CAIRNS — Three Queensland doctors published a letter in the international medical journal The Lancet on March 6, highlighting the difficulties women in the state face accessing medical and surgical abortions.
The Queensland government is criticised for continuing to refuse to consider law repeal and for tightening restrictions on terminations of pregnancy performed in public hospitals.
Doctors Caroline de Costa, Darren Russell and Michael Carrette suggest that a significant number of Queensland women are travelling interstate or buying drugs for medical abortion over the internet to avoid these repressive laws.
They outline that the medical abortion drug RU486 is still not marketed nationally or readily available in all states of Australia, five years after the World Health Organisation declared it an essential drug.
With the trial date for a young Queensland couple accused of procuring an abortion still to be set, the spotlight will remain on Queensland's anti-abortion laws.