Page 2380 - Week 07 - Thursday, 4 August 2022
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part of the ACT Labor Party that, as Minister Berry outlined, has a long history of championing women’s rights and will continue to do so into the future.
I want to start by paying respect to anyone in the ACT who has had any experience of or is affected by any matter relating to abortion. It is something that is highly individualised, traumatic, emotional, sensitive and personal. I want to acknowledge that I do not believe it is possible for anyone other than the person or people involved in their own decision about abortion to understand or comprehend the gravitas of any situation involving the termination of a pregnancy.
I also want to start by saying that abortion care is a basic human right. In 2020 the World Health Organisation included comprehensive abortion care in its list of essential healthcare services. It is well known that there are very dire consequences in countries and contexts where illegal abortions are carried out.
Amnesty International, a leading global human rights organisation, notes that “criminalising abortions does not stop abortions, it just makes abortion less safe”. According to the World Health Organisation, unsafe abortions are the third leading cause of maternal deaths worldwide, and lead to an additional five million largely preventable disabilities each year.
The World Health Organisation further notes that, globally, six out of 10 unintended pregnancies, and three out of 10 of all pregnancies, end in induced abortion. Of these abortions, around 46 per cent are unsafe, primarily because those are undertaken in developing countries and places where abortion is criminalised.
I fear that unsafe abortions in the US will rise as a result of the Supreme Court decision to overthrow Roe v Wade, and there is evidence to suggest that this will be the case. The World Health Organisation reports:
Evidence shows that restricting access to abortions does not reduce the number of abortions. However, it does affect whether the abortions that women and girls attain are safe and dignified. The proportion of unsafe abortions are significantly higher in countries with highly restrictive abortion laws than in countries with less restrictive laws.
Amnesty International notes that the debate is “clouded by misinformation about the true ramifications of restricting access to this basic healthcare service”. I despair for women, girls and others in the US and globally.
Over the last 25 years, Amnesty International reports that more than 50 countries have changed their laws to allow for greater access to abortion, largely in recognition of the vital role that access to safe abortion plays in protecting women’s lives and health.
It staggers me that, in this context, a country like the US—one that we often consider ourselves to be aligned with and akin to, in the quality of life and values that we hold—has reverted its laws and taken such a significant step backwards, by about 50 years, to such draconian and discriminatory measures. They are laws which, inherently and unfortunately, discriminate primarily against women and girls, as well as gender-diverse people.
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