BY ANTHEA STUTTER
HOBART — The announcement on the eve of International Women's Day that the Women's Health Foundation (Abortion Clinic) will be closing has raised questions about the ongoing access of women in Tasmania to necessary health care.
Kamala Emanuel, a doctor working at the clinic, voiced her concerns that alternative services may not be able to cope with the increase in demand that will inevitably result from the closure of the non-profit service. "The state government should act to guarantee women in Tasmania who need abortion will be able to obtain the service that is timely, confidential, and respectful", she told Green Left Weekly.
"The existence of the non-profit clinic has meant that women have had an alternative to travelling to Melbourne or enduring a public service that over many years was not consistently timely, confidential, or non-judgmental. The clinic's closure means that the Health Department must take responsibility for this, whether through a grant for a free-standing clinic, expansion of hospital access, or the establishment of a new service.
"The state government should remove references to abortion from the Crimes Act, to eliminate its legal ambiguity, one of the reasons for the isolation of the Women's Health Foundation clinic."
The clinic's closure also highlights the need for good quality medical abortion to be an option for women. Emanuel, a member of the Hobart IWD Collective and the Democratic Socialist Party, endorsed the call made by Iris Ritt of the Hobart Women's Health Centre for the "abortion pill" RU-486 to be made available to women in Australia.