"If a woman has a right to decide on any question, it certainly is as to how many children she will bear." These words were uttered by Australian reproductive rights activist Bessie Smyth in 1893. The struggle to have this right recognised, and for women to be able to exercise this right in practice, has been a long one and it's not over yet.
Women's right to access abortion services is fundamental to our control of our lives. Pregnancy, childbirth and child-rearing have such significant impacts on women's lives. We can truly say that if we can't control our reproductive functions, we can't really determine the course of our lives.
This means it is those who are pro-choice who are pro-life. We assert the value of women's lives. Any legal, financial or medical restrictions on abortion services that impinge on a woman's right to choose whether or not to abort a pregnancy, is an affront to women's human rights, to that fundamental right to determine our own reproductive affairs.
Because men don't have babies, any law or judicial ruling that limits a pregnant woman's choice to terminate a pregnancy imposes burdens on women that aren't imposed on men. Not only that, but having special anti-abortion laws gives support to the contention that there is something wrong with abortion, that it needs to be restricted in some way, that women can't be trusted or allowed to make the decision themselves. Instead, it puts the decision in the hands of doctors, politicians or the courts.
In Australia, most states and territories still have laws that restrict abortion access. Their existence lends legitimacy to the opening up of the "debate" initiated by late last year by Tony Abbott as to whether there are "too many" abortions being performed in Australia. All such laws should be opposed and, as was done in the ACT in 2001, they should be repealed.
Abbott claimed there is an "abortion epidemic". No-one knows for sure how many pregnancy terminations are performed in Australia. According to a briefing paper prepared by the federal parliamentary library's social policy section in February, "it is impossible to accurately quantify the number of abortions which take place in Australia. This is because there is no national data collection on abortion, there is no uniform method of data collection, collation or publication across the states and territories, and the data sources that are available all have several significant limitations."
The brief paper notes estimates that the "average number of Medicare-funded abortive procedures in the years 1995 to 2004 was approximately 75,700". However, these figures include abortion procedures resulting from miscarriages or fetal deaths or other gynaecological conditions not necessarily related to pregnancy.
Dr David Molloy, president of the National Association of Specialist Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, has been quoted as saying that up to one third of procedures processed under Medicare item 35643 — the Medicare item under which the vast majority of procedures which may result in an abortive outcome are claimed — are curettes for miscarriages rather than abortions.
Of course, if like Abbott you're opposed to every abortion, one abortion is one too many.
Proposals to eliminate Medicare payments for abortion or restrict the payment to only one in a woman's lifetime would be grossly discriminately against working-class and other poorer women. Experience in the privatised, user-pays US health-care system has shown that rich women still have abortions, but poorer women have to endure great hardship — beg, borrow, steal or engage in prostitution — to get the money together or give birth to babies they don't want.
Calls by the religious right to ban termination procedures after 20 weeks of pregnancy or to restrict abortion after first trimester is simply the thin edge of the wedge toward a ban — which is what the religious right really wants.
While Prime Minister John Howard has clearly got other groups in his sights for after July 1, when he gets control of the Senate — groups such as trade unionists, sole parents, disability pensioners and other social security recipients — we can't be complacent. National Party Senator Ron Boswell has indicated he is preparing a private members' bill to restrict Medicare payment for abortion procedure.
Opinion polls show 81% of Australians support a woman's right to choose. We need to mobilise that passive support into an active movement to repeal all the anti-abortion laws.
Just as they have an end-game vision, we can be informed by a vision of a society where women have a real choice — where abortion is available on demand and covered in full by Medicare where, and performed in accessible clinics, with non-judgmental staff. Real choice also means free, high quality antenatal, midwifery and obstetric care, paid maternity leave, and widely available, free childcare.
Kamala Emanuel
[The author is a member of the Socialist Alliance.]
From Green Left Weekly, May 4, 2005.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.