I had an abortion in my last year of high school. It was the 1980s. Alongside Elvis Costello, the love of my life was a strapping, smart and sensitive surfer. We were madly, deeply in love but unfortunately that was not an effective form of birth control.
My family was living in Canberra at the time and although federal Labor was pushing ahead with social reforms, abortion was still not legal in the national capital.
So my mother had to drive me to Sydney where we stayed overnight. I think my father even booked the hotel for us. He was as supportive as he could be and I later found out that he had to take a girlfriend through a horrible backyard abortion in London when he was a young midshipman.
As we walked down the street to the Surry Hills clinic, I remember seeing red paint splattered all over the entrance — still fresh and glistening from the night before. There were a couple of protesters at the front, pushing brochures at people and waving signs with slogans that called me a murderer.
I was so nervous about the procedure that I was about to undergo, I barely noticed the brutal messages on the signs and the ugly taunts they were calling out to us.
But my mother couldn’t. She was badly shaken.
In the days following, she talked far more about the protesters than the abortion and it caused her to feel quite upset about a situation that was already difficult for her.
Unfortunately, Mum passed away a few years ago and was not able to see me table a Private Member’s Bill last week to legislate safe access zones around abortion clinics in Victoria.
I’ve done this to stop the harassment, intimidation, vilification and even assault that many women seeking an abortion in Victoria still endure.
If Mum was alive, I have no doubt she would be proud that the Bill would also have offered protection and safe passage to the many people who support and accompany a woman seeking termination services, and who suffer a massive invasion of privacy and abuse just for being good friends or good parents.
The same goes for the many people who attend the clinic for any of the half-a-dozen other services that the clinic offers.
Legislating safe access zones is in line with the objectives of the Public Health and Wellbeing Act 2008. These are focused on the state’s role in promoting and protecting public health and wellbeing and the role of the state in assisting in responses to public health concerns of national interest.
It’s also about the state protecting individual choices and medical privacy. It has positive objectives to promote conditions of health, protect and prevent against illness and reduce inequalities. Those objectives line up effectively with the intention of this Bill, which seeks to protect access to vital and lawful health services.
The Bill creates two offences — prohibited behaviour in an access zone and distributing a recording of someone seeking to access a clinic. Those offences reflect both the nature of the current harassment, intimidation and interference, and the violation of privacy in publishing material about someone’s medical situation.
The current approaches are piecemeal and ineffective and so a clear and focused approach is necessary for protection.
The Victorian Law Reform Commission recommended that such zones be considered way back in 2008. And let’s not forget that there has already been a murder at one clinic.
This is not a new thing. Women should have a right to walk anywhere in Victoria without harassment, intimidation or fear of assault, let alone when they are entering a medical facility.
If the discussion was around people harassing parents and children entering vaccination clinics, or interfering with people entering blood-donation facilities, there would be an uproar.
The fact that these clients and staff are seeking to enter premises offering reproductive health services does not make it acceptable to aim abuse and interference, and violations of privacy on them.
Any such suggestion is an attack on rights to medical assistance and equality.
FIONA PATTEN IS THE MLC FOR THE NORTHERN METROPOLITAN REGION AND LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN SEX PARTY
Article link.
