Woman says she was fired by Cricket Australia for abortion-rights tweets

Angela Williamson, who worked in a government relations and public policy role at Cricket Australia, the sport’s governing body here, said she was told her position had become “untenable” amid concerns that she insulted the Tasmanian state government in the series of Twitter posts this year.

The case, which is under review by the government’s Fair Work Commission, includes allegations that a senior member of the Tasmanian government disclosed to Cricket Australia that Williamson, a former Tasmanian government staff worker, had undergone an abortion herself.

Williamson, a 39-year-old mother of three, says she was among the first women in Tasmania to have to fly to mainland Australia for an abortion after the island state’s only dedicated abortion clinic closed in January because of high running costs.

Australia’s abortion laws are governed at the state level and vary widely. South Australia was the first state to legalize the procedure, in 1969, with the restriction that the patient’s life, physical or mental health must be in danger.

Despite being decriminalized in Tasmania in 2013, abortion is not currently available through the state’s public health system, which offers mostly free or low-cost care. Some private clinics in Hobart, the state capital, offer the procedure at a comparatively steep cost: One listed it at 2,500 Australian dollars, or about $1,850.

That lack of accessibility is what drove Williamson to post on Twitter, she said.

“I’m not a victim. I’m not seeking pity,” she told The Sydney Morning Herald in an interview published Sunday. “And I’m not going to be quiet about reproductive health and surgical terminations.”

“The doors were closed to me,” she said in the interview. “There was no pathway for me to access a surgical termination in Tasmania.”

Williamson added that she had to take time off work to go to Melbourne.

“At the time, it made me feel alone and scared. On my way home on the plane I was upset,” she said. “But I decided I wasn’t going to allow anyone to go through this again.”

Williamson has subsequently been critical of the Tasmanian government on the issue. In a June Twitter post, she said that its refusal to offer abortion through the public health system was “irresponsible, gutless and reckless.”

Her lawyer, Kamal Farouque, said that Williamson should be compensated and that she would fight to be reinstated at Cricket Australia.

“The Fair Work Act says you can’t be sacked because of your political opinion, so we think that the case is pretty compelling,” he said. “It also touches on an issue that I think is quite important to a lot of people: To what extent will employers try to use their social media policies to regulate people’s private activities?”

Farouque added that cases like Williamson’s could deter people from participating in public debate out of fear of possible reprisal by their employers.

“A decision like this has the effect of killing public debate, and that’s not right,” he said.

On Monday, Williamson posted a petition on change.org calling for equal access to abortion for all Australians. As of Monday evening, it had gotten more than 5,500 signatures.

Cricket Australia confirmed in a statement it had ended her employment in late June but would not comment on the circumstances or legal proceedings.

“Cricket Australia respects an individual’s right to their opinion,” the organization said. “However, it expects that employees will refrain from making offensive comments that contravene the organization’s social media policy.”

Cricket Australia is generally held in high esteem by the public but has been recovering from a tainted image after a cheating scandal led to the suspension this year of the team’s captain, Steve Smith.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.