Open letter to Senator Malcolm Roberts

To Senator Malcolm Roberts,

We write in response to reporting published by ABC News on 18 July 2026 concerning statements you made during a 2022 livestream, in which you claimed that COVID-19 vaccination dramatically increased miscarriage rates.

The Early Pregnancy Loss Coalition is Australia’s representative peak body for organisations working across the miscarriage sector. We were established in 2023 to address the widespread lack of understanding surrounding miscarriage and the inconsistent—and too often inadequate—care and support received by people who experience it, their partners and their families.

For many families, miscarriage is a profound tragedy. It can represent the worst day of their lives. Every member of our board has lived experience of miscarriage or has been closely affected by it.

It is therefore deeply distressing that you, as a sitting member of the Australian Parliament, have invoked miscarriage to promote claims that are not supported by medical evidence.

A systematic review and meta-analysis encompassing 21 studies and almost 150,000 participants found no evidence that COVID-19 vaccination increased the risk of miscarriage. Australian clinical guidance likewise states that the safe use of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines during pregnancy has been demonstrated.

People who have experienced miscarriage frequently search for an explanation. Many struggle with guilt, wondering whether something they did—or failed to do—caused their baby’s death. Claims such as yours exploit that vulnerability. They compound fear, confusion and self-blame among people who are already grieving.

Meanwhile, our sector continues to confront cultural stigma, inadequate and inconsistent care, chronic underfunding of support services, significant gaps in national data and a severely under-resourced research pipeline.

The babies we have lost deserve better. So do their parents, partners and families, and the dedicated clinicians, researchers, advocates and volunteers working to improve miscarriage care.

Each year, miscarriage affects up to 150,000 Australians and their families. Yet Australia still lacks the comprehensive national data needed to understand the true scale of early pregnancy loss and to plan appropriate services, research and support.

If you genuinely wish to honour the memories of the babies we have lost, we invite you to work with us to:

•⁠  ⁠secure sustainable funding for miscarriage care and support services;

•⁠  ⁠fund high-quality medical and psychosocial research into early pregnancy loss;

•⁠  ⁠improve national data collection;

•⁠  ⁠raise public awareness of how families can be better supported.

We would welcome a constructive discussion with you about these priorities.

We also ask that you publicly retract your claims concerning COVID-19 vaccination and miscarriage, and that you refrain from using pregnancy loss to spread fear or misinformation.

Our babies are loved, remembered and carried with us always. Their memories must not be used to compound the suffering of people mourning a loss.

Regards,

Elizabeth Chatham, Chair

Isabelle Oderberg, Executive Director & Co-Founder