A politician has accused a pregnant star TV journalist of ‘gaslighting’ and ‘hounding’ him during a heated clash over abortion.
Newly appointed Seven Brisbane news anchor Sarah Greenhalgh asked Robbie Katter, who is state leader of Katter’s n Party, if he would say sorry for causing distress to Queensland women by vowing to repeal laws allowing abortion.
‘This has caused women a huge amount of fear and anxiety in this state,’ Greenhalgh said.
‘Would you like to apologise or show any remorse for what you have done?’
‘All women?’ Mr Katter replied sceptically.
‘I spoke to several of them yesterday,’ Ms Greenhalgh said, insisting medical professionals had told her there was a ‘spike’ of women across the state feeling stress at the prospect of abortion become illegal, as it was until 2018.
Again Mr Katter asked Greenhalgh if she had spoken to all women or just ‘some of them’.
‘Robbie, I obviously did not speak to all of them. I have spoken to a few medical experts who reported there being a spike,’ a visibly annoyed Greenhalgh snapped back.
Mr Katter wasn’t backing down.
‘You find it surprising there’s people have an alternative view to you but I would argue there are also babies in this equation as well, they need representation. You seem to deny that,’ he said.
‘Robbie, you’re talking to a pregnant woman at the moment so I’m well aware there are babies involved,’ Greenhalgh replied.
Mr Katter accused the media of obsessing over his party’s stance on abortion.
‘I really object to you saying we are chasing this,’ he said.
‘We have the loosest abortion laws in the country. We are allowed to say “oh, we think you’ve gone too far”.
‘We’re allowed to have an alternative view in this state aren’t we? You keep hounding me over it and I am just saying we are going to test the parliament over it.’
Greenhalgh responded: ‘I am not hounding you, this is the first time we have had this discussion.
‘Do you at least acknowledge this is irresponsible to say “I’m going to test parliament” … (this is) causing women so much angst.’
Greenhalgh said there were only four countries that ‘regressed’ by banning abortion after it was made legal, those being the US, Poland, Nicaragua and El Salvador.
‘They have regressed Robbie, they have gone backwards in time,’ Greenhalgh said.
‘You keep gaslighting here. You used the word “regressed” and you are taking a position in saying that,’ Katter replied.
He went on to accuse Greenhalgh of ‘loving fleshing out the debate and pointing at everyone and saying “you can’t have a different opinion to us”.
‘If I had my choice we wouldn’t be talking about going backwards,’ Greenhalgh replied.
‘I’d rather be talking about crime and cost of living but you are the one bringing it up,’ Mr Katter rebutted. ‘There are women who disagree with you, you do realise that.’
Mr Katter said on October 8 he would repeal abortion laws.
‘We will, quick as you like, put a repeal bill back into the Queensland parliament on those abortion laws,’ Mr Katter said.
‘All these MPs out there can stop their dog whistling and can say before the election that they support us, and we’ll give them every opportunity to vote for a repeal bill in the next parliament.’
However, he later clarified that his party which held three seats going into Saturday’s election, wanted to amend the laws first to protect babies who were still alive after late term abortions.