Laws and legislation regarding abortion in Australia

Abortion issues in Australia is seriously regulated by various states and territories and federal government is not directly interfering with this issues. However, abortion is permitted in Australia with very specific situations. Moreover, it is observed that, the abortion is mainly used to protect the women in Australia from severe life threatening condition. In Australia, there are no such places where the woman needs to take permission for the process of abortion. The judiciary system of Australia will not grant a command to restrict a pregnant woman from terminating her pregnancy. In addition, there is no waiting period for an abortion procedure in Australia. Except the region of Western Australia, no consent is required from the parents of a minor for the process of abortion. In Western Australia, the abortion process must be notified to one of the parents in case of minors under the age of 16 years. However, if the minor has the permission from the children court, she don’t even need any consent from the parents. At first, no action was taken in any cases of abortion for the women who are seeking it. Therefore it is also true that, if a woman is in the 28^th week of her pregnancy, the abortion or termination of pregnancy will be counted as a crime of child destruction in a few states and territories of Australia (Gotsis and Ismay  2017). In this report, the legislation regarding the abortion in different territories of Australia is discussed.  In addition, the concepts and principles of laws of the abortion, recommendations for the ethicolegal dilemmas in the service delivery are also highlighted in a brief manner.

The different territories and states have different laws and legislation regarding the issue of abortion. In Australia, there are a number of legislations that have decriminalized the cases of abortion. Recently, the Northern territory parliament voted to cancel section 11 of Medical Services Act 1982 and as a result the abortion is decriminalized up to 23 weeks of gestation. Therefore, the case of abortion is still counted as a crime in territories like New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia. However, the territories like Tasmania, Victoria, Northern territory, the abortion is allowed up to a certain stage of gestation (Gotsis and Ismay 2017). The main feature of the Australian abortion policy is to protect the privacy of the women who are seeking clinic and trying to give a safeguard to themselves from the social harassment and discrimination. Since 2013, the territories like Victoria, Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory have launched legislation for giving safe access zones beside the clinics of reproductive health services. The legislation of Tasmania introduce the safe access zones so that protesters cannot harass the patients within the 150 meters of the clinics. The legislation of the Australian Capital Territory allow the patients to access the health care services along with having adequate privacy. According to the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (UNCESCR), another important feature of the abortion laws in the different territories in Australia is the right of the health that and very specifically it can be said that, the right of reproductive and sexual health is very crucial and is also emphasized. UNCESCR have specially emphasized on the fact that the reproductive and sexual health should be an integral part of the policy of right to health and it is associated with the fact of woman’s abortion as it is related to the woman health (Parliament of Australia 2019). It is crucial to secure the health of a woman by providing safeguard to the woman and it is important to give access to a safe and legal abortion services to the woman. As almost 30% of Australian people are loving in remote areas and they don’t have enough access for such services. In addition, insufficient staffs, inadequate medical training and limited hospital work force can also create difficulties in delivering services to those areas. Right of the life is another important feature of the Australian abortion related legislation. This context describe the fact that women have the rights to survive pregnancy and motherhood by giving birth to her child. Australia holds a low rate of maternal mortality and morbidity and it is the result of having the ability to not be pregnant or having an option of abortion. As a whole it can be said that, the Australian laws and legislation regarding the abortion covers the features like right to health, right to privacy, right of equality. According to the information of Parliament of Australia (2019). Overall the laws and legislations of different states and territories try to provide a safeguard to the woman of the country.

Features of Australian abortion policy

According to The Australian Women’s Health Network, it is an important part of the women’s health to have a safe termination of pregnancy services. However, there is a lot of religious and ethical issues regarding the abortion of the women. The important policies of abortion are as below.

• Abortion should be considered primarily by the legislators, health administrators and policymakers so that, the health and human rights issues can be maintained. A woman has the full right to tale any decisions about related to her health.
• No woman in Australia cannot be forced to terminate her pregnancy and also they cannot be forced to carry a pregnancy against their will.
• Abortion services in Australia should be made safe, easily available in various places. As a part of this, the government should ensure that all the women in rural and remote region, can have access the services of abortion and in addition their privacy should be maintained well.
• Like all the medical services abortion should also be regulated under the legislation of medical practice and health care.
• In addition, government should provide discounts in the medical services and abortion services should have same amount of discount. Day by day, the expenditure of abortion in a private setting are increasing and it has become beyond the reach of most of the people. Federal and state government should take steps and regulate the prices of the abortion services so that any woman fails to get the services due to its high costs.
• In Australia, the cases of unplanned pregnancy is very high and government should take various measures to prevent such cases through public health program. Awareness programs can be launched to improve the level of education, health and social awareness. In addition, sexual health program can also be launched to increase the awareness among the women (Australian Women’s Health Network 2019).

However, in different states of Australia, the different states and territories of Australia have the different policies. In Queensland, termination of pregnancy bill was passed in 2018 and according to this act, the abortion is legal till 22 weeks and after that with doctor’s approval a woman can have the abortion. In the New South Wales, the there is a contradiction regarding the decisions of the abortion. In this state abortion is not legal for doctors and nurses. However, a doctor can take the decision of abortion if he or she thinks that it is important to do abortion for the health of the woman. In the Australian Capital Territory, abortion is legal only when a doctor gives permission to do an abortion. Abortion is legal up to 24 weeks in the state of Victoria and it will be counted as an unlawful act if any one generate protest against this practice within 150m of the abortion clinic (Parliament of Australia 2019). In the states of South Australia, the process of abortion is legal if two doctors grant the permission that a woman is really need the abortion in order to make a safe physical and mental health condition of the woman. However, an unlawful pregnancy is a serious crime. Tasmania has legalized the process of abortion till 16 weeks of the pregnancy and after that the process is legal along with the permission of two doctors and it is a crime to protest within the 150 m of the abortion clinic. The Northern Territory, abortion is legal till 14^th week with the permission of one doctor and after that it is legal till 23^rd week with the permission of more than one doctor. After 23^rd week it is illegal till it is an emergency situation to save a life of a woman. In Western Australia, 20^th week is the border line of legal abortion and in case of woman under 16 years, there are a few restrictions (Parliament of Australia 2019).

