Labor, Greens strategy for more hospitals to provide abortions by Cathy Clubb
More and cheaper abortions, and more and cheaper contraception — these are the declared objectives of abortion advocates in Australia, according to a recently released report.
As could be expected, abortion ideologues want these services to be provided with taxpayer funding, and extended to migrants, indigenous Australians, the disabled and the LGBTIQ+ community.
The report is the culmination of a Senate Community Affairs References Committee inquiry into "the universal access to reproductive healthcare" which began last September. The inquiry was instigated by the Greens, who, along with other pro-abortion entities, have been vocal about the Australian Labor Party not fulfilling its 2019 pre-election promise to make abortions free throughout the country. At that time, Labor promised to force public hospitals with commonwealth-state hospital funding agreements to provide abortions.
The inquiry was entitled, "Ending the Postcode Lottery". This rather trite phrase refers to the relative ease with which women can access an abortion, based on their geographical location. References to the "postcode lottery" can be found peppered throughout pro-choice and mainstream media reports lamenting barriers to abortion access across Australia. The disparity of access between city and country women is always particularly highlighted.
Saving the lives of babies born alive
It is worth noting that, during roughly the same time period, the Child Born Alive Protection Bill was also the subject of an inquiry by the Community Affairs Legislation Committee, which, together with the References Committee, comprises the Senate Standing Committees on Community Affairs. The aim of that bill, put forward by Queensland National Party Senator Matt Canavan, is to save the lives of babies born alive after a failed abortion. Originally introduced by former Queensland MP George Christensen in 2021, Senator Canavan's iteration has surprisingly been gaining some positive coverage in the media.
The inquiry's terms of reference, however, clearly show its emphasis on granting greater access to abortion in Australia, rather than providing real assistance to pregnant women. It rests on the claim that the National Women's Health Strategy — a 10-year plan for which the federal government pledged $4 million towards sexual and reproductive health — is not being implemented. Thus the Senate inquiry focussed on the supposed need for "universal access to sexual and reproductive health information, treatment and services that offer options to women to empower choice and control in decision-making about their bodies".
This meant that the investigation covered: access to contraceptives; costs involved with procuring an abortion; training of GPs and nurses; delivery of abortion services in remote areas; and the now ubiquitous mention of abortion care for "transgender people, non-binary people, and people with variations of sex characteristics".
Of the 36 recommendations given in the report, only five mentioned pregnancy support — in one of these, pregnancy was lumped in with abortion care! Two of the recommendations have some merit: 1) allowing those not covered by Medicare to access pregnancy services, and 2) obtaining waiting-time waivers from overseas healthcare providers for the same.
While both of these measures would unfortunately also be applied to abortion services, they have the potential to reduce the numbers of abortions being sought by students and recently-arrived immigrants. Another positive recommendation was for better collection of data — something that has long been requested by those on both sides of the debate, as accurate statistics on abortion in Australia are sorely lacking.
The report also has a strong focus on the provision of long-acting reversible contraceptives (LARCs): devices which not only prevent conception but also directly cause abortions and do great harm to the women using them. Far from calling for an investigation into the dangers of LARCs, the report recommended that the Therapeutic Goods Agency speed up the approval process for new contraceptive devices and add more contraceptives to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. It also recommended that Medicare make services surrounding LARCs more profitable for GPs, as well as making abortions more profitable for abortionists. Increasing the supply and decreasing the cost of contraceptive pills was also recommended.
Two of the recommendations related to in vitro fertilisation, or IVF: it requested an expansion of Medicare rebates for IVF to those who currently can't access them — this possibly refers to the possibility of providing IVF to "trans'' men, since "gender-diverse" members of the population were mentioned in several places. There was also a call for IVF to be made available for those wishing to take part in altruistic surrogacy.
Many of the report's recommendations focus on education — in schools, the community and in targeted minority groups. This means basically teaching men and women to demand abortion and is all part of the "de-stigmatisation" process. There is also a focus on providing better training for prospective abortionists, with opportunities and incentives for sexual health workers allegedly being too few in Australia.
Another recommendation which has been heard with increasing frequency over the past few years is for the provision for midwives to administer the abortion pill. According to abortion providers, Gynecology Services Australia, there are already 1,000 out of Australia's 36,000 midwives who are accredited to dispense the abortion pill. The report goes further and suggests that less training should be required for doctors and pharmacists to dispense the abortion pill — a very dangerous scenario. Abortion advocates hope to see an increase in the number of GPs providing the abortion pill from the very low 4 per cent currently willing to do so.
One extremely worrying recommendation made by the report is that every public hospital should be made to provide abortions. In light of the forced takeover over of Calvary Hospital in Canberra, it is clear that this is already being taken seriously by pro-abortion forces: they want abortion available at any cost. Victoria came very close to having a similar action implemented in the state last year when the Sex Party (later re-named the Reason Party) MP, Fiona Patten, tried unsuccessfully to force Catholic hospitals to provide abortions.
In the face of continued calls for increased access to abortion, the pro-life community must take every opportunity to amplify its message. There is no shortage of videos about the reality of abortion, or stories about abortion regret, which can be shared. Pregnancy centres can always use our assistance and donations. We must also keep asking the hard questions, such as why so few doctors want to provide abortions — especially late-term ones. We must push back relentlessly against those who are complicit with the greatest human rights abuse of all time.
Kathy Clubb is a mother and grandmother and has home-educated her children for the best part of 30 years. She has undertaken official pro-life work for 10 years, first in Tasmania, and then in Victoria. In 2016, Kathy was part of an unsuccessful attempt to defeat Victoria's abortion exclusion-zones, which led to a constitutional challenge in the High Court of Australia in late 2018. Her articles have appeared at Family Life International, The Remnant Newspaper, LifeSiteNews, Fidelity magazine and other publications.