https://themilitant.com/2019/12/07/australia-women-make-gains-in-right-to-choose-abortion/
Australia: Women make gains in right to choose abortion
By Felicity Coggan
Vol. 83/No. 46
December 16, 2019
SYDNEY — In a gain for women’s rights, a new bill decriminalizing
abortion passed the New South Wales state parliament Sept. 26. The vote
followed a rally of 500 held here Sept. 14 in support of women’s right
to choose to have an abortion, followed by an anti-abortion-rights
protest of several thousand the next day.
The new Abortion Law Reform Act removes abortion from the Crimes Act and
allows abortion on a woman’s request up to 22 weeks of pregnancy. After
this it introduces the restriction that a woman must gain the approval
of two specialist medical practitioners to obtain an abortion.
New South Wales is the last Australian state to remove abortion from the
criminal code, which dates back to 1900. It had said that anyone who
“unlawfully uses any instrument or other means” with the intention to
force a miscarriage would face 10 years in prison.
Despite the archaic provisions of the law, legal abortion has in fact
been widely available in New South Wales and elsewhere in Australia
since the rise of the modern women’s rights movement in the 1970s. A
series of common law court rulings established that abortions in certain
instances could be legally carried out. A 1969 decision in the state of
Victoria was followed by the landmark 1971 “Levine ruling” in New South
Wales, which defined abortion as “lawful” if necessary to preserve the
woman’s life, or her physical or mental health. Further court decisions
upheld and broadened these provisions, which were legal at any stage of
pregnancy.
Since then, new abortion reform laws have introduced term limits on
abortion on request in most of Australia, with restrictions for later
term abortions.
The change in the law was an advance for women, Margaret Kirkby, a
long-time activist in Women’s Abortion Action Campaign, told the
Militant, but “term limits are not what we want. It comes down to
abortion should be a woman’s right to choose.”
“We welcome the decriminalization of abortion, something women have long
been fighting for,” said Linda Harris, the Communist League candidate
for Granville in the New South Wales state elections earlier this year.
“The Communist League stands for women’s right to unrestricted access to
family planning services, including the right to safe, secure abortions
and low-cost child care,” Harris said. “We oppose the state intervening
in a woman’s right to control her own body. The League does not support
the restrictions on access to abortion introduced under the new law.”
Opponents of decriminalizing abortion were successful in forcing a ban
on “sex-selection abortion” in the law, which they falsely insisted
would become widespread if it passed without this restriction.
Dr. Deborah Bateson, medical director of Family Planning New South
Wales, said this would make doctors become “inquisitors,” probing the
motivations of patients to avoid prosecution.
“I’ve worked in this area for many, many years,” she said. “I’ve never
had anyone talk to me about wanting to have an abortion based on gender
selection.”
In This Issue
Front Page Articles •Copper strikers fight Asarco union busting
•All out in solidarity with striking copper workers!
•Democrats’ drive to oust Trump targets working class
•SWP drive expands reach of ‘Militant,’ books, fund
•Protests in Chile demand end to attacks by gov’t, capitalist rulers
•Communist League in UK: ‘Jew-hatred is deadly threat to the working class’
•CN rail workers ‘strike for safety’ won broad backing
Feature Articles •French rulers expand military intervention into West
Africa
Also In This Issue •Australia: Women make gains in right to choose abortion
•‘The making of a union bureaucrat’
•Over 10,000 farmers in Germany protest against gov’t restrictions
•Iraq upsurge continues, prime minister to resign
•Socialist Workers Party Fund Drive Oct. 5 - Dec. 10 (Week 8)
•Fall Campaign to sell Militant subscriptions and books Oct. 5 - Dec. 10
(Week 8)
On the Picket Line •New York labor rally supports Amazon warehouse workers
•Senior residence workers in Quebec strike for higher pay
Books of the Month •‘Peoples of Cuba and the US are fraternal and
invincible’
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Carl Sagan
“Who is more humble? The scientist who looks at the universe with an open mind
and accepts whatever the universe has to teach us, or somebody who says
everything in this book must be considered the literal truth and never mind the
fallibility of all the human beings involved?”
― Carl Sagan
