The of Australians accept that women and people who can become pregnant should聽have the right to choose abortion.
In this country, abortion is safe, legal and common. It is a necessary part of reproductive health care and a choice that about 25鈥30% of women make over their life time.
Abortion laws聽used to be governed under a British law known as Offences against the Person Act 1861. This changed in 1969 when Justice Clifford Menhennitt ruled in the Victorian Supreme Court that abortion was not unlawful if it could be shown that it was necessary for the woman鈥檚 physical and mental health.
coincided with the work and activism of , a Scottish-born General Practitioner who worked in Victoria. Wainer helped uncover police abortion protection rackets and played a role in successfully testing the new Menhennitt ruling in court.
Abortion had been governed by the criminal code in all states and territories for more than a century. But, shortly after the Menhennitt ruling, Wainer opened one of the first public clinics to provide abortion care.
It has taken a long struggle to get .
For instance, the New South Wales Greens moved to remove it from the 1900 Crimes Act in 2015, but it only happened in 2019 in large part because of a long-running, broad-based community struggle.
Since聽Labor,聽the Liberals and Nationals give their MPs a 鈥渃onscience鈥 vote, they were able to weaken the original bill.
A similar process took place a year before in Queensland to remove abortion from that state鈥檚 Crimes Act.
For many, however, abortion聽is still because many public hospitals do not offer the service. This also helps maintain the stigma聽is still associated with reproductive health care.
While abortion is now , any reform remains subject to MPs鈥 individual consciences.
Much of the moral outrage at abortion law reform is tied to patriarchal notions that women cannot be trusted to know what to do with their聽bodies.
Anti-choice MPs in state and federal parliaments also use reproductive health care as a political bargaining tool. , the former 聽supported the partial sale of Telstra in exchange for the John Howard Coalition government agreeing to measures that effectively made it impossible for women to access the abortion drug RU486 and to cut aid to family planning services overseas.
The until cross party MPs successfully removed the ministerial veto in 2006.
PM Tony Abbott and his聽Deputy PM Barnaby Joyce, both anti-choice, attended rallies opposing the decriminalisation of abortion in NSW in 2019.
Former Victorian, now Democratic Labour Party Senator Bernie Finn, still holds an annual 鈥淢arch for the Babies鈥 on the anniversary of Victoria legislating to remove abortion from the Crimes Act in 2008.
Former Prime Minister Scott Morrison defended the former Assistant Minister for Women, Amanda Stoker, attending an anti-abortion rally in the lead-up to this federal election. Coalition MP Matt Canavan and聽One Nation Party鈥檚 Malcolm Roberts were at the same rally.
The 聽has refused to rule out a review and dismantling of the state鈥檚 abortion laws if it wins the election in 2024. Health authorities say the laws need work to make access easier.
As we become more aware of coercive control in family and gendered violence, we are beginning to understand the insidious nature and extent of reproductive control and coercion, which can deny a family member or partner access to contraception. Such criminal behaviours can deny someone access to abortion, forcing them to continue an unwanted pregnancy.
Reproductive control, coercion, rape and sexual assault are significant forms of violence against women. When coupled with the widespread lack of affordable and accessible abortion care, the barriers for some women and people in accessing abortion can seem insurmountable.
Widespread casualisation can be another barrier to access abortion care: when the person needing an abortion cannot turn down shifts at work, they can jeopardise their health.
The gender pay gap, in particular in feminised work where the pay rates are lower, creates more barriers.
A 聽to make reproducutive聽health care accessible and affordable. Alongside this, work needs to be done to end family and gendered violence and address the chronic and unjust gender pay gap.