Almost, 100,000 abortion cases are executed in Australia in each year and it is said that, there is more than one cases of abortion for every 3 live births in Australia. Among the total abortion cases, only 2% of cases are due to the fetal abnormality of the woman and it is observed that most of the abortion cases are happened due to the social and economic status of the people. In several Australian poll, it was noted that, most of the Australians are supporting the laws regarding abortion. In Victoria, under the Crimes Act 1958 (Vic), the abortion is a lawful practice if the doctors think that abortion is very necessary in order to make safe the woman’s life. Very specifically, it can be said that, the woman’s physical and mental health is very crucial. In the Victoria’s abortion law, the limit of gestation is specified and the section 10 of the law, it is stated that child destruction is unlawful that is if the child, who is capable of being born alive, is intentionally killed. This act is based on mainly the infant preservation Act 1929 that is the law of UK (Willis 2018). According to this law a child is capable of being born alive at 28 weeks. However, this law fails to address the unlawful means in this law. In Australia, changes in the abortion laws is a very tough process following a crisis. In the states like New South Wales and Victoria the abortion is unlawful under the ground of lethal fetal abnormality.  For a legal and lawful abortion in those states, there must be an issue of health of a woman and a doctor must have to approve that the woman will has a severe consequences if the abortion is not done. In Queensland the abortion law is strict and there is a verdict of prison up to 7 years if anyone is found guilty under the law of Criminal Code Act 1899 and along with this if anyone perform an unlawful abortion with the help of the clinics, the person will be imprisoned for 14 years (Willis 2018). In a case of 2016, it was seen that a 12 years old girl child got the permission for abortion and the Supreme Court permitted the abortion just to secure the health condition of the girl child (Higgins 2016).  With liberal acts of abortion in most of the states of the Australia, many abortion clinics starts to offer telehealth medical abortion services in a very low cost and that involves a consultation with a doctor. After that, abortion drugs are prescribed through email. This telehealth abortion service has become very popular among the women and according to a report of The Sydney Morning Herald women are travelling to Queanbeyan to get the telehealth abortion service through the mail. The Tabbot Foundation provides the telehealth service by providing follow-up services and on-call services for an amount of $250 (Back 2016).

Policies of abortion in different states of Australia

While analyzing ethical aspects of the abortion, it can be said that, there are various factors related to the ethical issues of abortion. 60% of the Australian think that abortion is acceptable in most of the circumstances and some of the people believe that it is acceptable only if the baby is defective. Therefore, there are also contradictory opinions regarding the abortion and 14.8% of Australian believe that abortion is always wrong even if the baby is defective. Those people considers that life begins at the time of conception and it is very unethical practice to terminate a life. They considers every life has the right to live and they should not be terminated in any circumstances. Most of the people believe in the Christian denomination and 23% of the people are from this beliefs who think that abortion is totally wrong (Christian Research Association 2019). Mainly, the sacredness of human life is the root of various ethical views of people in Australia. Moreover there are a few myths regarding the fetus and some people say that fetus can feel pain and that is why abortion is a case of murder. However, this is completely a wrong concept as fetus cannot feel pain before till 24^th week of gestation and abortion is not counted as a murder in Australia (Christian Research Association 2019).

Conclusion

Hence, in conclusion it can be said that, the abortion laws are quite versatile in different states and territories. In some states, the abortion laws are very strict and it some states the laws are very flexible in nature. However, in each and every states the abortion is legal if it is recommended by a doctor for the wellbeing of the woman. In addition, the states and territories create a safe zone for the abortion and in the abortion clinics privacy is maintained well in order to provide a safeguard to the woman from the social harassment and social stigma.

References

Australian Women’s Health Network 2019. Abortion Policy – Australian Women’s Health Network. Australian Women’s Health Network. Available at: https://awhn.org.au/abortion-policy/  

Back, A. 2016. Canberra women travelling to Queanbeyan to access medical abortion drugs through mail.  The Sydney Morning Herald. Available at: https://www.smh.cLaws in Different States om.au/healthcare/canberra-women-travelling-to-queanbeyan-to-access-medical-abortion-drugs-through-mail-20160511-gosf5q.html.

Christian Research Association 2019. Attitudes to Abortion and Approaches to Ethical Issues « Christian Research Association. Cra.org.au. Available at: https://cra.org.au/attitudes-to-abortion-and-approaches-to-ethical-issues/  

Gotsis, T. and Ismay, L. 2017. NSW Parliamentary Research Service. Parliament.nsw.gov.au. Available at: https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/researchpapers/Documents/Abortion%20Law.pdf

Higgins, I. 2016. 12yo girl granted permission for abortion.  ABC News. Available at: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-04-27/court-grants-12yo-qld-girl-abortion/7362044  

Parliament of Australia 2019. Abortion Law in Australia – Parliament of Australia. Aph.gov.au. Available at: https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/rp/rp9899/99rp01#intro  

Willis, O. 2018. Is abortion legal in Australia? It’s complicated. ABC News. Available at: https://www.abc.net.au/news/health/2018-05-26/is-abortion-legal-in-australia/9795188