Repeal all anti-abortion laws!
By Kath Gelber
Actions were held around Australia in the second week of August to coincide with an National Day of Action for Reproductive Rights. The actions focussed on the bid to repeal all anti-abortion laws in Australia.
From Melbourne, Jo Brown reports that more than 50 people attended an August 8 forum on reproductive rights organised by women from the Network of Women Students in Australia. An information stall was held earlier in the day in the Bourke Street Mall.
Abortion remains in the Criminal Code in Victoria, and restricted availability is made possible by the 1969 Mennhennit ruling.
Abortion rights campaigner Jo Wainer spoke about the struggle for abortion before the Mennhennit ruling increased access. She described the harassment of doctors and their patients, including bedside interrogations of women dying from the effects of illegal abortion. While abortion is much easier to obtain today, and many women do not realise it is illegal, she said that it is important to defend the gains made and to fight for the repeal of all abortion laws.
Feminist activist Chris Raab discussed issues surrounding reproductive technologies from Depo-Provera and RU486 to contraception and IVF. She said coercion, particularly the case of poor and Third World women, and misinformation were two central problems with reproductive technologies. She also canvassed the way that the introduction of technologies such as IVF, has led to the foetus being considered an independent person, often with more importance than the woman.
Jan Savage from the Women's Action Centre highlighted the practical problems of providing information and abortion access to young women, and detailed the effect of state government funding cuts on women's health services.
From Adelaide, Merrie Caruana reports that nearly 200 pro-choice activists held a demonstration in Rundle Mall on August 12. The rally was initiated at the recent NOWSA conference.
Chet Sergi, from Resistance, explained that access to abortion is a fundamental human right that is being denied to women. Abortion is still illegal in South Australia. Women are continually threatened by the possibility of facing up to ten years' jail if they choose this simple medical procedure.
Others speakers included a representative from Flinders University Women on Campus group. Max Adlum, from the Automotive, Food, Metals and Engineering Union, told the crowd that unionists, supported the action. A contingent of supporters from the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Engineering Union were also present.
Despite earlier threats to disrupt the rally, National Action didn't turn up.
In Newcastle, the Newcastle Abortion Action Campaign launched a pro-choice working group to campaign for the repeal all abortion laws. The launch took place at a public meeting on August 10 which was attended by some 40 people reports Margaret Allan. The lawyer who represented the woman in the recent NSW case in which Justice Newman ruled that she was unable to have an abortion because her pregnancy had been misdiagnosed and that she was not eligible for compensation because the abortion would have been illegal, addressed the meeting. Cathy Henry said that the Newman ruling confirmed that abortion is only legal in very limited circumstances. She said that the Newman decision is being appealed.
Chris Power, from the Uniting Church, presented the NSW Synod's pro-choice position, arrived at after several years of deliberation and discussion. Their position is that the choice ultimately rests with the pregnant woman, and while this is a moral and social choice, it also has to be a legal choice.
Kamala Emanuel, a doctor and member of the Democratic Socialist Party, outlined the medical safety of an abortion if carried out by a qualified practitioner and the need for women to be able to access this service on demand under the same laws that cover any other medical procedure.
In Sydney, Claudine Holt reports that 70 women attended a public meeting organised by Women's Abortion Action Campaign on August 8 as part of the campaign to repeal abortion laws in NSW.
Anne Warnsborough outlined the adoption of the Uniting Church's pro-choice position, the only religious organisation in Australia which favours the removal of criminal status on abortion (in spite of conservative crusader Fred Nile being a member of the Uniting Church).
Sandra Nori, ALP MLA commented that given the numbers of pro-choice supporters in the NSW parliament, this was not the time to adopt a repeal bill. She stated that WAAC's greatest challenge was to build a mass movement to exert pressure on all politicians so a bill could be passed successfully.
Sydney lawyer Virginia Bell, explained that the Levine Ruling of 1971 which liberalised abortion access was not overturned by the Newman decision on April 18. She stressed the need to repeal abortion from the Crimes Act rather than argue for law reform because the latter is more likely to lead to the restriction of access than its liberalisation.
A statement issued by Janet Good, General Secretary of the NSW Public Service Association, sent to the meeting organisers, reaffirmed the 1985 ACTU Congress policy that abortion is an industrial issue and offered PSA support to the effort to have the laws repealed.
A number of different events were held in Brisbane. A speak out was held in the Queen Street Mall on August 8, with over 50 people attending from the University of Queensland (UQ), Griffith University, Children By Choice and Queensland University of Technology.
Susan Price from the Democratic Socialist Party commented, "Abortion is still illegal in Queensland after four years of a Labor government. Despite the fact that their policy supports removing all abortion laws from the criminal code, Wayne Goss continues to refuse to put abortion on the agenda".
On August 11, women from the UQ debated a speaker from the Society for the Protection of the Unborn. The mood of the meeting was overwhelming pro-choice.
On the evening of August 11, more than 100 people gathered at Green Left Weekly's Green It Up! in the Shamrock Hotel. The evening was organised by Resistance and the Pro-choice Club at the University of Queensland.