Greens MP Mehreen Faruqi has called for abortion to be decriminalised in NSW as controversial US anti-abortion campaign Troy Newman prepares to tour Australia.
Dr Faruqi said Premier Mike Baird and Opposition Leader Luke Foley needed to speak out against Mr Newman, who believes women who abort their babies, and doctors who perform the procedure, should be tried as murderers.
"Mr Newman’s views are extreme, misguided, and downright dangerous," she said.
"It’s time for Mr Baird to show us where he stands. Is he on the side of the anti-choice, anti-women extremists, or on the side of the vast majority of the community who acknowledge and support reproductive choice and access to abortion?
“There seems to be a real disconnect between what the law is, what people think it says and what people believe it should be.”
Federal Labor MP Terri Butler has written to Immigration Minister Peter Dutton, calling on him to cancel Mr Newman's visa.
"Mr Newman argues that medical professionals who participate in terminations should be executed, and compares women who seek terminations to murderers," Ms Butler said.
"In a media release published yesterday his hosts, Right to Life Australia, promise that Mr Newman will “stir up” debate throughout the country.
“I am very concerned that his presence in Australia will incite some to harass and intimidate women accessing reproductive services and those professionals offering them at medical clinics."
Mr Newman will be in Australia from October 1 to 9 at the invitation of Right to Life Australia, and will speak in Melbourne, Sydney, Hobart, Brisbane and Cairns.
In announcing Mr Newman’s visit, Right to Life Australia referred to a sting operation he orchestrated in the US which purported to show abortion practitioners boasting about selling body parts from foetuses.
The organisation also said Mr Newman would speak against legislation to decriminalise abortion in NSW and to enforce a ‘bubble zone’ around abortion clinics to protect women from protesters.
Social media has begun circulating a change.org petition to keep Mr Newman out of Australia which has more than 400 signatures.
Activist group Destroy the Joint used Twitter to demand Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Minister for Women Michaelia Cash keep Mr Newman out of the country.
