ABSTRACT
This chapter examines abortion politics in Queensland, using the proposed Pregnancy Termination Control Bill (1980) to exemplify how constructions of bodies and gender were understood by political authorities. I argue that the rhetoric used by politicians in parliamentary debates is representative of acute anxieties about women's bodies, and the proposed Bill was a manifestation of the type of conservatism that was not uncommon under the Bjelke-Petersen government. The issue of abortion has always been more morally fraught than matters of birth control, and this is demonstrated through political debates that evoked strong reactions from Queensland elected officials. This chapter also highlights that resistance to control over women's bodies was always present in the state, even in parliamentary debates.
