BY JOANNE KUNIANSKY
SYDNEY, Australia - Two Perth doctors, Victor Chan and Ho Peng Lee, have been charged with attempting to "procure an abortion" - a charge that carries a maximum sentence of 14 years. Abortion is illegal in Western Australia under the Criminal Code unless the mother's physical or mental health is at risk. These prosecutions are the first in the state in almost 30 years.

Victor Chan is a well-known doctor who has been performing abortions for more than 20 years. The prosecution stems from a police investigation that began 18 months ago after it was brought to their attention that a Maori woman was permitted by Chan to take her aborted fetus home for a "culturally appropriate burial." The woman involved has made no complaint to the police.

Chan said, "I was trying to be sensitive to the patient. They picked the wrong case because this was the perfect case of legal abortion, where the patient was under enormous stress at the idea of having another child. I will vigorously defend the charge for the cause of all women."

On February 9, after failing to prevent the state prosecutor, John McKechnie, from going ahead with the charges, Scott Blackwell, the state president of the Australian Medical Association, recommended that doctors in Western Australia cease performing abortions immediately. Blackwell said, "The law is to be determined literally and that means that they and their patients are at risk of being charged under the laws as they stand.

"In reality as of this moment unless the woman's life is at risk then abortion is indeed illegal." The Australian Nurses Federation received legal advice that anyone involved in any way with abortions, including receptionists booking appointments, were at risk of being charged. Clinics around the state canceled dozens of abortions and hospitals were warned to stop terminations. Two West Australian women were subsequently hospitalized from injuries caused by attempting self-induced abortions.

In response, State Attorney General Peter Foss indicated that medical staff would not be prosecuted for performing abortions. Foss said, "I give the assurance that the policy on prosecutions will not differ from that which has applied in the last 20 years." Once Attorney General Foss's assurance was received in writing, doctors at West Australian public hospitals agreed to resume abortions.

Next month a private member's bill seeking to liberalize Western Australia's abortion laws is expected to be presented to state Parliament. Protests of 150 people on both sides of the abortion issue clashed outside Perth's Central Law Courts, where Chan and Lee appeared to be formally charged.

Forty people picketed in Sydney February 20 at an action called by the Women's Abortion Action Campaign, demanding that the charges be dropped against Chan and Lee and that all antiabortion laws be repealed.  
 
 
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