As One Nation rises, Victorian Labor has promised to make abortions free. Is the timing pure politics?

Facing the prospect of election defeat, Labor is hoping to make abortion a defining issue as the Liberals attempt to stave off claims they would oversee a rollback

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Victorian Labor’s plan to make abortion free has been years in the making. But make no mistake: the timing of the announcement is pure politics.

On Thursday morning, the state’s health minister, Ingrid Stitt, announced if re-elected in November, Labor would invest $30m over four years to remove the out-of-pocket cost of abortion care, which can quickly add up to more than $1,000.

Benita Kolovos is Guardian Australia’s Victorian state correspondent