Free, safe abortion
Anti-abortion legislation in every state should be repealed immediately. The law currently varies from state to state, but in no part of Australia is access to abortion services adequate. For example, Victorian women must get a doctor to agree that their mental or physical health would be adversely affected by carrying an unwanted pregnancy to term, before they can get a legal abortion.
Having access to a quality abortion service is essential for women to achieve biological and sexual self-determination. This is why the Campaign for Women's Reproductive Rights calls for free, safe and legal abortion to be an option available to any woman regardless of her economic position.
Our call to repeal all anti-abortion laws coincides with two important events: first, the member for Melbourne, Gerry Hand, has agreed to submit a petition containing more than 1000 signatures to the federal parliament, demanding the retention of Medicare rebates for abortion. A key component of Campaign for Women's Reproductive Rights work this year is to mobilise opposition to the private member's bill, the Abortion Funding Abolition Act, introduced into the House of Representatives late last year by NSW Liberal MP Alisdair Webster.
The bill, which seeks to remove Medicare rebates for abortion, would seriously erode access to abortion if it became law. Poor women, single mothers, young women, students and other women who do not have independent incomes will be the ones denied access to safe abortions.
While we do not see Webster's bill as a serious threat in itself, it hijacks the debate by creating an air of controversy around the issue of abortion. Pragmatic politicians will identify the question as a "hot potato" and therefore do nothing to repeal the archaic abortion laws which are still on the statute books in most states. Australians who have said time and again that it should be a woman's right to choose are disenfranchised. We speak for the majority and we demand that all anti-abortion laws be chucked in the dustbin of history!
The Women's Global Network for Reproductive Rights has called on all women to take action. It said: "We know that we can only achieve improved health services through determined and daily involvement. We want to develop health services which give humane, decent and considerate treatment. We want health services which are accessible, well equipped and competent. We want to develop health services which are complete. In short, we want to get rid of the violence and ill-treatment which exist in the health services and in women's health care."
The Campaign for Women's Reproductive Rights may be contacted by writing to PO Box 141 Carlton South Victoria, 3053. Membership costs $10.
By Alison Thorne