For all of those who helped win the RU486 battle with their letters, calls and submissions - THANK YOU!
The ministerial veto has now been removed from the ‘medical’ abortion option and we expect that Australian women will soon join their sisters in 35 other countries in having this safe, less invasive choice. (And don’t believe newspaper reports that there are no pharmaceutical companies interested in sponsoring RU486 into Australia – at least one overseas-based companies is preparing an application.)
Whilst I can claim credit in initiating the legislative change, our success came as a result of the efforts of my three sponsoring colleagues who shepherded the bill through their respective parties and the many other MPs whose advocacy was so effective.
I’m grateful to the reproductive health groups who provided the fact sheets and timely advice and fronted up to aggressive questioning by the anti abortion members of the Senate committee. They conducted themselves calmly and with great clarity, frustrating the efforts of the questioners.
On the other hand, the anti-abortion brigade conducted push polling, a big advertising campaign, a ‘national day of action’, and intense lobbying of MPs.
There were last minute attempts to thwart the bill through amendments and a cunning tactic in the House of Reps whereby a second reading amendment by Jackie Kelly would have effectively ended the debate without changing the status quo.
In the end support for the bill was so clear that the ‘no’ side avoided calling a division and the vote wasn’t even counted.
It was particularly good to have worked with my fellow Senators Fiona Nash, Judith Troeth and Claire Moore. It was the first time in Australian political history that a Senate based, cross-party bill, sponsored by women, would pass both houses of parliament to become law.
It's a great result for female politicians and evidence that reason and compassion can still win the day, however, it is also a wake-up call to women. 90% of female senators voted for the bill compared with less than 50% of the men in the Senate. This says to me that the issues of greatest concern to women won’t be satisfactorily dealt with until there is equal representation of the genders in the parliament and in positions of power within political parties.
This is also not the end of this debate. The backlash was swift with a massive $60 million announcement within days for pregnancy counselling ‘support’, demonstrating a fundamental misunderstanding of women – that they can be coerced into motherhood. As I see it, the move exposes the real agenda – not of helping women avoid unwanted pregnancies and therefore abortions, but of pressuring women into continuing with unwanted pregnancies.
The money would be far better spent on comprehensive sex education to reduce the relatively high rate of teenage pregnancies in Australia and I have initiated a Senate inquiry into sex education which should be agreed by the Senate in the week of 27 March. Watch this space!
And of course we should be suspicious about who will be receiving the counselling money - $60 million can buy a lot more biased advice! Already there are dozens of pregnancy telephone services, funded by the Federal Government and run by anti abortion groups who refuse to refer women for terminations and warn them that abortion causes breast cancer, infertility and mental illness!
Clinics and hospitals that routinely counsel women who present for abortion have been explicitly excluded, on the basis that they have a vested interest in women taking this course of action!
I am keen to explore more cross party efforts to make gains for women and women's reproductive health, including.
- better access to child care
- more support for new mums
- more focus on the gynaecological conditions, infertility and support for research into screening for ovarian cancer
- an end to the current ban on Ausaid funding being used to train overseas health workers in abortion techniques
- ultra low dose oral contraception on the PBS and better access to emergency contraception
If there is an issue you would like to add to the list, please let me know.
Regards
Lyn Allison
Leader, Australian Democrats
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