Page 782 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 21 March 2018
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I will go through a bit more of the background to this bill. I want to note that it is very difficult to quantify the need for abortions as there are very limited statistics kept on the number of abortions performed in the ACT and Australia more broadly. Of course, there is very limited scope to understand the number of women who are prevented from accessing an abortion or who would otherwise do so if it were not for barriers such as cost, lack of information or, sadly in some cases, gatekeeping by medical professionals.
Add to this the fact that the data recorded by hospitals and by the Medicare system varies in its accuracy and usefulness. Things that may just be described as “a long consultation” or a surgical abortion could be recorded as a D&C, which is a procedure commonly used following a miscarriage or for removing abnormal tissues from the uterus.
It is often left to community advocates and health services to run surveys and collect anecdotal evidence in support of the need and demand for and the number of abortions occurring in our communities. An excellent example of this is the ACT women’s health matters! report released by the Women’s Centre for Health Matters earlier this month to mark International Women’s Day.
In spite of the best intentions of this Assembly, as I noted almost two decades ago, we have not seen an increase in the number of abortion providers in the ACT. In fact, one organisation that used to provide abortions, the long-established health service clinic, Sexual Health and Family Planning ACT, ceased to do so, at least in part on the basis that the newly legal services could meet the needs of the Canberra community, so they could more usefully spend their limited resources to concentrate on other important work in aid of vulnerable groups in the community.
There has been neither a net loss nor a gain in the availability of abortion providers in the ACT in the past two decades, despite increased demand and changed cultural expectations. It is very understandable that some healthcare providers such as GPs may be hesitant to provide abortions. The burdens placed on any particular general practice to become an approved facility under the current legislation are clearly significant, as well as potentially opening them and their clients up to harassment by anti-abortion protesters, as of course has been the case with Marie Stopes. It could unnecessarily cause concern to and loss of business from those clients whose private beliefs preclude abortions.
There clearly is a demand for medical abortions in the ACT. One provider does advertise their services for medical abortions for ACT consumers. But if you actually look at it, you will find they are located in Queanbeyan. People have to go across the border to Queanbeyan to pick up self-administered medication. It is medication that is sanctioned nationwide through the PBS. This is disappointing, to say the least, and it is very surprising to find this in our nation’s capital.
Research shows that, depending on the method of contraception being used, the number of unplanned pregnancies per 100 women ranges from one up to 28 in the first year. For best-practice, long-acting reversible contraception such as IUDs and
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