Liberal backbencher Cory Bernardi has labelled women who have abortions as "pro-death" and accused some women of using abortion as a form of birth control in a new book released last month, the ABC reports.
In his book, titled The Conservative Revolution, Senator Bernardi takes aim at what he calls the "growing number" of abortions in Australia.
"Who would have thought when abortion became legalised in this country, originally it was designed to protect the health and welfare of the mother," he said in an interview with the ABC this morning.
"Now we have up to 100,000 abortions every year, you can have them at any stage of the pregnancy, we have circumstances where doctors can be prosecuted if they won't refer people for abortion," he added.
Abortion statistics are difficult to estimate in Australia because data is only officially collected in South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory and only released publically by South Australia, however a 2009 estimate put the figure at around 76,000 nationally that year.
The controversial Senator, who resigned as Tony Abbott's Parliamentary Secretary in 2012 after comments linking calls to legalise same-sex marriage to an increase in demands to legalise bestiality, also took aim at non-traditional families, surrogacy and euthanasia.
He also mounted a call for a return to individual workplace agreements.
Opposition frontbencher Anthony Albanese lashed out at the comments in an interview this morning.
"[Mr Bernardi] says that he's pro-freedom but he's against women's rights to control their own bodies," he said.
"It's up to senior government members from Tony Abbott down to dissociate themselves if, in fact, they disagree with Cory Bernardi's agenda."
Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young also weighed in, calling the comments "absurd and kooky" on Twitter this morning.
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