Tamara Pearson, Sydney
From the way the mainstream media has been quoting politicians and religious leaders, including federal health minister Tony Abbott, Governor-General Micheal Jeffery and Catholic Archbishop Denis Hart on abortion lately, you might think these men were the experts on the topic. Green Left Weekly spoke to Marg Kirkby, who has worked as an abortion counsellor and has been active in the Women's Abortion Action Campaign (WAAC) since 1978, about the real issues surrounding late-term abortion.
Kirby described the politicians' recent statements as "ill-informed commentary." She said: "The politicians just don't know what they are talking about. They don't understand what actually happens with abortion services and the situation the women are in. Abortion clinic workers are very angry that such ill-informed statements can get into the media and be represented as the truth."
Catholic Health's chief executive Francis Sullivan said on November 1 that "Abortions [are] too easily accessed, the community has been lulled into a sense of ignorance over the tragedy of late-term abortions". However, Kirby disagrees: "Categorically, it is not easy to access an abortion. It costs money. It is particularly hard for women from rural areas, who have to pay for travel costs, have to explain to their neighbours where they are going, and might have to organise child care.
"The cost of late-term procedures changes from week to week. At 16-17 weeks, you are looking at $600-800. There is only one clinic in Australia — in Melbourne — which does terminations after 21 weeks, and it costs $4500, plus accommodation and transport."
Politicians have described the rate of abortions in Australia as an "epidemic", but Kirby rejects this. She argues that "the statistics show that there has been a decline over the last three years".
Kirby quoted the Health Insurance Commission statistics for item 35643 (suction curettage — emptying a pregnant uterus), which she said were the only reliable statistics available in Australia. In 2001-02 there were 76,208 such claims, and in 2002-03 there were 73,267 claims.
The word "epidemic" demonises women in a similar way that "illegal" demonises refugees. "It is as if women have abortions in the same way that we go to the supermarket. It's as if it's for convenience. Such language implies that the judgement of women as to how many children they will or won't have cannot be trusted."
Kirby argued that "women are being affected by this fear campaign", reporting instances of women calling abortion clinics concerned about harassment and worried that the service was no longer available.
The number of late-term abortions has been exaggerated by the media. In the Melbourne Age, parliamentary secretary for health Christopher Pyne said hospitals were both battling to keep premature babies born at 23 weeks alive, as well as carrying out abortions on 24-week-old foetuses. But in 2002, 99% of Victorian abortions were carried out before 13 weeks. Of the remaining 163 abortions, 103 were performed because of congenital abnormalities.
"WAAC and other women would comment that irrespective of the length of the pregnancy it's a woman's right to choose", Kirby said. "By targeting procedures that are 16 weeks and above, they are actually disadvantaging a range of women who are already very disadvantaged. These are women who didn't realise they were pregnant or women who were going through menopause and their periods were out of wack, or women recently released from jail, or women on a methadone program whose periods are irregular.
"Support services for recently released prisoners are very small, and many end up homeless. It is very hard for women such as that to get access to services to confirm whether they are pregnant. And to introduce legislation to prevent these women having access to abortion is forcing them into parenthood and increasing their disadvantage."
While there have been a few vocal politicians condemning abortion rates, the federal government has preferred not to take a position. "I think they know that a debate about abortion rips apart a political party and the fact is those who support access to abortion represent the majority. According to the Australian Survey of Social Attitudes 2003, 81% of people support availability of abortion."
Kirby encouraged people to write letters to politicians to correct their misinformation, organise petitions and get involved in local WAAC or other pro-choice campaign groups. "We will make it clear that women aren't going to take this", Kirby said.
From Green Left Weekly, November 24, 2004.
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