Abortion is now legal across Australia – but it’s still hard to access. Doctors are both the problem and the solution

December 5, 2023
Barbara Baird, Associate Professor, College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, Flinders University

Abortion is now fully legal in every jurisdiction in Australia. Western Australia became the last state to decriminalise it just two months ago, in September 2023. And the Australian population is solidly pro-choice: a 2021 study found 76% of Australians support access to abortion.

Yet access to abortion care here has been described as a “lottery” in a 2023 Senate inquiry report. My research into abortion provision in Australia over the past 30 years doesn’t describe chance, but an inadequate system.

Continued: https://theconversation.com/abortion-is-now-legal-across-australia-but-its-still-hard-to-access-doctors-are-both-the-problem-and-the-solution-216278


Australia – The game-changing plan to cut barriers to medical abortion

By Nell Geraets
January 16, 2023

A push is under way to make medical abortion more accessible across Australia by cutting down the regulatory barriers around who can prescribe the pill combination and where it can be stocked.

Non-profit pharmaceutical company MS Health – the private sponsor behind medical abortion in Australia – submitted applications to the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) in December that proposed expanding the number of health practitioners eligible to prescribe the medication, and removing the requirements for recertification and pharmacist registration.

Continued: https://www.smh.com.au/national/the-game-changing-plan-to-cut-barriers-to-medical-abortion-20230108-p5cb2i.html


Caroline De Costa has fought for women’s health for 50 years.

Here's what's changed – and what still needs to

ABC Radio National
By Anna Kelsey-Sugg and Erica Vowles for Life Matters
Wed 12 Jan 2022

In her 50 years of delivering babies, Caroline De Costa has not only witnessed change, she's propelled it.

She's Australia's first female professor of obstetrics and gynaecology. She studied her medical degree while pregnant and as a single mother. And she was instrumental in the fight for women's reproductive rights in Australia and in Ireland, even smuggling IUDs and condoms into Dublin.

Continued: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-01-13/caroline-de-costa-fifty-years-of-obstetrics-and-activism/100560612


Telehealth has improved abortion access for women around Australia. We can’t let it lapse

A dearth of political leadership means abortion drugs remain inaccessible, unsafe and unaffordable for many women

Gina Rushton
Published on Tue 14 Jul 2020

It has been 24 years since the federal government chose the partial privatisation of Telstra over the rights of Australian women to safely terminate a pregnancy with abortion drugs. In 1996, anti-abortion independent Brian Harradine, who held the balance of power in the Senate, agreed to support John Howard’s one-third float of the telecommunications company if the government amended legislation to give the health minister veto to prohibit the import, manufacture or use of abortion drug RU486 (mifepristone).

A perpetual dearth of political leadership in the subsequent quarter century has meant the drugs remain inaccessible, unaffordable and at times unsafe for many women in Australia outside of a certain income or major city.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/commentisfree/2020/jul/15/abortion-drugs-remain-inaccessible-unsafe-and-unaffordable-for-many-australian-women


It’s time to lift the restrictions on medical abortion in Australia

It's time to lift the restrictions on medical abortion in Australia

by Caroline De Costa, The Conversation
April 1, 2019

Over the past thirteen years, many Australian women have used the drug mifepristone (RU486) to bring about a medical abortion.

Rather than undergoing a surgical abortion in a clinic or hospital operating theatre, a medical abortion is induced by taking drugs prescribed by a doctor.

continued: https://medicalxpress.com/news/2019-04-restrictions-medical-abortion-australia.html


Australia – Why conservatives are not making a fuss over Labor’s abortion policy

Why conservatives are not making a fuss over Labor's abortion policy

By Laura Tingle
Mar 13, 2019

Video (43 sec): Tanya Plibersek says there's been "a very big change in the Labor Party" regarding attitudes to abortion. (ABC News)

Last week, something extraordinary happened in federal politics and went virtually unmentioned.

The Australian Labor Party announced a policy that would have once been regarded as high-risk politics at the least.

Continued: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-03-14/conservatives-arent-making-a-fuss-over-labors-abortion-policy/10893662


Queensland doctors accused of ‘deep disrespect’ for women seeking abortion

Queensland doctors accused of 'deep disrespect' for women seeking abortion
Ahead of legalisation debate, pro-choice GP says regional doctors ‘dictate to women’

Ben Smee
Sun 7 Oct 2018

Doctors in regional Queensland routinely treat women seeking an abortion with “deep disrespect” and dictate scripture instead of dispensing medical advice, pro-choice GPs in the state say.

“Abortion is a mortal sin and you’ll go to hell,” one doctor reportedly told a woman in Cairns, who had asked about terminating her unwanted pregnancy.
Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/08/queensland-doctors-accused-of-deep-disrespect-for-women-seeking-abortion


‘Young and terrified’: the Queensland women forced to go interstate for abortions

'Young and terrified': the Queensland women forced to go interstate for abortions
Exclusive: An 1899 criminal code has required many women who need the procedure to travel interstate

Ben Smee
Sat 14 Jul 2018

More than 60 women from far north Queensland have been forced to go interstate to have abortions, often to Sydney, in the first six months of 2018.

Other women from regional parts of Queensland, where abortion remains a criminal offence under the 1899 criminal code, have taken round trips of up to 2,600km to undergo procedures, health professionals and support workers have told Guardian Australia.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/14/young-and-terrified-the-queensland-women-forced-to-go-interstate-for-abortions


Is abortion legal in Australia? It’s complicated

Is abortion legal in Australia? It's complicated

By health reporter Olivia Willis
May 25, 2018

Ireland has just voted on whether to lift the country's controversial ban on abortion.

But in Australia, whether or not abortion is legal depends on where you live — as does the cost and availability of the procedure.

And that's because abortion laws are made by state and territory governments, not the Federal Government.

Continued: http://www.abc.net.au/news/health/2018-05-26/is-abortion-legal-in-australia/9795188


Australia: Anti-Abortion Campaigners Are Calling Queenslanders To Say “Babies Will Die” If They Vote A Certain Way

Anti-Abortion Campaigners Are Calling Queenslanders To Say "Babies Will Die" If They Vote A Certain Way

"If Labor is re-elected more and more babies will never be born," the recorded calls claim.

Posted on November 18, 2017
Gina Rushton

Queenslander Chris Wright's landline is private but this week she answered the phone to a pre-recorded message.

The voice urged her to put the Labor government last at the state's upcoming election or else "more and more babies will never be born".

"It was just despicable and I'm so annoyed," the 57-year-old told BuzzFeed News.

Continued at source: https://www.buzzfeed.com/ginarushton/anti-abortion-campaigners-are-calling-queenslanders-and?utm_term=.hpXqp0m4GB#.whoMbaYp3d