Born to choose
So those who read this blog regularly will be unsurprised to learn that I think Victorian MP Candy Broad is doing an very sensible thing by introducing legislation to decriminalise abortion in Victoria.
I know there are a lot of people out there who don’t think that much about reproductive rights, that is to say, they don’t think about the issue at all. The main reason for this is that most people assume that, if they need services in an emergency, they will be able to get them.
For most metropolitan women and families, this is true. If you can’t get a doctor to prescribe the morning-after pill, for example, you can go to another doctor, and keep going until you find one who will give it to you.
Imagine finding yourself with an unexpected and unwanted pregnancy. What if the only doctor in town refused to provide access to emergency contraception or abortion, and the next town with a doctor was 75kms away? Now imagine that you are 16 and your parents don’t even know you’re having sex, let alone that you are pregnant. For women who find themselves in this dilemma, abortion, particularly equitable access to services, is a big issue.
The other reason that people tend to forget about this issue, is because they assume that because it seems possible to access abortion, that it is legal. It's not.
Study after study has found that the majority of Australians accept that women have a right to determine their own reproductive lives. And yet, abortion is still illegal in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland. Even the Northern Territory, not always regarded as a progressive place, has decriminalised abortion.
One in three women will have an abortion at some stage in their lives. The women who have abortions are, therefore, also the women who are mothers to our children.
The state of play in Victoria is, plainly, unacceptable. The law is an anachronism in desperate need of updating. And here is why:
1. Legalising abortion has not been linked to an increase in the number of abortions. In WA, the abortion rate actually dropped slightly following decriminalisation of abortion in 1998. Certainly there is no "epidemic" and inasmuch as figures are able to be relied upon, the abortion rate has remained steady in Australia for a decade.
2. Systematic and integrated sex education is the key to decreasing the abortion rate. Countries, such as Belgium and Sweden, which have enshrined a woman’s right to choose in law and which are able to educate people fully about the consequences of their sexual activity experience some of the lowest abortion rates in the world.
3. Countries where abortion is legal have a significantly lower maternal morbidity. Fewer women die of pregnancy-related complications in countries where abortion is legal and freely accessible. Maternal morbidity has been drastically impacted by the availability of accessible, if not legal, abortion. If you're interested in the judicial path which made some abortions legal through precedent, it's worth watching SBS documentary "Abortion, Corruption and the cops: The Bertram Wainer Story"
4. More than eighty per cent of Australians support a woman’s right to choose, and yet we allow the harassment of both women and doctors to continue unabated.
5. Decriminalising abortion does not lead to a queue out the door, down the street and around the corner for abortions. Some seem to be suggesting that taking an approach which seeks to enshrine the rights of doctors to perform a medically safe procedure is going to lead to some kind of "abortions for everyone! Even women who aren't pregnant!!! Men, think you'd like to have an abortion? Come on down!" style approach by women and their partners. Those people trivialise the nature of this decision and the difficulty with which it is made. If women and their doctors cannot be trusted to make the right decision regarding highly complex individual situations and supported whatever decision they make**, then I don't know what kind of a place we live in.
Oh, and if you don't approve of abortion, you are of course free to choose not to have one. Decriminalising abortion will not alter that freedom, not one little bit.
I know there are a lot of people out there who don’t think that much about reproductive rights, that is to say, they don’t think about the issue at all. The main reason for this is that most people assume that, if they need services in an emergency, they will be able to get them.
For most metropolitan women and families, this is true. If you can’t get a doctor to prescribe the morning-after pill, for example, you can go to another doctor, and keep going until you find one who will give it to you.
Imagine finding yourself with an unexpected and unwanted pregnancy. What if the only doctor in town refused to provide access to emergency contraception or abortion, and the next town with a doctor was 75kms away? Now imagine that you are 16 and your parents don’t even know you’re having sex, let alone that you are pregnant. For women who find themselves in this dilemma, abortion, particularly equitable access to services, is a big issue.
