BRISBANE — August 8 is a national day of action on abortion rights. Speakouts on campus, as well as a 4.30pm speakout in the Queen Street mall have been organised by the University of Queensland's recently formed Pro-choice Club together with Children By Choice and Griffith University. The UQ Pro-choice Club started this year after a campaign by students from the Women and Law Group. Andree Stark, from the club was interviewed by Green Left Weekly's NIKKI ULASOWSKI.
The Pro-choice Club has focussed on three main areas: to lobby the government to decriminalise abortion, to educate students about the issue and to get them active in the campaign. It has organised open forums on abortion and networks with Children By Choice and the Women's Abortion Campaign.
During the UQ student union elections the Pro-choice Club called for a referendum to demand that the union support free, safe abortion on demand.
"The union currently has no policy on abortion. This means that the union cannot support pro-choice campaigns or take any stance on abortion. This prohibits it from running workshops on abortion or supplying female students who are pregnant with adequate information on their options.
"Other campuses around Australia have adopted a pro-choice student union policy and we feel it is time our union to do the same.
"Students are concerned about the issue. While they are at school, information on abortion, contraception and sex education is very limited.
"The issue of abortion is fundamentally about choice; it's about a woman's right to control her body and her life. It is important to realise that we're not promoting abortion; abortion is not something that women aspire to, but it is must be an option for women faced with unwanted pregnancies.
"Abortion is not a black and white issue, nor is it a moral issue; it is a health issue, and, as such should be provided to all women on demand. That is the choice women are demanding and will gain if we continue the fight."
As part of its election platform, the Goss Labour government said it would decriminalise abortion. However, it has made no attempt to carry out this promise.
Stark commented, "The ALP has a policy which supports the repeal of all abortion laws in Queensland. It's inaction on this is irresponsible, particularly to women who, influenced by this policy, voted it in. Goss is holding the party and its supporters to ransom by going back on its promises.
"We've tried to lobby the state ALP parliamentarians to act on their party's position, but they are hiding behind the conscience vote. The ALP must put an end to the conscience vote, so that the decriminalisation of abortion can pass through like any other act of parliament."
One in seven women have an abortion. It is estimated that 80,000 to 100,000 abortions are performed every year in Australia. As Stark said, "The reality is that women are having abortions and it is hypocritical for the government to deny that this issue has to be addressed.
"It is amazing that abortion, a basic health service, is still a crime in Queensland. We have this archaic law that makes women and doctors criminals for performing a medical procedure that happens every day in hospitals and clinics throughout the world.
"The law is not facing up to the facts of modern day society; it is more reflective of our current political system in which 80 people in parliament can hold women's lives and bodies at ransom by a conscience vote.
"The issue is choice and a women's right to control her life and body. This must include information on parenting, adoption and abortion. If people realise this, the moral issues can be left aside.
"Abortion is not an easy decision to make. When abortion is decriminalised, women will have access to safe abortions as well as recourse if the doctor has been negligent. It will also take away the social stigma so that women who decide to have abortion can do so without guilt and the related social anguish.