Australia – Barnaby Joyce and Andrew Hastie rebuked for ‘playing politics’ on abortion in debate on stillbirth leave

Experts warn the fearmongering about late-term terminations is straight out of the anti-abortion handbook

Tory Shepherd, Krishani Dhanji and Josh Butler
Thu 30 Oct 2025

A group of Coalition parliamentarians, including Barnaby Joyce and Andrew Hastie, have seized on a proposed new law to give paid parental leave to parents of a child who is stillborn or dies, arguing it should not be available to anyone needing a late-term abortion.

A senior doctor has labelled the comments as “terrible, cynical, awful” things to say about an often heartbreaking decision, as experts point out that the vast majority of later terminations are forced by major health issues and warn fearmongering about the issue is straight out of the anti-abortion handbook.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/oct/30/abortion-stillbirth-leave-barnaby-joyce-andrew-hastie-playing-politics

Australia – The public hospital patients who ended up paying abortion clinics for miscarriage care

By Emma Pollard
Monday 22 September

Women having miscarriages say they were denied surgical care at the public Mater Mothers’ Hospital in Brisbane because of its religious policies on abortion.

Two women have told ABC News they ended up going to an abortion clinic because the Catholic-run hospital, which receives some taxpayer funding, would not provide them with a surgical procedure when they were having what’s called a missed miscarriage.

Continued; https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09-23/qld-mater-miscarriage-care-catholic-hospital-abortion/105781022

Australia – Why the courts stepped in when a 12-year-old wanted an abortion

Aug 4, 2025
Will Murray, ABC

Earlier this year, the Queensland Supreme Court gave permission for a hospital to perform a surgical abortion on a 12-year-old girl who was nine weeks pregnant.

The girl, known as "E", wanted an abortion, and her mother consented. However, the court was still required to assess whether a termination was in the child's best interests.

According to Australian law, children are empowered to make their own decisions about the healthcare they receive - regardless of parental consent - so long as they fully understand what is being done.

Continued: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/569014/why-the-courts-stepped-in-when-a-12-year-old-wanted-an-abortion

04.08.2025

Queensland Supreme Court

Australia – How abortion is weaponised in family court

A recent change to the Family Law Act may still fall short of protecting women from being cross-examined about their sexual health history.

By Madison Griffiths
June 14 – 20, 2025

In the mid 1990s, Louisa* – barely an adult – made two decisions to spare herself a lifetime of pain. On two separate occasions, she slipped quietly through the gates of a concealed clinic, careful to avoid the protesters gathered out the front. Louisa had weighed up her options and knew that acquiring abortion care was her best bet. She wasn’t yet financially or emotionally fit to become a mother. Nor could she bear to be tethered to the man who had got her pregnant.

Almost two decades later, in 2021, Louisa arrived at the Family Law Court in Brisbane’s central business district. She was ready, she thought, to fight for the custody of her then seven-year-old daughter. The last thing she expected was for those choices in her early 20s to be raised in the hearings. On the sixth day, the independent children’s lawyer asked Louisa’s ex-husband if he was aware that, in a previous relationship, she had terminated two pregnancies.

Continued: https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/health/2025/06/14/how-abortion-weaponised-family-court

Australia – Dollars, distance and political power: Inside the barriers to abortion access

By national regional affairs reporter Lucy Barbour and Lucy Sweeney

May 31, 2025

Every week, Australians seeking a legal form of health care are forced to traverse their home states and territories — sometimes crossing borders — to access an abortion.

Depending on where someone lives, and how far into the pregnancy they are, the path to this time-critical procedure can be obstructed by hurdles that amplify fear, trauma and financial disadvantage.

Continued: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-06-01/abortion-access-in-australia-financial-and-regional-disadvantage/105291406

Australia – NSW health system ‘not capable’ of providing abortions at all public hospitals, advocates say

Reproductive choice charity says even if obligations to provide abortion services were enforced, too many doctors are untrained or unwilling to provide them

Melissa Davey, Medical editor
Fri 20 Dec 2024

Even if the New South Wales government were to order all public hospitals to fulfil their obligation to provide abortion, the state’s public health system would not be capable of doing so as too many doctors are untrained or opposed, a leading reproductive choice charity says.

The managing director of Marie Stopes International (MSI) Australia, Greg Johnson, said some abortion care could be provided by GPs and other health professionals in primary care settings, but a significant proportion was surgical and required day hospital admission.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/dec/21/nsw-health-system-not-capable-of-providing-abortions-at-all-public-hospitals-advocates-say

20.12.2024

News

conscientious objectors

Dr Madeleine Belfrage

Australian abortion provider says new Google policy will make it harder to advertise services

Tech firm will require global telemedicine services to register with Portland, Oregon-based certifications company LegitScript

Josh Taylor
Thu 18 Jul 2024

The Australian abortion and contraception provider MSI says Google is forcing the organisation to pay thousands of dollars a year to a third-party US company to keep advertising its telehealth services in Google search.

Under a new health and medicines policy introduced by Google in May, providers offering telemedicine services globally must be certified and comply with local laws. From August providers in Australia will be required to register with the Portland, Oregon-based certifications provider LegitScript to keep advertising their services.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/article/2024/jul/19/australian-abortion-provider-says-new-google-policy-will-make-it-harder-to-advertise-services

Australia – Two more doctors suspended following investigation into Melbourne woman Harjit Kaur’s death after abortion

By Jessica Longbottom and Rachel Clayton
May 21, 2024

The federal regulator has taken action against two more doctors as part of an investigation following the death of a woman soon after a surgical abortion in Melbourne.

Harjit Kaur, a mother of two, died after attending the Hampton Park Women's Health Clinic in the city's south-east on January 12 to have a surgical termination.

Ms Kaur's family said that soon after the operation concluded, the 30-year-old's heart stopped beating and she could not be revived.

Continued: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-05-21/doctors-suspended-abortion-death-harjit-kaur/103872770

Abortion is now legal across Australia – but it’s still hard to access. Doctors are both the problem and the solution

December 5, 2023
Barbara Baird, Associate Professor, College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, Flinders University

Abortion is now fully legal in every jurisdiction in Australia. Western Australia became the last state to decriminalise it just two months ago, in September 2023. And the Australian population is solidly pro-choice: a 2021 study found 76% of Australians support access to abortion.

Yet access to abortion care here has been described as a “lottery” in a 2023 Senate inquiry report. My research into abortion provision in Australia over the past 30 years doesn’t describe chance, but an inadequate system.

Continued: https://theconversation.com/abortion-is-now-legal-across-australia-but-its-still-hard-to-access-doctors-are-both-the-problem-and-the-solution-216278

Queensland introduces Australian-first law to allow midwives and nurses to prescribe abortion pills

Exclusive: Legislation hailed as big step towards providing fair access to terminations across state

Eden Gillespie
Thu 30 Nov 2023

Queensland will become Australia’s first jurisdiction to introduce a law to allow nurses and midwives to dispense pregnancy termination medication in a move expected to improve access in the state’s “huge abortion deserts”.

In August the Therapeutic Goods Administration scrapped restrictions on the prescription of medical abortion pills, known as MS-2 Step, to be used in the early stages of pregnancy. But it is up to individual jurisdictions to determine the specific healthcare practitioner and the appropriate qualifications for prescribing.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/nov/30/queensland-law-abortion-pills-midwives-nurses-prescribed-details