Protest: 'drop the abortion charges'

Pro-choice campaigners took to the streets of South Brisbane on December 2 to send a strong and clear message to the Queensland government that old laws need not die hard.

Protesters held large banners reading "drop the abortion charges" in response to the recent case where a Cairns couple was charged for illegally procuring an abortion under section 225 of the Queensland criminal code.

At the protest, the Pro-Choice Action Collective's Kathy Newnam said Queensland Premier Anna Bligh needed make abortion legal.

"Bligh has built her career on supposedly being a feminist but is refusing to act on the principles that got her into the position she's in today", Newmam said. "About 80% of people in Queensland are pro-choice and yet she's just not willing to stand up to the [Labor] Party."

The 19-year-old woman charged faces a maximum penalty of seven years' in prison. Her 21-year-old partner has also been charged for assisting someone to procure an abortion. He faces up to three years' in prison.

[For more details about the campaign, visit www.prochoiceactionqld.org.]

From GLW issue 821