Kylie Moon, Melbourne
Under new regulations expected to be introduced by the state Labor government, women wanting to terminate a pregnancy after 20 weeks' gestation will be required to undergo mandatory counselling and a mandatory "cooling-off" period of 48 hours, if the abortion is for reasons other than a foetal abnormality.
Clinics will have to comply with the new regulations to be granted a licence to perform abortions in the third trimester. There is only one private clinic in Australia that currently performs such abortions, located in Melbourne.
Victorian health minister Bronwyn Pike said the proposed regulations are in response to new figures showing that there were 197 late-term abortions performed for psychological reasons in Victoria last year, 82 of them for women from interstate and nine for women from outside Australia. Victorian Department of Human Services figures show that 67% of women accessing late termination for psychological reasons are young women, and nearly 40% are teenagers.
Women's Health Victoria has written to Premier Steve Bracks criticising the new regulations, observing: "Often young women who present for late terminations are victims of rape and incest, are having difficulty living with the trauma of that experience and have found it difficult to confront the resulting pregnancy ... Mandatory cooling-off periods and compulsory counselling would only increase the barriers to them seeking help."
Abortions in the third trimester are carried out over 2-3 days, and patients already receive counselling prior to the procedure. According to Dr David Grundmann, who performs these abortions, "these patients can't wait a week or two weeks. They're already diagnosed at a very late stage of pregnancy and they need help now."
From Green Left Weekly, October 26, 2005.
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