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

Abortion decriminalized in Sydney after Australian lawmakers overturn 119-year-old law

Abortion decriminalized in Sydney after Australian lawmakers overturn 119-year-old law

By Julia Hollingsworth, CNN
Thu September 26, 2019

(CNN)Abortion has now been decriminalized in almost all of Australia after the country's most populous state voted to overturn a 119-year-old law.

On Thursday, lawmakers in New South Wales -- which is home to Sydney -- voted to pass a bill that decriminalizes abortion and makes terminations available to people who are less than 22 weeks pregnant.

Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/26/asia/abortion-australia-decriminalized-intl-hnk/

Australia – Scott Morrison targeted in anonymous leaflets over NSW abortion bill

Scott Morrison targeted in anonymous leaflets over NSW abortion bill
Flyer repeats series of false claims about the abortion reform bill currently the subject of a conscience vote in the NSW upper house

Paul Karp
Tue 24 Sep 2019

Anonymously authored anti-abortion leaflets in Canberra have targeted Scott Morrison for remaining “silent” while states including New South Wales have pushed to decriminalise abortion.

The flyer – which is not authorised but is marked as from the End Violence Against Unborn Babies Coalition – is almost identical to one targeting the Berejiklian government with inflammatory rhetoric comparing abortion to murder in Nazi concentration camps.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/sep/25/scott-morrison-targeted-in-anonymous-leaflets-over-nsw-abortion-bill

Abortion bill faces resistance in Australia’s New South Wales

Abortion bill faces resistance in Australia's New South Wales
State's upper house drags feet in passing law legalising abortion despite an overwhelming 75-percent support by voters.

by Kate Walton
Sep 17, 2019

Canberra, Australia - Debate has begun in the upper house of the state of New South Wales (NSW) to decriminalise abortion, but what was expected to be a straightforward legislative process has triggered a furious backlash from conservative politicians and religious groups.

The Reproductive Health Care Act 2019, which seeks to bring the state in line with the rest of Australia, would allow abortion up to 22 weeks. It was passed by the state lower house in August, with 59 votes in favour and 31 against.

Continued: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/09/abortion-bill-faces-resistance-australia-south-wales-190917075212482.html

Abortion bill in NSW used to push Australian politics further to the right

Abortion bill in NSW used to push Australian politics further to the right

By Cheryl Crisp
16 September 2019

Legislation to decriminalise abortion in Australia’s most populous state, New South Wales (NSW), is being used by forces within the state’s ruling Liberal Party to push politics even further in the direction of extreme right-wing populism.

The Reproductive Health Care Reform Bill 2019, which passed in the state’s Legislative Assembly (lower house) on August 8, is scheduled to be voted on in the upper house (Legislative Council) tomorrow, September 17. A delay was demanded by its right-wing opponents in order to gain time to block the bill’s passage in its present form.

Continued: https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/09/16/abor-s16.html

The Guardian view on demography and politics: nationalist narratives must be challenged

The Guardian view on demography and politics: nationalist narratives must be challenged
Women’s autonomy and reproductive rights must be upheld as far-right ideas gain ground

Fri 6 Sep 2019
Guardian Editorial

The speech on Thursday by Viktor Orbán, Hungary’s prime minister, praising the fertility of Hungarian women as a bulwark of Europe’s survival appealed to dangerous and atavistic myths. That isn’t a reason to ignore it. In fact it needs meeting head-on, for it marks a further irruption into mainstream politics across the rich world of “replacement theory”: the belief that the nature of Europe is threatened by demographic change. This fear has become central to politics in the United States and Australia, as well as many European countries, whether or not they have large immigrant populations themselves. It was one of the drivers of the result of the Brexit referendum, in which hostility towards European immigrants served as a cover for wider xenophobias.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/sep/06/the-guardian-view-on-demography-and-politics-nationalist-narratives-must-be-challenged

06.09.2019

How the US right-to-life movement is influencing the abortion debate in Australia

How the US right-to-life movement is influencing the abortion debate in Australia

August 21, 2019
Prudence Flowers

As the abortion decriminalisation bill gradually makes its way through the NSW parliament, opponents have been increasingly drawing on their long relationship with the right-to-life movement in the United States to lobby against the measure and try to push for more restrictive amendments.

This has been a trend in the anti-abortion movement in Australia for a while now. Activists have adopted some of the most successful elements of the US movement’s rhetoric and tactics in recent years in an effort to influence the debate in Australia.

Continued: https://theconversation.com/how-the-us-right-to-life-movement-is-influencing-the-abortion-debate-in-australia-121974

Abortion advocates hopeful bill will pass

Abortion advocates hopeful bill will pass

Jodie Stephens and Dominica Sanda
9 Aug 2019

Pro-choice advocates are optimistic a bill to decriminalise abortion in NSW will soon become law after it cleared a significant hurdle by passing through the state's lower house.

Members of the Legislative Assembly erupted into cheers on Thursday night when they voted in favour of the amended bill to take abortion out of the criminal code following three days of passionate debate.

Continued: https://www.thesenior.com.au/story/6319062/abortion-advocates-hopeful-bill-will-pass/

Australia – A Postal Abortion Service That Sent RU486 To Thousands Of Women Is Shutting Down

A Postal Abortion Service That Sent RU486 To Thousands Of Women Is Shutting Down
Exclusive: the service named after former prime minister Tony Abbott is no longer financially viable.

Posted on March 20, 2019

A national postal abortion service has shut down after almost four years, leaving women across the country with fewer options to terminate a pregnancy using abortion drugs RU486.

The Tabbot Foundation was founded in Sept. 2015 by Dr Paul Hyland, who said his service had provided medical terminations to around 6,000 Australian women living "as far east as Lord Howe Island and as far west as Rottnest Island".

Continued: https://www.buzzfeed.com/ginarushton/tabbot-foundation-abortion-ru486

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