Drop the charges! Repeal all anti-abortion laws! Free, safe, accessible abortion on demand
Rally: Saturday November 21, 11am
Queens Park, cnr George & Elizabeth Sts, City
The rally will be followed by a march to Parliament House and then to the Botanic Gardens for speakers, food and entertainment

Background

In early September, a young Cairns woman was committed to trial on charges brought under the anti-abortion laws. The charges carry a maximum penalty of seven years prison. Her partner will also face trial for assisting her on charges that carry a maximum penalty of three years prison. Premier Bligh and Queensland Government ministers have repeatedly claimed that the case is related to the importation of the drug allegedly used for the abortion. They are lying. The charges have been brought under the anti-abortion laws, not drug related law.

Premier Bligh has also implied that the case is based on the safety concerns related to the abortion drug being taken without medical supervision. The fact is that the drug is very safe – the complications that can arise are similar to that of a spontaneous miscarriage. The Cairns woman had full instructions about the use of the drug and would have had access to medical facilities if complications had arisen. Furthermore, Premier Bligh would be only too aware that criminalising abortion is one of the greatest dangers to women’s health. The only way to ensure women’s safe access to abortion is to make it legal and free and have widespread woman-centered information and education services.

On September 4, the Parliament made some minor amendments to section 282 of the Queensland Criminal Code – but these changes have made no difference to women’s legal access to abortion. Abortion remains on the criminal code.

Abortion is legally accessible under a common law ruling in 1986 that found that there were grounds for “lawful” abortion – when a woman’s life or mental health is at risk by continuing a pregnancy. While this ruling was explicitly against “abortion on demand”, abortion has effectively been available on demand through private clinics. Some say that this accessibility has been because the police have “turned a blind eye”. The more realistic explanation is that the laws have not been enforced because police are only too aware of the widespread support for abortion access and the sort of opposition that would be faced if there were any attempts to enforce the law.

While it may have faded from popular memory, there are still many who remember the widespread social and political response to the abortion clinic raids of the 1980s. Indeed it was the opposition that was mobilised in that era that led to the liberalised access that exists today. In prosecuting the Cairns case, the Queensland Police have made a calculated political judgment. They think they can create a new precedent through this case. The Cairns couple have been targeted in a test of these laws because they are isolated. Because they don’t have the social connections and networks and resources that would be involved if the laws were tested in a case involving a doctor. This is why the grass-roots solidarity campaign is all the more important.

The case has dropped out of the media spotlight – but the ordeal that the young couple are facing continues daily. They are living under siege after they were forced to move house in April when their house was firebombed by anti-abortion bigots following the publishing of their address in the Cairns Post.

It is up to all supporters of women’s right to choose to raise their voices in protest. We must make it politically untenable for the government to maintain their position of inaction – the charges against the Cairns couple must be dropped immediately. We must raise our voices for the repeal of all anti-abortion laws. No-one should ever again have to face the trauma of the young couple in Cairns are facing – for making a decision that is every woman’s right to choose.

The Pro-Choice Action Collective has initiated a rally to be held on Saturday November 21. The government needs to know that supporters of abortion rights will not stand by and allow the Cairns couple to be isolated.

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Media release

November 5, 2009
For immediate release

Pro-choice rally to demand government action

A pro-choice rally will be held in Brisbane on November 21 as part of the ongoing campaign against the prosecution of a Cairns couple under Queensland’s anti-abortion laws.

The rally will demand the dropping of the abortion charges and the repeal of the anti-abortion laws.

Pro-Choice Action Collective activist, Kathy Newnam said “The laws under which the Cairns couple have been charged should not exist. Abortion should not be on the criminal code. Abortion has been decriminalised in the ACT (2002) and Victoria (2008) and it’s high time that Queensland did the same.

“It is outrageous that a Cairns woman faces up to seven years in jail for having an abortion when one in three women in this country will have an abortion at some point in their lives. Abortion is common practice in private clinics and should be made free, safe and accessible for all women.

“Abortion is a woman’s right to choose. The decades-long struggle for abortion rights has won widespread recognition of this right. The anti-abortion forces want to turn back the clock and we have a so-called feminist premier who is unwilling to stand up to them.

“Our rally is part of a campaign that is determined to make it politically untenable for the Bligh Government to maintain their position of inaction.

“The changes to the criminal code that the Parliament made in early September were nothing but a distraction – they did not remove the anti-abortion sections under which the Cairns couple have been charged.

“Our rally will protest against the lies and misinformation that the government has perpetuated about the Cairns case. Bligh and various government ministers continue to claim that the case is related to alleged “smuggling” of the abortion drug. This is a lie. The charges have been brought under the anti-abortion laws, not drug related laws.

“The Bligh Government is doing what it can to distract attention from the reality of the Cairns case. The fact is that the prosecution of the Cairns couple is one of the most serious attacks on abortion rights for decades.

“The rally on November 21 is an important opportunity for all supporters of a woman’s right to choose to stand up and speak out to defend abortion rights”.

-ENDS-

For more information or interviews contact:
Pro-Choice Action Collective – 0400 727 757 (Kathy)

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