And ain't i a woman: Fighting for abortion in the ACT

When I moved to Canberra in 1987, abortion in the ACT was restricted by the Termination of Pregnancy Act, which only permitted abortion at public hospitals after an application had been put to the hospital ethics committee. Confidential abortions were unavailable. Rape wasn't considered sufficient grounds for a termination, you had to show that being pregnant would damage you.

There were different views among activists involved in the feminist movement. While Marxist feminists were arguing for a focus on reproductive rights, separatist feminists, including women organising the Rape Crisis Centre collective, kept out of the campaign. Some considered heterosexual sex “sleeping with the enemy”, and some argued that abortion was a form of violence against women.

As part of my work at the Rape Crisis Centre, I had to take women up to Sydney for abortions and help them organise accommodation. Often we had to organise child care as well, and keep the operation from their families. It was a humbling and eye-opening experience, and it made me question the separatist abstention from the pro-choice campaign.

A campaign started in 1989, in response to a private member's bill to end Medicare payments for abortion that was put to federal parliament by Liberal MP Alisdair Webster.

We set up an organising committee, picketed public meetings and built a national mobilisation to oppose the bill — we blocked Commonwealth Avenue. The Webster bill was withdrawn.

Two main groups campaigned for repeal of the Termination of Pregnancy Act. I was involved in ACT Pro-Choice, along with other members of the Democratic Socialist Party, Resistance, the International Socialist Organisation, independent feminists and the student associations. ACT Pro-Choice had a clear mass action focus — we wanted a loud and visible campaign. The second group, Options, was made up of ALP women and some independents, who focused on legal work and lobbying. They often asked us to “tone it down”.

The Right to Lifers, however, were also adopting a mass action approach. They held pickets, vigils and big rallies. They always had a lot more money than us. They hired planes to carry anti-choice banners and write smoke messages in the sky, they held huge rallies in city parks with speakers like Fred Nile, and letterboxed every household in the ACT with their “Precious Feet” campaign. We countered with a “Precious Choice” campaign.

In the end, we won, and the Termination of Pregnancy Act was repealed in 1992.

Pro-choice Labor MLA Wayne Berry put a private member's bill to clarify that ACT abortions did not then come under the NSW Crimes Act, which made it illegal unless the woman could prove physical or psychological damage from carrying the pregnancy to term. The bill was defeated. Berry, who was health minister in the ACT Labor government at the time, set up a Family Planning clinic, which could carry out abortions, as soon as the Termination of Pregnancy Act was defeated.

The clinic was a big victory. Before it began, less than 150 women claimed Medicare for abortions in the ACT every year, while over 3000 ACT women claimed for the procedure in NSW.

At different times there were threats against the clinic. We received information that Right to Life was pushing clinic patients into bringing civil charges against the clinic for damages. They were also pressuring the Department of Public Prosecutions to make the police get involved. Events in other states were sparking actions and public meetings on both sides.

The pro-life campaign had good networks, and we had Green Left Weekly, which reported events in other states and internationally. Our main activity for a while was supporting the clinic — finding doctors for it and keeping it in business. In the US, there were bombings of clinics and murders of abortion workers.

The charging of an abortion doctor in Western Australia in 1998 was what really spurred both sides into action again. ACT Pro-Choice started weekly meetings again, and brought in a guest speaker from WA. And right-wing independent Member of the Legislative Assembly Paul Osborne introduced a rabidly anti-abortion bill.

The bill forced doctors to distribute pictures of foetuses to women seeking abortion, and required a cooling-off period after women sought the procedure. It also required regular reporting to the Legislative Assembly of abortion statistics — how many had been performed, what was the age of the foetuses, etc. No other medical procedure is reported to parliament like that.

The pro-choice movement responded with a picket of the assembly, public meetings and a series of protests. We had a huge rally in Civic square. But the bill was passed, with a few amendments. It was so undemocratic — Canberrans overwhelmingly opposed it, they rallied against it in huge numbers, but the parliamentarians used the “conscience vote” to vote it up.

ACT Pro-Choice and Resistance continued to mobilise and fight the demoralisation that started to set in among pro-choice activists after the bill was passed. Berry pledged at the time to work to overturn the bill and sought direction from pro-choice women at public meetings about how to do so.

We argued that there should be no separate legislation to replace the Osborne bill, but that abortion should be under the Health Act like all other medical procedures. So Berry requested the drafting of a repeal bill, which took about a year. Options was re-founded as Options for Women, with number-crunching in the assembly as its main focus. ACT Pro-Choice had no real organisational form, but actions continued, often organised by Resistance.

The new bill is a fantastic step forward and sets a substantial precedent. The amendments, which were designed to get Liberal MLA Helen Cross on side, are mainly to medical procedures regulations. Abortion is still treated differently from other medical procedures — health-care workers can refuse to participate and the government decides what facilities can and can't perform abortions.

If it wasn't for the conscience vote, the ALP, Greens and Democrats could have passed the bill unamended. But it is a great position from which to rebuild the pro-choice movement.

BY LARA PULLIN

[The author is a member of the Democratic Socialist Party and ACT Pro-Choice.]

From Green Left Weekly, September 25, 2002.
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