Abortion rights under attack — again!Abortion rights under attack — again!
In late March the Queensland parliament passed an amendment to the criminal code proposed by independent MP Liz Cunningham. The amendment to section 313, which reads in part, "destroys the life of a child before its birth", declares that life starts at conception.
As Unna Liddy, spokesperson for Children by Choice, said, "The political symbolism is provocative to women's rights". This has serious ramifications for women's access to abortion.
The irony is that this amendment was prompted by a horrific attack on a pregnant woman by her ex-partner, who assaulted her with the intention of causing a traumatic abortion, supposedly to avoid having to pay child support. The new legislation was presented as supporting women's fertility rights — the right to choose to continue a pregnancy.
In fact, the legislation is not about protecting women's rights or preventing violence against women; it is about restricting those rights.
Abortion is illegal in Queensland. Clinics operate openly because of a court ruling that doctors can perform any operation they deem necessary for a person's well-being. Luckily, there are doctors who recognise that it is fundamental to a woman's well-being to be able to exercise control over her own body.
The new amendment means that a woman's right to abortion is back on the political agenda. It underscores the need to remove abortion from the criminal code.
If a woman cannot decide if, when and how many children she will bear, then she has little control over other aspects of her life. Women need abortion facilities for a variety of reasons: in more horrific cases this may be due to rape or incest; a woman may not have any money, may feel emotionally unprepared or simply not want to have a child. All of these are perfectly valid reasons.
An abortion performed in the early stages of pregnancy is a minor medical procedure, and yet doctors can still refuse to perform an abortion on the grounds of conscience. Imagine the outcry if a doctor refused to perform a blood transfusion because of "conscience". A 1991 poll showed that 81% of Australians support a womans right to choose abortion and yet abortion remains one of the few issues in which parliamentarians vote according to "conscience".
It is estimated that, around the world, more than a quarter of a million women die from illegal and unsanitary abortions each year. The deaths of these women are an issue that so-called "pro-life" groups refuse to address. In the United States there have been instances of "pro-lifers" shooting doctors who perform abortions. One could expect groups with such a strong belief in "life" to oppose events such as the Indonesian occupation of East Timor which has resulted in the deaths of 200,000 people, or Aboriginal deaths in custody. They don't, because they are conservative organisations that are anti-choice and anti-woman.
The fact that abortion remains on the criminal code, making it technically illegal, means that anti-woman forces have a distinct advantage. Passing amendments such as that proposed by Cunningham gives them more leverage.
Women and our supporters have to fight back. The state has no right to legislate over womens bodies. The right to choose will be realised only when abortion is available legally, freely and on demand. Until women have full access to abortion, it is ridiculous to say that the struggle for womens rights is over. Until we control our bodies, how can we control our lives?
Womens bodies. Womens lives. Womens choice.
By Ruth Ratcliffe