Comment on this story
Comment
SYDNEY – Access to abortion was made easier in Australia on Thursday when decriminalization took effect in the state of South Australia, part of a wave of liberalization that contrasts with recent moves in the United States.
For the most part, abortion is not the subject of the polarized Down Under national debate, as is often the case in American politics. But the decision of the United States Supreme Court to revoke Roe against Wade it surprised many Australians and led thousands to attend demonstrations in support of abortion rights.
“It never gets much attention, and that’s the most attention it has received,” said Daile Kelleher, executive director of Brisbane-based Children by Choice. “It’s probably a turning point in Australia where people are showing that they care about that.”
While abortions are legal in each of the country’s eight states and territories, people often face access difficulties, especially outside large cities, reproductive health experts say. “Abortion is a postal code lottery,” said Bonney Corbin, chief policy officer at MSI Australia.
In many countries, abortion is protected by law, not by court order
Getting one can be especially expensive for those not covered by Australia’s universal health insurance, such as some migrant workers, he said, and travel costs can come with an additional burden.
But South Australia’s changes should lower barriers, allowing abortion to be offered on demand while regulating it through the health law rather than the penal code. Any doctor, or nurse, in the event of a medical interruption, can offer an abortion up to 23 weeks of pregnancy.
Previously, discharges could be made legally in only a handful of hospitals, most in the state capital, Adelaide, with the approval of two doctors, and only for patients who had been living in the state. state for at least two months. Both doctors had to agree that the patient’s physical or mental health would be at risk without an abortion or that the child would be born “severely disabled”.
The change also allows patients to complete abortions at home through telehealth consultations with interstate providers.
“It’s a big day, and it’s important for women and providers in South Australia that abortion be treated more like other health services,” said Brigid Coombe, co-convener of the South Australian Abortion Action Coalition .
Across the country, in Sydney, Clinic 66 sexual health center was preparing to accept new patients on a rainy day this week. Starting Thursday, the clinic may prescribe MS-2 Step, a package of two drugs that trigger a miscarriage, to patients across the country.
Outside, the street was quiet. There were no protesters brandishing dolls and pamphlets; it is illegal to picket or harass people at an abortion provider. Inside, the women crawled in brown leather chairs, moving with their phones to the waiting room while the receptionists talked on the phone. But much of the work of the clinic was done outside the building.
On Monday, two doctors performed 20 telehealth consultations for abortions through the clinic’s online portal. One doctor was in Newcastle, New South Wales, the other 620 miles away, on the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria. One patient was from a small town in Queensland, another from the national capital, Canberra. Doctors sent digital prescriptions by MS-2 Step for patients to take to their pharmacies, allowing them to have an abortion at home. In some cases, the clinic sends the medication directly to patients.
“We’ve had a lot of clients who were incredibly grateful for this care,” said Emma Boulton, director of the clinic. “It’s very rewarding to be able to take care of women.”
Until now, patients in South Australia had been driving to Victoria to access abortion through a telehealth consultation, Boulton said. “But women value being able to do it in the privacy of their own home,” she added.
The US decision on abortion provokes encouragement, horror abroad
Nearly 60 per cent of Australians believe a woman should always be able to get a termination if this is their choice, according to a 2019 survey by the US Center for Studies at the University of Sydney which revealed a number of more liberal attitudes compared to those of Americans. Religion seemed to be a factor, the study authors said at the time; Census results released last month also showed that Australia is rapidly secularizing, with nearly 40 per cent of people not declaring any religion, more than 22 per cent a decade earlier.
“It can be said that we are going in opposite directions” on abortion, said Gwen Gray, a political scientist specializing in reproductive rights at the National University of Australia.
However, liberalization is relatively recent. Two years ago, Tasmanian women reported that they had flown to the mainland for surgical abortions because it was easier than getting one in the island state. Now, the Conservative government of the state has made the procedure available in three public hospitals.
Four years ago, in Queensland, abortion was illegal, except in cases that seriously threatened the physical or mental health of the mother. In 2010, the state sued a young couple – they were acquitted – after the woman had an abortion with MS-2 Step medication. Now, public health services are legally required to provide a route for termination for any patient, and the procedure is available at many public hospitals.
Abortion was decriminalized in the Northern Territory in 2017, in New South Wales in 2019 and now in South Australia. But patients in some areas still face obstacles.
In Western Australia, a doctor has to refer a patient to a second doctor, who will perform the abortion. After 20 weeks of gestation, the patient must sit in front of a panel of up to six experts, two of whom must agree to allow termination.
In Queensland, Kelleher said, pregnant women who contacted her had reported that some health workers violated legal requirements by refusing to help them with an abortion or by refusing to refer them to someone. that he would. And delays in hospitals could be long, he said, citing a recent case in which a woman ended up giving birth despite seeking an abortion at nine weeks.
Coombe said the battle for equitable access was not over, and that the reversal of Roe it crystallized for many the need to protect their rights.
“It definitely made the audience sit back and notice,” he said.