BY ANTHEA STUTTER
HOBART — Abortion access in southern Tasmania will resume after the January 18 announcement that a privately run clinic is to be established in Hobart city centre. Public hospital doctors withdrew abortion provision late last year, after a criminal investigation into abortions performed at the Royal Hobart Hospital. Legislation passed on December 21 outlining circumstances in which abortion is legal failed to restore services.
Pro-choice activist Dr Kamala Emanuel said, "While the announcement of the planned clinic is welcome, what is not welcome is the prospect that its existence will be used as an excuse by the health department and public hospitals to refuse to provide the service.
"The laws rushed through state parliament are inadequate because they do not give women the legal right to choose. Most pro-choice activists supported them, critically, so that the existing crisis in public hospital abortion provision could be resolved.
"But there has been no resumption of services previously performed by staff specialists", she said. "While the new clinic is preparing its premises, they will be performing operations at the Royal Hobart Hospital. This amounts to outsourcing, or privatisation by stealth."
Emanuel argues that the hospital service was inadequate even before the crisis. "Many women didn't find the hospital a sympathetic environment", she said. "Waiting times were sometimes three or four weeks. But it did provide a free service."
While the new provider may bulk-bill women in financial difficulty, previous problems with for-profit abortion services indicate that it will be difficult to keep costs to clients down.
"The best outcome would be a publicly funded dedicated unit. That way, it could recruit pro-choice staff, ensure privacy, and offer a good quality, free service to all women requiring abortion", Emanuel said.
From Green Left Weekly, January 30, 2002.
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