Forty-five people attended a Womens Action Abortion Coalition (WAAC) forum on February 6. They discussed the need to reanimate the campaign for women's right to control their own fertility, in the wake of the charging of a Cairns couple in April 2009 for using the abortifacient, RU486.
Kathy Newnam, from Pro-Choice Brisbane, explained that women in Queensland have some access to RU486 despite anti-abortion forces fighting hard to stop this. However, because the couple did not go through a doctor, but obtained the RU486 independently, they are facing charges of procuring a medical, not surgical, abortion.
Academic Kate Gleeson described the history of the struggle for abortion rights. She noted that, not wishing to alienate either the mainly pro-choice electorate and medical establishment or the powerful anti-choice conservative Christian lobbies, politicians often left it to the courts to deal with abortion.
The right to legal abortion has therefore been gained as much through case law and legal precedent than legislation. "All wording in the successful cases included 'surgery', as no-one envisaged women being able to procure an abortion on their own, leading us to the Cairns couple's current predicament."
Honoora Ryan from WAAC said RU486 is a safe drug, which has been used for many years in European countries.
The meeting passed a motion condemning the charging of the Cairns couple, and called on the Queensland government to use its influence to have the charges dropped. A second motion urged the repeal of all anti-abortion laws across all states, and called on all states to decriminalise abortion.
The meeting was urged to organise rallies around the court date of the Cairns couple, which has not yet been set.
To get involved in the campaign contact WAAC on 0407 665 857 or email