A government relations manager lost her job in June after she criticized her state lawmakers for not expanding abortion access.
Angela Williamson, 39, used to work as the public policy and government relations manager for Cricket Australia, the governing body for the sport in Australia.
But she was fired in June after her employer said her abortion advocacy and criticism of the government on Twitter interfered with her duties as its government relations manager, The Sydney Morning Herald reports.
An abortion activist, Williamson recently criticized the Tasmanian government as “irresponsible, gutless & reckless” on Twitter because lawmakers rejected a proposal to expand abortion access, ABC Australia reports.
“For speaking up, I lost my job with Cricket Australia,” she said. “I was told the tweet had damaged my relationship with government.”
She now is suing her former employer.
Here’s more from the report:
Cricket Australia has sacked a female employee after she campaigned for abortion reform on social media, telling the woman that concerns she had insulted the Tasmanian government were central to her dismissal.
The sport’s governing body now faces an ugly legal fight that will include claims that a senior member of the Tasmanian government disclosed the woman’s own pregnancy termination to Cricket Tasmania.
A spokesperson for Cricket Australia said they will not comment specifically on the case because of the lawsuit.
However, the spokesperson noted: “Cricket Australia respects an individual’s right to their opinion. However, it expects that employees will refrain from making offensive comments that contravene the organisation’s policies.”
Williamson’s battle goes deeper than politics. Earlier this year, she chose to travel outside the state to abort her unborn baby, according to the report. Later, she began using her unborn baby’s abortion death to publicly advocate for more abortion access in Tasmania.
Tasmania currently does not have any abortion facilities; its last one closed in 2017, Junkee reports. In June, state lawmakers debated allowing hospitals to do elective abortions, but the vote failed, the report states.
Williamson responded to the news by tweeting that the government move was “most irresponsible … gutless & reckless.”
Her lawyer told the Herald that Cricket Australia went “too far” by firing Williamson for the tweet.
Abortions are legal for basically any reason up to 16 weeks in Tasmania and later in pregnancy with the approval of two doctors.
