In a November 1 interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) radio, Federal Health Minister Anthony Abbott of the Liberal Party said he is concerned about an “abortion epidemic.”

His comments prompted statements from other politicians in the governing coalition defending existing laws that have decriminalized abortion in a number of states and court rulings that basically treat the procedure as legal throughout the country.

“I certainly share the concerns that many people have about the number of abortions that are taking place in Australia today,” Abbott said. “We have something like 100,000 abortions a year, 25 percent of all pregnancies end in abortion.”

The ABC interviewer corrected the minister, pointing out that the real figure is 75,000 abortions per year.

“But certainly the Government has no plans to change existing policy,” Abbott added.

When the interviewer asked the minister whether he could guarantee the current government program would not be changed, Abbott responded, “You can never absolutely guarantee anything.”

Other conservative politicians are pushing more openly for restricting federal funding for abortion or banning certain procedures such as late-term abortions.

Barnaby Joyce, for example, a National Party senator from Queensland, told the Australian that “his support for government policy depended on crucial issues such as restricted Medicare-funded abortions.”

New parliamentary secretary of health Christopher Pyne called for a ban on abortions beyond the first 21 weeks of pregnancy. Abbott has expressed agreement with Pyne’s stance and left open the possibility of raising the proposal with state health ministers.

A number of governing coalition members have opposed these proposals. Aged Care Minister Julie Bishop and parliamentary secretary for finance and administration Sharman Stone, for example, told the Australian they would resist any anti-abortion push in their party.

“The banning of terminations would be a very retrograde step,” Bishop said. “We don’t want to return to pre-regulation days.”

Stone said the issue of abortion has already been resolved. “It’s a private issue between a woman and her doctor,” she said. “Our current system is both compassionate and medically sound.”

While maintaining the stance that it is unlikely the government will change existing policy, Abbott has been part of a campaign by bourgeois politicians aimed at undermining access to abortion. In a speech at Adelaide University in March, for example, Abbott called the rate of abortions performed in Australia a “national tragedy.” He was booed by students, who chanted “Get your morals off our bodies!” Abbott also used the showing in August here of the movie My Foetus by British filmmaker Julia Black to keep up the propaganda offensive against the right to choose.

In response to this debate, a public meeting was held here October 20, attended by about 30 people. It was called by the Women’s Abortion Action Campaign (WAAC) and the University of Technology Student Association Womyn’s Collective.

The event started with a slide show presentation of demonstrations to defend and extend abortion rights in New South Wales (NSW) from the 1970s to the 1980s. Abortion is still covered by the NSW Crimes Act, but the 1971 Levine ruling has in practice decriminalized the procedure. (The Levine ruling in NSW is comparable to the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision in the United States.) WAAC was formed in 1972 to fight to repeal all laws that restricted abortion and allowed forced sterilization.

Stefania Siedlecky, a doctor who was an advisor to the federal government on women’s health during the 1970s and 1980s, spoke about her experiences as a general practitioner in public hospitals prior to the liberalization of abortion laws.

In the 1950s, she said, she worked at Crown St. Hospital in Sydney, where 10 women a day were admitted for “incomplete miscarriage” or botched abortions. “The complications from illegal abortions were terrible,” she said. “It was the highest cause of maternal death until the end of the 1960s when the laws were changed. We will never go back to the old days of illegal abortion.”

Siedlecky also said that Abbott is targeting young women with his proposal to deny privacy of medical records to teenagers younger than 16.

“The Medicare rebate doesn’t come anywhere close to covering the cost for an abortion, now,” she continued. As a result, abortion providers have introduced up-front fees, which have increased over this year, she added.

Margaret Kirkby, a long-standing member of WAAC, spoke on behalf of the Bessie Smyth Foundation. Bessie Smyth was set up in 1977 to provide abortions in Sydney. In 2002, the foundation sold the clinic due to a financial crisis. It now provides information and counseling, with a special emphasis on the needs of low-income women seeking abortion.

Kirkby said 19 abortion clinics operate across New South Wales today—although some are only open one day per week and the majority do not provide counseling. There is no government funding to run abortion services and counseling costs are greater.

Clinics charge fees—parts of which are refundable—with rates going up to A$2,500 (US$1,900) for terminations at 20 weeks. She described two typical cases of a late-term abortion—young women under the age of 16 who are in denial, who “hope it will go away,” and women in the menopause age group, who are not aware of their pregnancy until it is far advanced. “Being judged over a late-term abortion is a big fear,” Kirkby said. “Both Abbott and Black ignored the stories of these women.”

There is a possibility of “sneaky attacks” on the right to choose under the current administration, Kirkby said. “But the government knows politically that if they carry out an open attack on abortion rights, men and women in Australia, whatever their politics, will react.” Instead the government will keep chipping away at these rights, she said, concentrating on restricting access and funding.

A number of young women at the meeting expressed interest in getting involved in WAAC activities. WAAC and other organizations around Australia are planning to draw pro-choice supporters into a campaign to oppose any restrictions on abortion rights and to demonstrate public support for a woman’s right to choose.
 
 
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