We need to retain our Right to choose
The decision to rip away a woman’s right to choose abortion in the US, is a chilling reminder that we still cannot take women’s rights for granted, writes Michelle O’Byrne
Let’s be clear, you cannot ban can abortions. You access only prevent to safe abortions. And make no will mistake, people this die because of decision.
When I stood up to speak at the abortion rights protest in Hobart last weekend, it was with a heavy heart.
The US Supreme Court’s outrageous decision to rip away a woman’s right to choose and propel the country backwards to somewhere before 1972 is a chilling reminder that we still cannot take women’s rights for granted.
Even after 50 years of legal abortion in the US – and what was widely regarded as settled law – the Supreme Court put ideology above human rights and sent women back to an era that many of us thought was behind us.
And with that, not only has a woman’s right to choose her own destiny been ripped away, but so have health safeguards around that choice.
Because let’s be clear, you cannot ban abortions. You can only prevent access to safe abortions.
And make no mistake, people will die because of this decision.
Each year, 47,000 people in the world die as a result of unsafe abortion and an estimated five million are hospitalised for the treatment of serious complications.
The UN sexual and reproductive health agency says 45 per cent of the world’s abortions are unsafe and a leading cause of maternal death.
The agency, which supports reproductive health care in more than 150 countries, believes that the US Supreme Court decision may spur other countries to follow suit.
The UN fears “more unsafe abortions will occur around the world if access to abortion becomes more restricted. Decisions reversing progress gained have a wider impact on the rights and choices of
women and adolescents everywhere.”
This is backed up by Sarah Shaw, the global head of advocacy for MSI Reproductive Choices, which provides contraception and safe abortion services in 37 countries.
As Ms Shaw says, “from the Global Gag Rule to US-funded anti-choice groups who harass women outside our clinics and lobby governments to restrict access, decisions made in the US have an impact far beyond their borders.”
That is why we rallied in Hobart – to join with those in the US to say we dissent. To take on board the message since the death of the inimitable Ruth Bader Ginsburg that we are Ruthless now and we must act accordingly.
We must add our voices and our outrage and our conviction to support access around the world and to protect our own hard-won rights.
Rights that we started to access with the work of Labor’s Judy Jackson, the Liberals’ Sue Napier and the Greens’ Peg Putt in 2002 – but which have only been fully realised this year.
In 2013, I introduced a bill to finally decriminalise abortion in Tasmania to ensure we could guarantee safe and affordable access in both private and public facilities.
As part of that Bill, I also introduced the first access zones in Australia to protect anyone attending a clinic from abuse, intimidations and bullying as they accessed a legal health service – laws which have since been picked up all over the country.
The legislation, which just passed the Upper House, was necessary because, unless you had the money to get to a private clinic or fly to
Melbourne, access to safe abortions at the time was simply unaffordable.
We know it is always those who are marginalised, those who are poor, those who are disadvantaged that miss out on access. That is as true here as it is in the US.
But even after getting those laws through the Parliament, it took eight years to get those abortion services readily available in the public system because the next two health minsters – Michael Ferguson and Sarah Courtney – refused to provide access in public hospitals.
In fact Michael Ferguson oversaw the closure of Tasmania’s three clinics.
Even when the third health minister, Jeremy Rockliff, approved access it was still only for women who could prove ‘vulnerability’. As if any other health service requires that test.
After more lobbying just this year, that condition was removed and nine years later we finally have public access to services. Nine years.
So, as our hearts go out to our friends in the US who have lost their rights after nearly 50 years, it is important to understand what the US decision means here in Tasmania.
It is important to note if you need a termination in Tasmania now, you can access one now.
Up to 16 weeks, it is your choice and after 16 weeks it is still your choice but you need the approval of two doctors. That’s the best we could achieve in 2013 – and we only just won that right.
It is also important to note that the Supreme Court decision made in the US cannot be made here – because our laws are made by our parliaments.
But there is not a Liberal member in the state’s House of Assembly today who voted for decriminalisation – only those who voted against it.
It is a conscience vote so every individual member votes their own way.
We saw in the US a deliberate and concerted campaign since Roe v. Wade was decided, to overturn that decision.
Their next publicly stated step is to overturn abortion access in every state in the US – and they have even talked of their plans to ban contraception.
If our own conservative, anti-choice politicians in Tasmania were so emboldened by this US action to take their own and seek to repeal our legislation, it would require only three things – to draft a Bill, gain 13 votes in the Lower House and eight votes in the Upper House.
So our support for the right to choose is not only valuable it is crucial.
We must speak up loudly so our elected members do not seek to overturn our hard-won rights.
We support the right to choose, we support our friends in the US and we will not tolerate any attempts to undermine our rights to choose.
It is 2022 – we will not go back.