Australia – Women share difficulties and stigma around accessing abortion care with Senate inquiry

By political reporter Georgia Hitch
Feb 25, 2023

Feeling shamed and judged, travelling hundreds of kilometres and ending up significantly out of pocket: these are some of the issues raised by women in their own words with abortion access in Australia.

The stories were gathered by Monash University as part of an ongoing research project into what barriers, or enablers, there are for people seeking abortions.

Continued: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-02-26/senate-inquiry-universal-reproductive-healthcare-abortion-access/102018234


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


How abortion was decriminalised in Australia

The Context | ABC News
Dec 31, 2022 
Video:  3:50 minutes

Did you know that up until late 1960s, abortion was banned unless pregnancy posed a risk to life? John Barron explores the history of the decriminalisation of abortion in Australia.

Continued: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDeRQHRD_lg


Australia – ‘Really desperate’: Concerns emerge about access to regional abortion care

By Ellie Mitchell
December 22 2022

A pervasive stigma, hard-to-find information, scarcity of providers, and denial of care on religious grounds. These are all part of the maze regional people who are seeking abortions must navigate in modern Australia.

"One woman left her town because of her experience of being turned away from the local GP," University of Sydney rural pregnancy researcher Anna Noonan told ACM.

Continued: https://www.mandurahmail.com.au/story/8024978/really-desperate-concerns-emerge-about-access-to-regional-abortion-care/


GPs in Australia ask for all contraceptives to be subsidised and end to abortion ‘postcode lottery’

Exclusive: ‘We need to do more to improve access to and affordability of the full range of contraceptive options,’ Senate inquiry told

Melissa Davey Medical editor
Wed 21 Dec 2022

All contraceptives should be government subsidised, Medicare rebates for IUD insertion should be increased and larger quantities of contraception pills should be dispensed at once to make abortion and contraception more accessible, the peak body for general practitioners says.

In its submission to the Senate inquiry into universal access to reproductive healthcare, the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners said there were significant barriers to reproductive care, particularly in rural and remote communities.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/dec/22/peak-gp-group-urges-australia-wide-reform-to-abortion-and-contraception-access


WA must fully decriminalise abortion and reform outdated laws

Dec 20, 2022
Human Rights Law Centre

Western Australia has a unique opportunity to demonstrate its commitment to the health and equality of women and all people who experience pregnancy by reforming the state’s outdated abortion laws, the Human Rights Law Centre have told the McGowan Government in a submission to inform the government's drafting of new abortion laws.

While the McGowan Government introduced safe access zones laws in 2021, Western Australia is the only state yet to fully decriminalise abortion. Abortion is legal in most circumstances in Western Australia. However, the regulation of abortion care through an exception in the criminal law has a stigmatising and chilling effect on service provision and patient care.

Continued: https://www.hrlc.org.au/news/2022/12/20/wa-must-fully-decriminalise-abortion-and-reform-outdated-laws


Google lifts ban on Aussie abortion ads

By Maeve Bannister
December 15 2022

Google has reversed a decision that stopped Australia's largest abortion services provider placing advertisements on its platform.

It followed calls from Greens Senator Larissa Waters for the company to explain the move while pushing for representatives to give evidence at a parliamentary inquiry into universal reproductive healthcare in Australia.

Continued: https://www.begadistrictnews.com.au/story/8022926/google-lifts-ban-on-aussie-abortion-ads/


Australian abortion and contraceptive provider’s ads banned by Google

MSI Australia has been prevented from promoting its services through paid ads on Google since 3 December

Josh Taylor
Thu 15 Dec 2022

Abortion and contraceptive provider MSI Australia says Google has banned its advertising in searches under a misinterpretation of law in Australia.

Since 3 December, MSI Australia has been prevented from promoting its services through paid ads on Google, with the tech company placing a wide-ranging ban on advertising links to the MSI website in paid advertising.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/dec/15/australian-abortion-and-contraceptive-providers-ads-banned-by-google


Megan says Western Australia’s abortion laws made her already traumatic termination even worse

Western Australia is looking to amend its abortion laws and women like Megan, who have had to navigate them, say it's about time.

11 December 2022
By Aleisha Orr

Megan Garnett terminated a pregnancy back in 2018 and Western Australian laws only added to the trauma she experienced.

She hopes the state’s abortion laws will be changed so other women do not have to go through the additional stress and grief she went through.Bonney Corbin is Head of Policy at MSI Australia

Continued: https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/megan-says-western-australias-abortion-laws-made-her-already-traumatic-termination-even-worse/klhfelf2t


WA Government set to modernise state’s abortion laws, following community consultation

By Cason Ho
Nov 19, 2022

Women and medical practitioners have been asked to have their say on WA's decades-old abortion laws, which are among the toughest in the
country, as the state government prepares to overhaul the legislation. 

The changes on the table include fully decriminalising abortion, increasing the gestational limit for a procedure from 20 to 24 weeks, abolishing mandatory counselling and scrapping the need for a GP referral.

Continued: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-11-20/wa-government-set-to-overhaul-abortion-law/101675792