The other reason that people tend to forget about this issue, is because they assume that because it seems possible to access abortion, that it is legal. It's not.
Study after study has found that the majority of Australians accept that women have a right to determine their own reproductive lives. And yet, abortion is still illegal in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland. Even the Northern Territory, not always regarded as a progressive place, has decriminalised abortion.
One in three women will have an abortion at some stage in their lives. The women who have abortions are, therefore, also the women who are mothers to our children.
The state of play in Victoria is, plainly, unacceptable. The law is an anachronism in desperate need of updating. And here is why:
1. Legalising abortion has not been linked to an increase in the number of abortions. In WA, the abortion rate actually dropped slightly following decriminalisation of abortion in 1998. Certainly there is no "epidemic" and inasmuch as figures are able to be relied upon, the abortion rate has remained steady in Australia for a decade.
2. Systematic and integrated sex education is the key to decreasing the abortion rate. Countries, such as Belgium and Sweden, which have enshrined a woman’s right to choose in law and which are able to educate people fully about the consequences of their sexual activity experience some of the lowest abortion rates in the world.
3. Countries where abortion is legal have a significantly lower maternal morbidity. Fewer women die of pregnancy-related complications in countries where abortion is legal and freely accessible. Maternal morbidity has been drastically impacted by the availability of accessible, if not legal, abortion. If you're interested in the judicial path which made some abortions legal through precedent, it's worth watching SBS documentary "Abortion, Corruption and the cops: The Bertram Wainer Story"
4. More than eighty per cent of Australians support a woman’s right to choose, and yet we allow the harassment of both women and doctors to continue unabated.
5. Decriminalising abortion does not lead to a queue out the door, down the street and around the corner for abortions. Some seem to be suggesting that taking an approach which seeks to enshrine the rights of doctors to perform a medically safe procedure is going to lead to some kind of "abortions for everyone! Even women who aren't pregnant!!! Men, think you'd like to have an abortion? Come on down!" style approach by women and their partners. Those people trivialise the nature of this decision and the difficulty with which it is made. If women and their doctors cannot be trusted to make the right decision regarding highly complex individual situations and supported whatever decision they make**, then I don't know what kind of a place we live in.
Oh, and if you don't approve of abortion, you are of course free to choose not to have one. Decriminalising abortion will not alter that freedom, not one little bit.
* aka "conscience vote"
** including continuing a pregnancy AND considering adoption - dudes, that's what being pro-choice actually means.
posted by gigglewick at
8:25 pm
7 Comments:
BRILLIANT. absolutely spot on - and you beat me to it, for this is a topic that really fires me up and i was about to start a post about it.
i used to drive past the east melbourne clinic on my way to work every morning and i'd see these morbid, hideous people, mostly old men, lurking with their dead baby banners, waiting to harass women going in and the doctors who work there. i've hurled a few expletives their way from my car window over the years. how DARE they! the law as it is in this state actually protects their vile behaviour.
women's rights must be preserved and this bill has to go through.
good work, gw.
This comment has been removed by the author.
Hi Susanna,
I hope you'll still write your post.
And if you're inclined to hurl expletives you're probably inclined to email your MPs, that couldn't hurt either.
"Oh, and if you don't approve of abortion, you are of course free to choose not to have one. Decriminalising abortion will not alter that freedom, not one little bit."
An often overlooked factor in the reproductive debate. Why to people assume that 'Pro-Choice' is lefty/femmo code for 'Forced Abortions'?
Bravo! Well written and calm discussion of the issues.
The people who protest outside clinics just infuriate me. How dare you pass judgement on what I choose to do with my life and my body? How impudent to harrass people who have made a choice for themselves with ridiculous propaganda and negativity.
Nai,
Abortion isn't even a lefty issue anymore - that's one of the things that pisses me off. I hope that people from all parties will support this because the community supports it (excuse me if that sounds shrill).
Gerl,
Thankyou.
And indeed.
I agree that abortions should be legal. I had more to say but my brain went dead......
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