BY JULIA HALDANE
BRISBANE — The Brisbane Feminist Collective held its first public meeting here on May 30, attended by 50 people. The topic of discussion was women and reproductive rights.
The collective grew out of the International Women's Day (IWD) Committee and the meeting was organised in response to the report of the Taskforce on Women and the Criminal Code, set up by the state Labor government.
Queensland's Premier Peter Beattie has said his government will not act on the report's recommendations that the state's abortion laws be repealed, that the age of consent for same-sex couples be lowered and other changes to laws affecting women's reproductive rights. The Queensland government has also refused to legalise altruistic surrogacy, which is legal in NSW and Victoria. The government waited until three days after IWD this year to announce its no-change policy.
At the meeting, Jennifer Morgan spoke movingly about her six-year legal battle to access reproductive technology after a clinic refused her treatment because she is a lesbian. Morgan defended the right of lesbian women to choose motherhood and to have the same access to reproductive technology as other women.
Queensland's Health Rights Commission delayed hearing Morgan's case for two years, telling her that it was not important enough. When the hearing took place, the clinic's argument that it had the right to choose its patients was rejected. The clinic appealed, and the matter was eventually heard in Queensland's Supreme Court. Morgan lost and the clinic was awarded costs.
Morgan believes that if she had won this case the Queensland government would have restricted access to reproductive technology by legislation. Money raised at the meeting was donated towards Morgan's $9000 legal bill.
Cait Calcutt, coordinator of Children by Choice, told the meeting that the Queensland Alliance for Legal Abortion was recently formed to work for the reform of the state's abortion laws. QALA will lobby for the words "after the 14th week of pregnancy" to be inserted in the existing clauses on abortion in the Queensland criminal code, which would legalise abortions up to that point.
If QALA succeeds, it will advocate for the provision of public abortion services (which are almost non-existent in Queensland) and continue to work for the repeal of the abortion laws. During discussion, concern was expressed from the floor about the implications of QALA's reform strategy.
Zoe Rathus, deputy chairperson of the 22-member taskforce and coordinator of the Women's Legal Service, told the meeting about the work of the taskforce, which was set up in 1998. Its mandate was to recommend changes in the law and judicial processes. Rathus said that taskforce received many anti-abortion submissions as well as a number of high quality submissions supporting the repeal of the abortion laws, including one from the IWD Committee.
Rathus explained that when the taskforce members discussed limitations on abortion, there were 22 opinions on the maximum age that the foetus could be to be aborted and on the age women should be before having access to abortion without parental consent. The simplest solution was to repeal, not reform, the laws.
Brisbane Feminist Collective will meet again on June 19, 6pm, at the ACTU Queensland building, 16 Peel Street, South Brisbane.