One Nation's Newman Walks Back Rally Call to 'Stop' Abortion
Mark Newman, One Nation's leader in NSW, says he "made a mistake" when he told an anti-abortion rally he wanted abortion to "stop". On Wednesday, 16 September 2026, he said the party only wants to stop certain abortions. The Guardian
Newman spoke at the Tuesday night rally with campaigner Joanna Howe. The rally urged the NSW parliament to restrict abortion access. He told the crowd: "We want to make sure that abortion rights ... we want to stop it." He also said: "We want to make sure that same-sex, sorry, abortion is stopped." He fixed the slip on the night. He said if elected, One Nation would defend a "right to life ... that babies live".
He put it differently on ABC Upper Hunter on Wednesday. He said he "made a mistake" in how he presented it. He said "we do not want to stop abortion outright". What the party wants to end, he said, is "late-term and sex-selection abortion" (abortions later in pregnancy, and abortions because of the sex of the fetus). He said "reproductive rights are protected". He added that "some people, for medical reasons, first trimesters and whatnot, should have a choice" (the first trimester is about the first 12 weeks).
One Nation's written policy is listed as "pro-life" (opposed to abortion) and says the party "will seek every opportunity to roll back brutal and extreme abortion law". It does not set a cut-off point in pregnancy (a gestation limit). Federal leader Pauline Hanson has said she was not against first-trimester abortion. The Guardian The rally coincided with business in Macquarie Street, the home of the NSW parliament. Libertarian upper house member John Ruddick (from the NSW Legislative Council) brought a bill to make sex-selective abortions illegal. It was voted down on Wednesday night.
The broader context here is the shift from Tuesday to Wednesday. Tuesday was absolute. Stop it. Wednesday was qualified. Stop some of it and keep choice for the rest. Newman says the first version was poor presentation. That happens at rallies. The problem is the second version still leaves out the key detail.
For voters trying to check the policy, there is little to work with. The party calls itself pro-life and promises to roll back laws it calls brutal and extreme, while also backing reproductive rights and some first-trimester choice. With no week limit named, you are left weighing rally talk against a radio walk-back. Neither is a draft law.
