One Nation’s lurking attachment to the fringe anti-abortion movement sounds like the start of a horror movie |
Australia’s right-wing populist One Nation party is enjoying a well-publicised poll bump, so it’s time to talk horror movies. We’ll employ our horror metaphor set before the monster has revealed itself, but as dark forces are growing more manipulative and insidious.
Not getting nearly enough play in the sensationalistic coverage around the conspicuously revived Pauline Hanson project is her party’s closeness to Australia’s fringe anti-abortion movement.
The Guardian reported this week that the elected-as-One Nation-now-suddenly-turned-independent South Australian MP Sarah Game has already proposed legislation to ban abortion after 25 weeks, even in cases of severe foetal abnormalities. With the support of three other newly minted One Nation representatives in the upper house, the measure could force a vote in the lower house.
The horror genre is one that speaks with some perception to unspoken, growing social anxieties; recently, it’s been spawning new subgenres and tropes that may foreshadow One Nation’s lurking attachments to anti-abortion politics.
Australia is a country where reproductive rights enjoy overwhelming majority support, and where laws protecting medical privacy and the right to plan your own family have long been seen as sacrosanct. Failing to comprehend the implication of........