Pro-choice campaign takes to streets

BY LYNDA HANSEN

BRISBANE — The International Women's Day Collective launched its abortion law repeal petition campaign at the May 7 Labour Day festivities in Musgrave Park.

The petition demands repeal of the Queensland criminal code sections 224, 225 and 226. These laws were passed in Queensland in 1899. Although never formally tested, the criminal code makes it punishable with a jail sentence for any doctor or any other health worker to perform an abortion.

On May 10, collective members held a stall in the Brisbane City Mall, during which they gathered hundreds of signatures. As a publicity prop the stall featured an eye-catching effigy of a "pregnant" Premier Peter Beattie.

Early the next morning, collective members took over the entire front entrance to the state ALP conference. Colourful IWD banners and placards were placed the length of the front stairs of the Queensland Conservatorium of Music. When Beattie finally arrived, the activists surrounded him and called on him to the sign their petition. Not surprisingly, he refused.

From GLW issue 449