NSW One Nation leader vows to fight for abortion controls

The NSW leader of One Nation has told a rally outside state parliament that he will seek tighter controls on abortion if his party is successful in the March election.

Mike Newman, who is seeking election in the Hunter Valley seat of Cessnock, was speaking alongside prominent anti-abortion campaigner Joanna Howe.

Dr Howe, a professor of law at the University of Adelaide, welcomed the One Nation leader to the stage, endorsing him as the "next premier of NSW".

Mr Newman told the crowd that his party would ensure there is a "right to life".

"We want to make sure that same-sex … oh sorry, abortion is stopped.

"We want to make sure that people have the right to life and we will vote for you in favour of that."

When contacted by the ABC, Mr Newman said he was referring to abortions for the purposes of sex selection, as well as late-term abortions.

NSW parliament is considering a private member's bill from Libertarian MP John Ruddick that would prohibit abortion for the purposes of sex selection.

The practice is already banned under NSW Health policies, but is not explicitly outlawed.

Medical practitioners can face disciplinary action if they breach the rules, but under Mr Ruddick's bill, they could face jail terms.

Mr Newman vowed to support the bill's principles in parliament.

"If we win government and I end up being your premier, I will be working for you," he told the crowd.

"If we win power, we will put it straight back on the agenda and make sure it passes the right way, to make sure that is ended for good."

Federal One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce addressed a similar rally in June, telling the crowd that his support for the bill could make him politically unpopular, but it was the "right thing to do".

Greens MP Amanda Cohn said the bill, and One Nation's support of it, were designed to reduce reproductive rights in NSW.

"The agenda of those pushing this bill has been clear from the start," Dr Cohn said.

A NSW Health review found that between October 2019 and September 2020, 15,973 terminations were reported.

Of those terminations, 13 were reported to have been for the "sole purpose of sex selection".

However, the review found that 10 of those cases were likely to be reporting errors, because the pregnancies were terminated within a nine-week gestation period, during which time there was "no readily available and reliable way of determining gender".

Supporters of Mr Ruddick's bill have pointed to a 2025 study from Edith Cowan University, which aimed to find indirect evidence of a link between sex-selective abortion practices and higher-than-expected rates of male births in some migrant populations.

The study — which examined birth data from 1994 to 2015 — determined there were "patterns consistent with male biased [sex birth ratio] among certain immigrant groups in Australia, particularly from countries with a strong son preference, such as India and China".

"While this may be indicative of prenatal sex selection, our study does not establish causality," the study concluded.

Speaking prior to the abortion rally on Tuesday, NSW Premier Chris Minns said voters should carefully consider One Nation's policies.

"If the government falls in March of next year, it's likely to be a One Nation-led government," he told parliament.

Mr Newman said One Nation would run candidates in "every single seat across NSW" who would be from the "real world".

He said the government's parliamentary attacks on his party showed it was worried.

"One Nation has not one seat in the upper or lower house, but the only thing they were talking about [in Question Time] was One Nation."