Repeal all abortion laws!
The High Court is currently hearing an appeal by Superclinics against a NSW district court decision allowing a woman to bring a case of medical negligence for non-diagnosis of her pregnancy.
The woman tried to sue the Superclinics' doctors for damages on the basis that their negligence forced her to carry through an unwanted pregnancy. When she was finally correctly diagnosed, her doctor wrongly informed her that it was too late to have an abortion.
The woman's seemingly straightforward case was complicated when NSW's Justice Newman ruled that she couldn't the claim the "loss of an opportunity to perform an illegal act". What started as a compensation case against medical malpractice has ended up — with the Catholic church's involvement — threatening the common law decisions which have liberalised abortion access in most states.
Newman's ruling that abortion is illegal in NSW, at least in the circumstances of this woman, potentially narrows the definition of a lawful abortion, opening up the possibility of prosecutions. His decision increases the policing of abortion provision and has given the anti-choice forces an opportunity to have states' criminal legislation again used against women.
The ambiguous legal status of abortion and the stigma of criminality attached to it deters doctors from performing terminations, gives the anti-woman right wing succour, and has prevented one NSW woman from getting a fair hearing for a medical negligence case.
Access to abortion is supported by a vast majority of Australians and a majority of Catholics. The removal of all references to abortion in all crimes law would be a huge step forward for women in Australia. Attacks by right-wing campaigns — including attempts to remove Medicare rebates for terminations, to limit legal abortions to rape and incest cases, and to limit abortion to designated public hospitals — have continued ever since liberalised access was won. The attacks have also included physical and verbal harassment of women seeking abortions at clinics, of doctors and medical staff providing abortions, and of women who have had abortions. These attacks won't stop, but women will be in a much stronger position to defend abortion rights if it's treated like any other medical procedure.
The ALP, like the Liberal Party and the Democrats, maintains the anti-woman status quo on abortion by treating the issue as one of "conscience." This is a cop-out designed to avoid dealing with the overwhelming public sentiment in support of women's right to choose.
A 1994 pro-choice picket outside the NSW ALP conference drew a hostile response. Andrew Refshauge, now deputy leader and health minister in NSW, claimed that to call for the abolition of the conscience vote would only allow the anti-abortionists to "completely outlaw" abortion. He argued that the conscience vote safeguards access and that we should bide our time till we "get the numbers" in parliament.
Refshauge's argument against an abortion law repeal attempt has been repeatedly put by NSW Labor "left" MP Sandra Nori. For years Nori has told us that she's got a draft repeal bill in her bottom draw ready to go, always adding, however, that it wouldn't get passed "at this time". It seems that the right time might be never. The real embarrassment for Nori is that, despite a party position in favour of women's right to choose, anti-abortion ALP members are under no obligation to vote for that position.
Abortion is the only medical procedure which is a crime. It is the only medical procedure which doctors and other medical staff are excused from providing on grounds of "conscientious objection". For so long as this status quo is maintained by spineless, vacillating establishment parties and their politicians who hide their anti-woman agenda behind the conscience vote, the right wing will push harder and harder against women's right to choose.
By Jennifer Thompson