For almost five decades, she witnessed first-hand how access to safe and legal abortion improves women’s lives. Now, she fears for the future

Justine Costigan
Wed 14 May 2025

When June Dryburgh cleaned out her desk after almost five decades as a counsellor, it was a reminder that even though many of her consultations were brief, their impact was significant. “I found so many letters and cards. There was even a long letter from one woman who wanted to share just how much the care she received at the clinic had meant to her,” she says.

Dryburgh started at the East Melbourne Fertility Control Clinic (FCC) less than a decade after abortion was effectively decriminalised in Victoria, Australia. She saw first-hand how access to safe abortion changed lives, and personally helped more than 100,000 women. She was also witness to anti-choice campaigners’ relentless efforts to wind back this access, weathering daily harassment of staff and patients, which turned deadly when a gunman entered the clinic in 2001 and shot their security guard.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/may/15/june-dryburgh-was-asked-to-help-out-at-an-abortion-clinic-she-stayed-for-47-years