Crossword Genius

Breed like rabbits in anti-abortion measure (11)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

proliferate

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'breed' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'rabbits in anti-abortion measure' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'measure' could be 'rate' (rating is a kind of measuring) and 'rate' is present in the answer.
The remaining letters 'prolife' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

'like' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for proliferate that I've seen before include "Grow rapidly in number" , "Reproduce rapidly" , "Mushroom" , "snowball" , "Multiply, expand" .)

I've seen this clue in the Sydney Morning Herald.
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