victims of domestic violence, those in rural, regional and remote areas and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.”
The Queensland Law Reform Commission report is available online here.
