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 – ‘We must be alert to complacency’: inside Victoria’s push to extend abortion access

The state has increased availability of medical and surgical abortions – but a recent symposium has heard affordability and some doctors’ reluctance are halting progress

Benita Kolovos, Victorian state correspondent
Sat 3 May 2025

On a grey Monday morning outside the State Library in Melbourne’s CBD, there’s little to suggest anything out of the ordinary – no protests, no placards, no media. But stream of women – and a few men – are making their way inside for what is, in fact, a landmark event.

“How extraordinary it is,” says former Victorian health minister and MC Jill Hennessy, “to come to a symposium about abortion as healthcare in the state of Victoria, [and] that this isn’t some secret meeting held down in an underground tunnel where women plot to ensure our health rights are recognised.”

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/may/04/victoria-abortion-access

Australia – ‘Essential healthcare’: Health organisations call for equitable and improved access to abortion

April 10, 2025
By: ANMJ Staff

About one in three Australian women live in regions where no local GP provides medical abortion, while many public hospitals that provide maternity and women’s health services do not provide abortion care.

These significant barriers to abortion access have driven 40 of the country’s health and medical organisations, including the ANMF, to today call on all candidates and political parties running at next month’s federal election to reveal to voters where they stand on supporting and strengthening this essential healthcare.

According to the peak bodies, despite healthcare playing a major role in election commitments, abortion has largely remained absent from the national conversation.

Continued: https://anmj.org.au/essential-healthcare-health-organisations-call-for-equitable-and-improved-access-to-abortion/

10.04.2025

News

Annie Butler

Sally Hasler

Women’s Health Victoria

Healthcare leaders call for affordable, accessible abortion for Australian women

April 2025
Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACPG)

Today, 40 health and medical organisations have called on all candidates and political parties running in the 2025 federal election to publicly affirm their support for access to abortion as part of an ongoing commitment to essential healthcare.

Despite healthcare being a major focus in this election campaign, abortion has largely been absent from the national conversation. Voters deserve to know where their candidates stand on improving access to abortion.

The imminent federal election presents an unmissable opportunity for candidates seeking the votes of Australians to clearly and publicly commit to the health and wellbeing of Australian women.

Continued: https://www.racgp.org.au/gp-news/media-releases/2025-media-releases/april-2025/healthcare-leaders-call-for-affordable-accessible

09.04.2025

News

Annie Butler

Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation

Dr Anita Muñoz

Federal Secretary

Royal Australian College of General Practitioners

Sally Hasler

Women’s Health Victoria

Australia – Family Planning report reveals a third of NSW local government areas had no doctors providing medical abortions in 2022

Lucy Barbour and Lucy Sweeney
Wed 11 Dec, 2024

When Charlotte (not her real name) asked a doctor in the New South Wales southern highlands for a medical abortion, he ignored her request, gave her a blood test referral and ushered her out of the room.

The decision to terminate her third pregnancy was not one she had made lightly. Her youngest daughter was experiencing behavioural challenges and the entire family was struggling.

She had hoped the GP would provide a prescription for the abortion pills, known as MS-2 Step. Instead, she left with an overwhelming sense of shock and confusion.

Continued: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-12-12/one-third-nsw-shires-not-providing-medical-abortions/104708208

No surgical abortion providers in seven out of 10 Victorian local government areas, report finds

‘Service deserts’ affect those in high-disadvantage regional districts most, Women’s Health Victoria study says

Natasha May, Health reporter
Wed 23 Oct 2024

Seven out of 10 Victorian local government areas have no surgical abortion provider and one in five have no medical abortion provider, a new report shows.

The Realising Access report released on Thursday by the not-for-profit Women’s Health Victoria also found “service deserts” most profoundly affect women in high-disadvantage regional areas. Women in such areas are 300% more likely to seek abortion services later than nine weeks, meaning they require a surgical abortion for which there are even fewer providers.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/oct/24/no-surgical-abortion-providers-in-seven-out-of-10-victorian-local-government-areas-report-finds

23.10.2024

Realising Access report

Sally Hasler

Women’s Health Victoria

Australia – ‘A postcode lottery’: The 17 areas with no abortion access in Victoria

By Rachel Eddie
August 6, 2023

Hundreds of women in rural and regional Victoria have no access to surgical and medical terminations close to where they live, forcing some to travel for hours to get an abortion.

Red tape to prescribe the abortion pill will be removed from this month, but reproductive healthcare providers say the change will not end the “postcode lottery” many women are faced with.

Continued: https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/a-postcode-lottery-the-17-areas-with-no-abortion-access-in-victoria-20230726-p5drd3.html

Victoria’s Anti-Abortion Doctors Risk Breaking Laws, Study Finds

Victoria's Anti-Abortion Doctors Risk Breaking Laws, Study Finds
Doctors who object to abortion stand accused of failing their legal obligations to women seeking termination.

Jessica Leahy
February 1, 2019

Abortion was decriminalised Victoria in 2008 but since then health practitioners have held on to the right to conscientiously object to carrying out abortions so long as they refer women on to a health expert who does not object.

But, according to a University of Melbourne-led study, some of the state’s anti-abortion professionals are breaking the law by subjecting women to tactical delays that flout Section 8 of the Abortion Law Reform Act 2008.

Continued: https://www.whimn.com.au/talk/victorias-antiabortion-doctors-risk-breaking-laws-study-finds/news-story/6ee271bc3d8b8932b7f96504fe9f2cc5

Victorian doctors who object to abortion ‘attempting to delay or deny access’

Victorian doctors who object to abortion 'attempting to delay or deny access'
Study reveals failure of legal protections to ensure women’s access to terminations

Melissa Davey
Thu 31 Jan 2019

Victorian doctors who conscientiously object to abortion are breaking the law by failing to refer women on to practitioners who will perform the procedure, leading to some women having abortions later than necessary or having the baby despite wanting a termination.

This was the finding from a study led by associate professor Louise Keogh at the University of Melbourne, who examined whether mandatory referral, introduced in Victoria during abortion law reforms in 2008, was making healthcare more accessible to women.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/31/victorian-doctors-who-object-to-abortion-attempting-to-delay-or-deny-access

Fact check: Will Queensland’s proposed abortion laws allow unrestricted access after 22 weeks?

Fact check: Will Queensland's proposed abortion laws allow unrestricted access after 22 weeks?
Oct 3, 2018

The claim

Protestors have marched through the streets of Brisbane voicing their opposition to proposed changes to abortion laws in Queensland. Among them was Nationals senator for Queensland Matt Canavan, a cabinet minister, who addressed the crowd and spoke to reporters at the march.

"[The proposed changes] would be some of the most radical and extreme legislation of abortions in the world, and it would allow, effectively … unrestricted abortions beyond 22 weeks," Senator Canavan said.

Will the new laws, if passed, allow unrestricted access to abortion after 22 weeks? RMIT ABC Fact Check takes a look.

Continued: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-10-04/fact-check-queensland-abortion-laws-unrestricted-access/10264402