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During 1998, women's access to the limited existing abortion services came under the most significant attack from conservative forces in years. The attacks began in February, when two Western Australian doctors were arrested and charged with performing an abortion two years earlier. Because this was the first time anyone in WA had been charged in relation to abortion for more than 30 years, and because abortion had until then been relatively easy to access in WA, it was widely assumed that abortion was legal. The arrests of the Perth doctors sparked much public debate and launched a vocal campaign to defend a woman's right to choose safe abortion. This campaign elicited solidarity from pro-choice and women's organisations all over the country, and many 1998 International Women's Day marches around Australia took up the issue, demanding the repeal of anti-abortion laws. Yet, we find ourselves in a similar position this year. The focus of many IWD rallies in 1999, particularly in Canberra, is on defending women's right to safe and legal abortion, in the face of concerted (and largely successful) attacks on this right. Last year in
Canberra, pro-choice activists were involved in a
campaign against extremely regressive, anti-abortion,
anti-choice legislation being passed through the ACT
Legislative Assembly by right-wing independent MLA Paul
Osborne. Osborne's legislation proposed to outlaw all
abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy, and only women who
could prove grave medical risk if they continued with a
pregnancy would be able to have an abortion before 12
weeks. The ACT and WA incidents have not been isolated. Conservatives like Queensland independent MP Liz Cunningham have managed to add even more reactionary elements to existing laws: last year she succeeded in getting the Queensland criminal code amended to state that life begins at conception. This further propagates the totally unscientific claims of Right to Life who argue for the rights of the unborn baby. Queensland's former health minister and National Party member Mike Horan is on record as saying that abortions happen far too often. He has made no secret of his campaign to make free-standing abortion clinics a thing of the past. From the attacks in 1998, it's clear that it is not good enough to alter abortion laws so they can be interpreted liberally by the courts after a woman or her doctor have been charged. Abortion must be completely removed from the criminal code, so that access to it can be widened and so it is no more regulated than any other health service. Today in Australia, two out of every three pregnancies are unplanned. Yet while abortion remains a crime, reactionaries can and will use the opportunity to further restrict women's access to abortion services. So it's now more crucial than ever that we organise politically around the issue of abortion. There is no justification for the views of individual politicians most of whom are conservative and male being given more weight than those of the millions of women who will be affected by the politicians' decisions. Women must get involved in campaigns to abolish all anti-abortion laws, and ultimately to fight for their liberation. Our right to choose abortion is central to having control over all other aspects of our lives, so at this year's International Women's Day marches, we will be fighting attacks on abortion rights, and defending women's right to control their bodies. |
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A nationwide survey carried out
in 1996 by the National Health and Medical Research
Council showed that one-third of Australian women have an
abortion. Despite this, abortion remains, in all but a
few circumstances, a criminal act in every state and
territory.
