So, it’s no surprise that as the far right seeks to stoke hatred against immigrants and the queer community, Australia is also experiencing co-ordinated efforts across three states to wind back women’s access to abortion.

The far right is a place of differing grievances and conspiracies, including neo-Nazis and incels but there’s plenty of evidence to suggest a hatred of women sits at the centre of their toxic overlapping interests. “Misogyny isn’t just a side issue: it connects everyday violence with radicalisation.”

Just like whipping up hatred against immigrants, efforts to restrict abortion are designed to be a political lightning rod, driving outrage and engagement amongst its rabid supporters.

One Nation’s policy seeks to radically restrict abortion, with one of its senators supporting a total ban. The tactics from One Nation and others from the far right are imported straight from MAGA in the United States.

We can see what this leads to. When abortion is banned or severely restricted, women die. When politicians insert themselves between the decision of a woman and her doctor, when doctors fear prosecution for providing basic healthcare, women die, more women experience severe medical complications and many women have their future fertility compromised by not being able to access the care they need when they need it.

Abortion is legal in all Australian states and territories. Abortion is supported by a clear majority of Australians, with just 8 per cent of Australians opposed to abortion full-stop.

In South Australia, a bill to further restrict abortion after 25 weeks passed the upper house, but failed in the lower house despite both the Premier and Opposition Leader supporting it. In Queensland, the Katter Party attempted to use a disallowance motion to force a debate after promising to ban abortion as part of his election platform. And in NSW, there’s a bill to ban sex-selective abortions, despite zero evidence this is happening at all. Which didn’t stop Barnaby Joyce from fronting a rally in front of NSW Parliament to decry it.

Abortion is legal, but that does not mean it’s accessible. Few medical issues are as time-sensitive as abortion. Delayed access to abortion services can be the difference between taking a pill or requiring surgery, especially for those living in regional Australia. New Australia Institute research shows that in South Australia, the only state with publicly available data, 97 per cent of all abortions were conducted in metropolitan health clinics, while just 2.7 per cent (126) were conducted in country health facilities, while the remainder were conducted via telehealth.

That means, more than eight in 10 regional women seeking abortion services in SA have to travel to Adelaide to get the care they need.

Abortion is healthcare. Pregnancy is risky. At the beginning of a pregnancy, whether wanted or unwanted, there is absolutely no way to foresee all the medical complications that could occur during a pregnancy, nor can legislation anticipate every medical complication.

Some women have abortions because they do not want children. Some because they want children, but the time isn’t right, or they aren’t in a financial position to care for one. Some women need an abortion because their husband is abusive (women are at at greater risk of experiencing violence from an intimate partner during pregnancy and post-partum). Between 10 and 20 per cent of pregnancies end in miscarriage. Sometimes a miscarriage does not evacuate itself from the body naturally and women require an abortion to prevent sepsis. Severe fetal abnormalities can develop that are incompatible with life. Women can develop life-threatening illness such as gestational diabetes, extremely high blood pressure, or sometimes people just develop cancer during pregnancy. If you already had two kids at home, and got diagnosed with an aggressive cancer in the 24th week of your third pregnancy – do you terminate to ensure you are alive to help your two kids grow up, or do continue the pregnancy knowing you might die and leave your spouse and three children behind? Does anyone really think a politician is the appropriate person to make that judgement call?

Even women who oppose abortion may find they need one during the course of their pregnancy. In the USA, plenty of conservative women are anti-choice right up until they are the ones who need abortion care. Then it’s a different story.

Republican Congresswoman Kay Cammack in Florida is anti-abortion. Cammack found out she had an ectopic pregnancy in her fifth week, but initially could not access the abortion she needed to save her life because doctors in the ER feared they would be prosecuted under the state’s six-week abortion ban. Cammack tried to call the Governor to intervene in her case, and it took hours before she was finally able to access the care she needed.

Restrictive abortion laws harm pregnant women in other ways. Harmonie Perrone had already suffered the loss of one fallopian tube due to two previous ectopic pregnancies. When it happened a third time, she was refused treatment in a religiously affiliated hospital and lost her remaining fallopian tube. “I felt like I was going to die and no one cared,” she said.

Women are now being prosecuted for their miscarriages and stillbirths. In Texas, Mallori Patrice Strait was jailed for five months after she miscarried in a public bathroom. Texas ultimately dropped all charges against her.

These abortion debates might start somewhere that sounds reasonable, but the US shows that’s never where it ends. It ends with women jailed for having miscarriages, with doctors refusing to provide healthcare because they fear they’ll be jailed. That’s not an exaggeration, it’s reality.

Australian women deserve better than becoming a political lightning rod for the far right. It’s perfectly understandable that some people are opposed to abortion for religious or personal reasons. But those people have no right to impose their beliefs on half the population. If you don’t agree with abortion, don’t have one.