SA and WA on track to allowing all Australian women reproductive freedom

The Human Rights Law Centre has welcomed “historic” and “important steps” from the Western Australian and South Australian governments in bringing their laws on access to reproductive healthcare and abortion services in line with the rest of Australia.

Naomi Neilson • 16 October 2020 • Big Law

Within the span of a few days, Western Australia and South Australia took “important”, historic steps to increase women’s access to reproductive healthcare to “bring the laws into the 21st century”. The move has the overwhelming support of healthcare and legal services across Australia.

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Senior lawyer Monique Hurley at the Human Rights Law Centre (HRLC) said abortion is healthcare and women have a right to reproductive freedom wherever they are. She said that once both Western Australia and South Australia decriminalise abortion, women across Australia will have access.

“[By] decriminalising abortion and [introducing] safe access zones, the women across Australia will legally be able to make the decisions about their own bodies and will live free from fear and harassment,” Ms Hurley said, adding: “This will be historic – access to a safe, legal abortion is a critical healthcare right.”

After safe access zone laws overwhelmingly passed the South Australian lower house three weeks ago, the Parliament introduced the Termination of Pregnancy Bill into the upper house to decriminalise abortion across the state. Abortion in South Australia is regulated by criminal laws written in 1969 and is only accessible in certain circumstances.

While the HRLC has some concerns about the provisions in the proposed laws, which “fall short of the recommendations made by the SA Law Reform Institute”, the proposal towards decriminalising abortion across the state was welcomed.

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“It is a significant move for SA and presents an opportunity to finally get the law right – especially when it comes to women’s equality and reproductive freedom,” Ms Hurley said. “Now is the time for the South Australian Parliament to ensure abortion is treated as the healthcare matter that it is.”

In Western Australia, the McGowan government recently introduced the Public Health Amendment (Safe Access Zones) Bill into the Parliament. The laws seek to end undue harassment of women at the doors of abortion clinics by creating protective areas and services to prohibit intimidating and harassing conduct targeted at patients and staff.

Ms Hurley praised the bill: “This is an important step towards promoting equality and safe access to healthcare for women. For far too long, women in Western Australia have had to run a gauntlet of intimidation and abuse just to see their doctor.”

Naomi Neilson

Naomi Neilson is a senior journalist with a focus on court reporting for Lawyers Weekly.

You can email Naomi at: naomi.neilson@momentummedia.com.au

Anonymous Thursday, 22 October 2020

The first Anonymous commenter is accurate about the Termination of Pregnancy Guidelines, but ignores that the start of the relevant section of live birth has a footnote that refers readers to the "Queensland Clinical Guidelines. Perinatal care at the threshold of viability. Guideline No. MN14.32-V1-R19. Queensland Health 2014."

Those guidelines contain the recommendations that have been summarised into the Termination of Pregnancy Guidelines. They cover appropriate care for extremely pre-term births. As you can see from the date, 2014, they substantially predate any change to the law relating to abortion. They acknowledge that some forms of life prolonging care are inappropriate in situations where the fetus/baby will not be viable, no matter the care.

Readers should be aware that abortions after 22 weeks are only available in Queensland after consultation between 2 doctors. In jurisdictions with similar rules, post 22-week abortions generally occur for gross fetal abnormality or maternal health considerations. Therefore, any viable fetuses are quite unlikely to be the subject of refusal of lifesaving care.

-2
- Anonymous Friday, 23 October 2020
  
  This is a typical response - shrouding the brutality of clinical advice which is that a living baby should be left to expire. The reality is that irrespective of the legal, personal or political landscape that led to that outcome, it is to be abhorred.
  
  Readers should be aware that the consultation does not need to take place between two doctors and the baby's mother, it need only take place between two medical practitioners (i.e. in the absence of the baby's mother). In practice, this means the baby's mother can visit a medical practitioner, at say, 37 weeks gestation, ask for a surgical abortion, that medical practitioner can wander down the hallway and ask his or her mate 'do you think I should do it?', 'yep', and the legislation is satisfied. Notably, the legislation does not create an offence for a medical practitioner who performs an abortion despite not having consulted with a peer - it has no bite.
  
  The description of the baby which results from a failed abortion as 'viable fetus' is also inaccurate (this is a common technique used to distance oneself from the reality of a surgical abortion). Once he or she is born, he or she is a baby, not a fetus (according to medical definitions). Reliance on the statistical likelihood (or unlikelihood) of a baby being left to die is ridiculous - one is too many.
  
  2
Anonymous Tuesday, 20 October 2020

Similar laws were enacted in Queensland in 2018. By October 2019, Queensland Health's Guideline: Termination of pregnancy, contained the following clinical advice:

If a live birth occurs:
o Handle baby gently and carefully and wrap to provide warmth
...
o Do not provide life sustaining treatment (e.g. gastric tubes, IV lines, oxygen therapy).

Has the meaning of healthcare changed?

1
- Diogenes Thursday, 22 October 2020
  
  You might also ask if the meaning of 'reproduction' has changed, as apparently reproductive freedom now means killing the outcome of that reproduction.
  As for the WA legislation preventing 'undue' harrassment - it does nothing of the sort. It criminalises communication in a zone with a 150m radius of an abortion clinic anything about abortion that might be reasonably likely to cause anxiety. So WA - like other States - has created a free-speech free zone around abortion clinics
  
  2

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