Australia – To put an end to the abortion wars, we need mass struggle

Issue: 187
1st July 2025
Judy McVey

The global surge of attacks on abortion rights has been a wake-up call for pro-choice activists in Australia.1 In June 2022, thousands rallied in solidarity with women in the United States when Roe v Wade was overturned by the US Supreme Court. Many media commentators argued that Australia was different from the US and abortion rights were safe here. After all, between 2002 and 2023, regional governments around the country removed abortion from criminal laws. Decriminalisation reflected community-wide popularity for legal abortion. Polls show that more than 80 percent of Australians believe “abortion should be legal and available in Australia in all circumstances”; anti-abortion sentiment is generally less than 10 percent.2

However, the bigots do not simply acknowledge defeat and disappear. Anti-abortionists inside and outside mainstream parties in Australia were emboldened by the rise of the far right and anti-abortion politics in the US and Europe.

Continued: https://isj.org.uk/abortion-wars-australia/

Australia – ‘I was shocked’: Catholic-run public hospitals refuse to provide birth control and abortion

Publicly funded Catholic hospitals across Australia are using the cover of religion to opt out of providing reproductive care – and experts say it has created a ‘postcode lottery’ for access to services

by Donna Lu and Melissa Davey
Mon 21 Aug 2023

When Sarah*, a Melbourne mother, was pregnant with her second child, her GP gave her a surprising warning: if she had any serious complications, concerns about the viability of the pregnancy or believed she might be miscarrying, she should go to the Royal Women’s hospital rather than the Mercy Hospital for Women, where she was planning to deliver the baby.

The reason, the GP told her, was that the Mercy – a public hospital in Melbourne’s north-east – would not assist in terminating a pregnancy due to its Catholic affiliation.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/aug/22/do-australian-catholic-hospitals-perform-abortions-provide-contraception-reproductive-care

Australia – Victorian public hospitals could not prevent doctors from providing abortions under new bill

Reason party leader Fiona Patten, who is introducing the bill, says ‘imposed religious faith has no place in the public health system’

Tamsin Rose
Sun 31 Jul 2022

Public hospitals in Victoria would not be allowed to stop doctors from providing abortions under a bill being introduced to state parliament this week by the crossbench MP Fiona Patten.

The legislation follows the overturning of
the landmark Roe v Wade decision in the US in June, and comes with just four
more sitting weeks before Victorians head to the polls in November.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/aug/01/victorian-public-hospitals-could-not-prevent-doctors-from-providing-abortions-under-new-bill

31.07.2022