Women with the law on their side
Caroline Overington; 25/8/08
Victoria moved this week to legalise abortion, a development that frankly surprised many people. Isn’t abortion legal, and hasn’t it been for years? As it happens, no. In Australia’s three most populous states - Victoria, NSW and Queensland - abortion is a crime. That is to say, it is part of the Crimes Act, and has been for more than 150 years. Women in all states and the Northern Territory can get a legal abortion, but only if a doctor agrees that the woman will come to some kind of ill-defined physical, social or mental harm if she continues with the pregnancy. Only in the ACT is abortion available on demand. That is, to any woman who wants one, pretty much on request. That, at least, is the law. Now the practice: there are about 83,000 abortions a year in Australia and many are subsidised by Medicare. It is claimed that one in three Australian women will have an abortion in their lifetime (figures are ill-defined, since data is rarely kept).
See: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24233593-28737,00.html
Tags: Australia, Womens Rights