By Robyn Marshall
BRISBANE — United States doctor Warren Hern was detained and questioned by immigration authorities for two hours at Sydney airport on November 10. Hern, a supporter of women's right to choose abortion, was in Australia to attend Abortion in Focus, an international conference in Coolum on Queensland's Sunshine Coast.
Hern was told to sign an undertaking that stated: "This letter is to confirm that you have been counselled in the following terms ... about behaviour in Australia which would be inconsistent with any visas granted to you ...
"Australia supports freedom of speech and the freedom of individual and collective religious and political beliefs, but the exercise of these freedoms involves responsibilities to avoid discord in the Australian community or segment of it ...
"Your behaviour while in Australia will also be relevant to consideration of any further visa application by yourself in the future ..."
Two other doctors attending the conference were also detained by immigration officials and forced to sign a similar document before being granted visas. The incidents followed anti-abortion campaigners' efforts in recent weeks to have the federal government withhold visas to doctors speaking at the conference.
Hern refused to sign the documents, which he said were not addressed to him and were not printed on Immigration Department letterhead. He also refused to provide any information about his movements in Australia.
After his release, Hern said the experience was "bizarre, horrifying and a little frightening. This is the kind of thing that fascist dictatorships use to control the movement of people and to control public speaking and thought and discussion."
Organisers of the conference have called on immigration minister Philip Ruddock to resign: "If a minister can't keep sensible control of his portfolio, he probably doesn't deserve the job. Dr Hern has been at the centre of numerous death threats over his operation of an abortion clinic in Boulder, Colorado, USA. He is well aware of the undemocratic actions of the Right to Life groups and has called them the 'Right to interfere in other people's lives'."
Hern is lodging a complaint with the US State Department about the Australian government's actions. He said that he has travelled very widely but never before been treated as badly as he was by Australian authorities.