The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.60/No.37           October 21, 1996 
 
 
Abortion Battle Heats Up In Australia  

SYDNEY, Australia - Over 100 people attended a meeting organized by the Women's Abortion Action Campaign (WAAC) September 26 here. They gathered in response to the September 13 High Court decision allowing the Catholic Church to submit a friend-of-the-court brief challenging a woman's right to choose abortion. The case involves a woman known as "Ms. CES" who sued doctors at her clinic for medical negligence. In 1986, after five visits in two months, they failed to diagnose her pregnancy in time to have an abortion.

Abortion is penalized under the Crimes Act of every state in Australia. But common law decisions in Victoria in 1969, New South Wales (NSW) in 1971, and Queensland in 1986 provide significant exceptions. Abortion is available if, in the opinion of the doctors, the continued pregnancy would cause mental or physical harm to the woman. In Australia there is no age of consent for having an abortion. The practice in every state, except for South Australia and the Northern Territory, is for the woman to make the decision with her doctor. Medicare funds subsidize abortion.

The Catholic Church aims to restrict access to abortion through its intervention into this case. Bishop Pat Power, secretary of the Catholic Bishops Committee for the Family and for Life, stated in reference to the current case, "Certainly we hope that the current practice of abortion in Australia would be scrutinized and tightened up."

The High Court also granted the Abortion Providers Federation of Australia friend-of-the-court status to submit arguments. Catherine Henry, solicitor for the Abortion Providers Federation in this matter, along with Dr. Geoff Brodie, president of the federation, spoke to the WAAC meeting. Other speakers included Helen Pringle, Senior Lecturer at the University of New South Wales, and Margaret Kirkby from the Women's Abortion Action Campaign.

Pringle said that in Australia there have been no successful criminal prosecutions against doctors for performing abortions. She said that contrary to press reports, this is not the first case on abortion to be heard by the High Court. In 1983 a case seeking an injunction to stop a Queensland woman from having an abortion was heard. Chief Justice Gibbs, ruling in favor of the woman in that case, said, "There are limits to the extent to which the law should intrude upon personal liberty and personal privacy in the pursuit of moral and religious aims. Those limits would be overstepped if an injunction were to be granted in the present case."

The recent court ruling was announced as Senator Brian Harradine from Tasmania raised in the Senate proposals to cut funding for family planning services and for Medicare-funded abortions.

Reviewing the history of the current case, Ms. CES vs. Superclinics, Catherine Henry told the WAAC gathering that in 1994 the case was dismissed in the NSW Supreme Court by Justice Newman who agreed that the doctors had been negligent, but ruled that since abortion was illegal under NSW criminal law it was inappropriate to claim damages. Then in 1995, Justice Kirby in the NSW Court of Appeal ruled in favor of the woman's right to claim damages. Superclinics has appealed to the High Court.

The meeting resolved to call on the High Court to uphold the common law decisions that have made abortion accessible in Australia, and to call on the NSW parliament to repeal the sections of the NSW Crimes Act that criminalize abortion.

The High Court resumes hearings on the case November 11. Margaret Kirkby said that pro-choice groups are currently planning a protest in the Australian capital of Canberra on that date, outside the court.

Joanne Kuniansky is a member of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union at F. Muller in Sydney.  
 
 
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