A Liberal National party candidate for the Queensland election has been recorded telling a voter “I am pro-life” and claiming that abortion “can increase the risk of breast cancer”, but that she couldn’t “say anything yet because we have got to get elected”.
The audio of Stretton LNP candidate Freya Ostapovitch, secretly recorded at a pre-poll booth this week, was obtained by Guardian Australia on Friday.
The Labor deputy premier, Cameron Dick, said the candidate’s comments “should send a chill down the spine of every person in Queensland”.
The LNP leader, David Crisafulli, has been dogged by more than 132 questions in the past week over the issue of abortion, but made a “personal guarantee” that abortion laws would not change under an LNP government.
Crisafulli told the Queensland Media Club he could be “definitive” on the issue – despite not ruling out a conscience vote – because “I’ve got a team that backs that position”.
Ostapovitch initially tells a voter “we need to get tougher on crime, it’s out of control”.
The elector tells her “my issue is that the LNP is not coming harder down on the abortion stuff”.
“You vote for me, you trust me,” Ostapovitch responds. “I can’t say anything yet because we have got to get elected before we do anything.
“I am on the record, I am pro-life. This babies born alive stuff, it just breaks my heart.”
The former psychiatric nurse was the MP for Stretton after winning the seat in the Campbell Newman wave election, but lost it in 2015.
In a late-night speech in parliament in 2014, Ostapovitch claimed that abortion reduced “protective factors” against breast cancer.
The claim has been widely debunked.
“Why are women not informed of these basic facts so that they can avoid induced abortions and thus lower their risk of breast cancer?” she said, citing a 2013 study of Chinese women.
“I hope that this speech will raise awareness and get the conversation started.”
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In the recording, she tells the voter she was “humiliated” while an MP and “made the news” while talking about women’s health and breast cancer.
“One of the things they say can increase the risk of breast cancer is abortion…”
“I don’t know how they don’t understand its a life”.
Dick told ABC Radio National on Friday that Ostapovitch had “come out and [told] the truth today about abortion” and the LNP was “full of anti-abortion activists”.
“These people want to make it a crime to have a termination of pregnancy,” he said.
Ostapovitch said: “Don’t fall for Labor’s desperate scare campaign. As a member of the LNP team I have committed to no changes to these laws and I will stand by that position if elected.”
All but three LNP MPs voted against legalising abortion in 2018, including Crisafulli and deputy Jarrod Bleijie. They have not said how they would vote on a Katter’s Australian party bill on the issue, to be introduced in the next parliament, or ruled out a conscience vote.
