Australia: ‘Just not good enough’: Bendigo woman says improvements needed for abortion access in central Victoria

'Just not good enough': Bendigo woman says improvements needed for abortion access in central Victoria

Adam Holmes
5 Jun 2017

A CENTRAL Victorian mental health social worker believes Bendigo is in clear need of greater women’s health services that allow women to access abortion without encountering resistance from medical staff.

Her call comes as a second woman told the Bendigo Advertiser of her frustration in trying to access abortion services in Bendigo this year.
Continued at source: Bendigo Advertiser: http://www.bendigoadvertiser.com.au/story/4709869/abortion-experience-leaves-woman-horrified/


Australia: Fifteen calls in five days: Barriers to accessing abortion in Bendigo laid bare

Fifteen calls in five days: Barriers to accessing abortion in Bendigo laid bare
Adam Holmes

3 Jun 2017

AMY* was left close to tears when she found out she was pregnant late last year.

The Bendigo woman, in her 20s, had taken all precautions with her partner to avoid an unplanned pregnancy.

Struggling to find long-term employment and a stable income, the imminent possibility of bringing a child into the world could not have come at a worse time.

Continued at link: The Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com.au/story/4705743/barriers-to-abortion-a-concern-for-women/?cs=4172


Consequences of abortion law reform in Victoria, Australia: perspectives of 19 abortion providers

by Safe Abortion, Dec 19, 2016

In Victoria, Australia, abortion was decriminalised in October 2008, bringing the law in line with clinical practice and community attitudes. However, according to interviews with 19 abortion service providers from a range of health care settings and geographic locations in the state in 2014-15, while abortion law reform was a positive event, it was perceived to have changed little about the provision of abortion. All the providers agreed that law reform had repositioned abortion as a health service rather than a legal issue, had shifted the power in decision-making from doctors to women, and had increased clarity and safety for doctors.

However, all of them also described outstanding concerns, including limited public provision of surgical abortion, reduced access to abortion after 20 weeks, ongoing stigma, lack of a state-wide strategy for equitable abortion provision, and an unsustainable workforce. Thus, a number of significant issues in abortion service provision have remained, and may even have resulted in a lull in action.

ABSTRACT: Journal of Family Planning and Reproductive Health Care, by LA Keogh, D Newton, C Bayly, K McNamee, A Hardiman, A Webster, M Bismark, 2 December 2016. DOI: 10.1136/jfprhc-2016-101541 + VISUAL

Source: International Campaign for Women's Right to Safe Abortion