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 presenter Sarah Greenhalgh asked Robbie Katter, state leader of Katter’s Australian Party, if he would apologize for causing inconvenience to Queensland women by promising to repeal laws allowing abortion.
“This has caused women in this state an enormous amount of fear and anxiety,” Greenhalgh said.
“Would you like to apologize or show remorse for what you did?”
“All women?” Mr Katter reacts sceptically.
“I spoke to a number of them yesterday,” Ms Grennhalph said, insisting that medical professionals had told her there was a “spike” of women across the state feeling stressed at the prospect of abortion becoming illegal. as was the case until 2018.
Again, Mr Katter asked Greenhalgh whether she had spoken to all the women or just ‘some of them’.
Pregnant Seven news presenter has had a fiery clash with Queensland MP Robbie Katter over abortion
‘Robbie, I obviously haven’t spoken to them all. I’ve spoken to a few medical experts who reported there was a spike,” a visibly irritated Greenhalgh snapped back.
Mr Katter did not flinch.
“You find it surprising that people have a different view of you than you do, but I would say there are babies in this equation too and they need representation. It seems you deny that,” he said.
“Robbie, you’re talking to a pregnant woman right now, so I’m well aware there are babies involved,” Greenhalgh replied.
Katter accused the media of being obsessed with his party’s position on abortion.
“I really object to you saying we’re pursuing this,” he said.
‘We have the most lenient abortion laws in the country. We can say: ‘oh, we think you went too far’.
“We’re allowed to have an alternative point of view in this state, aren’t we? You keep bugging me about it and all I’m saying is we’re going to test Parliament on it.’
“I’m not chasing you. This is the first time we’re having this discussion,” Greenhalgh responded.
Do you at least recognize that it is irresponsible to say: ‘I am going to test parliament’… (this causes) women so much fear.’
Greenhalgh said there were only four countries that “went back” by banning abortion after it was made legal, namely the US, Poland, Nicaragua and El Salvador.
“They’ve done Robbie backwards, they’ve gone back in time,” Greenhalgh said.
“You keep gaslighting here. You used the word ‘regression’ and you’re taking a stand by saying that,” Katter responded.
He then accused Greenhalgh of ‘liking to drag out the debate and point at everyone and say ‘you can’t have a different opinion than us’.
Mr Katter accused Greenhalgh of hounding and hounding him on the issue of abortion
“If I had the choice, we wouldn’t be talking about going backwards,” Greenhalgh replied.
“I’d rather talk about crime and the cost of living, but you’re the one bringing it up,” Katter countered.
‘There are women who disagree with you, you realize that.’
Katter said on October 8 that he would repeal abortion legislation.
“We will return a repeal bill for those abortion laws to the Queensland Parliament as soon as you want,” Mr Katter said.
“All these MPs can stop whistling their dogs and say they support us before the election, and we will give them every opportunity to vote for a repeal bill in the next parliament.”
However, he later clarified that his party, which won three seats in Saturday’s election, wanted to first change laws to protect babies still alive after late-term abortions.