FEDERAL Health Minister Tony Abbott, who has been reunited with his adopted son after 27 years, has made it clear he does not want his son or the story of their reunion to be dragged into the abortion debate.
Mr Abbott and his former girlfriend, Kathy Donnelly, were reunited for the first time late last year with their son, Daniel O’Connor, who they had given up for adoption at birth in 1977.
When the story became public on February 20, questions arose relating the story to Mr Abbott’s well known anti-abortion stance as a Catholic.
In a doorstop interview with journalists in Sydney on February 21, Mr Abbott stressed he did not want to link the abortion debate with this story.
‘I think I’ve made it pretty clear that I said what I was going to say about (the abortion debate) late last year and if others want to draw lessons for other debates let them do it, but I’m certainly not doing that,’ he said.
Asked if he would be concerned if the story was used in the abortion debate, Mr Abbott said: ‘Well, I can’t help what other people say. But I certainly don’t think that Daniel ought to become a political football’.
Asked whether meeting his son had reinforced or justified his public position on abortion, Mr Abbott said he had not ‘suddenly come to my conclusions’ on abortion and he had not changed his views.
‘I, as far as I can remember, have always had much the same views and I don’t expect that I’m likely to change them any time soon,’ he said.
