KEY POINTS:
MELBOURNE - Victorian backbencher Candy Broad has denied she withdrew a private member's bill to decriminalise abortion to take the heat off federal Labor before the election.
Broad, a Labor member of the state's Upper House, on Monday withdrew the controversial bill after Premier John Brumby announced the Victorian Government would introduce its own legislation on abortion.
Right to Life Australia president Margaret Tighe has accused Labor of putting the issue on the backburner to shield the ALP from the abortion debate at the federal election.
But Broad denied the claim.
"I don't agree with that at all," she told ABC radio yesterday. "I think what's happened here is that John Brumby, as leader of the Government in Victoria, has taken a very important step in saying he will take responsibility for bringing forward a bill into Parliament to decriminalise abortion."
AAP
