‘Foot-in-mouth moment’: One Nation leader backtracks on abortion

One Nation’s new leader in NSW, Mike Newman, says he misspoke at a rally at which he said the right-wing party wanted to stop abortions in the state, describing it as a “foot-in-the-mouth moment”, while also admitting he did not know how many terminations were performed because of gender.

Newman, the former investment banker and Japan trade commissioner, appeared at a rally on Tuesday night alongside anti-abortion activist Joanna Howe at which he said One Nation wanted abortion “stopped”.

“We want to support people who want to make sure that abortion rights – we want to stop it,” he said.

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

Newman backtracked on Wednesday, releasing a statement in which he said he was referring to stopping late-term and sex-selection abortions, and saying One Nation was not in favour of banning abortion “outright”.

Later on Wednesday, Newman told News24, formerly Sky, that he “misspoke” at the rally, insisting One Nation was only against “sex-selective abortion and late-term abortion”. However, while admitting he did not know how many late-term or sex-selective abortions were performed in NSW, Newman claimed without evidence that there were “stories of babies being left in petri dishes to die”.

“It’s not about a blanket ban,” he said. “I guess I spoke out of turn. I own it that I incorrectly sort of put that forward … call it a foot-in-the-mouth moment.”

The rally was one of a string organised by Howe in the past few months, supporting a bill by the Libertarian MP John Ruddick seeking to ban sex-selection abortions. The bill, which is due to be voted on in the state’s upper house on Wednesday, has been dismissed by multiple MPs as an attempt to reanimate a wider debate on abortion. Abortion was decriminalised in NSW in 2019.

Ruddick points to 2025 research by Edith Cowan University that found migrant families from Indian and Chinese backgrounds were more likely to have male children than the rest of the population. The research, oft-cited by anti-abortion activists, conflicts with a 2020 review by NSW Health that found that of 15,973 terminations between 2019 and 2020, only 13 had been flagged as related to 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, before the gender of a fetus is known.

Despite his clarification, Newman told News24 he did not know how many sex-selective or late-term abortions were performed in NSW. One Nation’s leader said he had been listening to Howe, a controversial anti-abortion activist with a large social media following, who has been accused of attempting to import the “Americanisation” of the debate in NSW.

“I don’t have any reason to disbelieve her,” he said of his dealings with Howe.

“[I have] spoken to her at length about these sorts of things. I don’t have the numbers off the top of my head.”

In NSW, health practitioner guidelines stipulate terminations cannot be performed for the sole purpose of sex selection. After 22 weeks an abortion must be approved by two specialist doctors who must consider a woman’s medical circumstances as well as her physical, psychological and social circumstances.

Asked whether that was not enough of a safeguard, Newman said: “If the evidence is showing otherwise, right, as I said, I don’t have the numbers off the top of my head, and I apologise for that.”

He conceded the number of late-term abortions performed after 22 weeks for a non-medical reason would be “quite small”, and said those decisions should be made on “a case-by-case basis”. He also claimed, without evidence, that babies had been “left in petri dishes to die”.

“I’d say very few [late-term abortions are performed because of a change of mind],” he said.

The apparent shift in Newman’s message prompted Premier Chris Minns to accuse the One Nation leader of changing his opinion to suit his audience.

“Particularly when you’re running a government, you can’t change from Monday to Tuesday, from AM to PM,” he said.

Newman was unveiled as One Nation leader last month, and will run in the Hunter Valley seat of Cessnock. A former NSW trade commissioner, he was chided by Pauline Hanson during his first press conference for answering a question in Japanese.

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