NATIONAL DAY OF ACTION

Last modified: September 3, 2010

Get involved in organising for the
national day of action – Oct 9

Brisbane

Pro-Choice Action Collective
Organising meetings: every Monday
6:30pm at the TLC Building (2nd floor)
16 Peel St, South Brisbane.
Phone: 0400 720 757

RALLY: October 9, 1pm. Queens Park, Cnr George & Elizabeth sts.

Click here to download posters & flyers for the Brisbane rally

Sydney

Women’s Abortion Action Campaign
Organising meetings fortnightly on Tuesdays (next meetings: July 27, Aug 10, Aug 24, Sept 7)
6pm at the Resources Room, Sydney Uni Postgraduate Representative Assn offices
in Raglan Street Building, University of Sydney (nearest corner is cnr of Raglan St and Abercrombie St Chippendale – go inside car park behind wrought iron fence and you can see Raglan St Bldg in front of you just beside the fence for the tennis courts).
Click here to download map
Phone: Margaret on 0407 665 857

RALLY October 9, 12noon, Town Hall.

Melbourne

Radical Women
Organising meetings are 6.30 pm on alternate Thursdays, starting August 5
Solidarity Salon, 580 Sydney Road, Brunswick (Take Tram #19 to Blyth or Stewart Street stops or the Upfield train to Anstey station; plenty of parking off Staley Street).
Click here for more information
Phone: 9388 0062

RALLY: October 9, 12noon, Parliament House Steps.

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Get in contact if you can organise a rally in your city.

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In April 2009, a young couple in Cairns were charged under Queensland’s archaic anti-abortion laws. The case was committed to trial and the couple now await trial – the young woman faces a maximum of seven years prison for allegedly using an abortion drug and her partner faces a maximum of three years prison for allegedly assisting her.

The Queensland Government has deliberately tried to distract from the facts of the case – repeatedly claiming that the case is related to the way the abortion took place and to the importation of the abortion drugs. This is a lie. The charges have been brought under the anti-abortion laws, not drug related laws. Furthermore, during the committal hearing in September 2009, it became very clear that the police were prosecuting the case in order to seek a new precedent on the abortion law. They argued it didn’t matter that there was no proof that the woman was pregnant; no proof of what the drugs allegedly used were; no proof that the drugs caused a miscarriage. They argued all they needed was that there was “intent” to procure a miscarriage.

Abortion is currently legally accessible in Queensland 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.

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 Queensland 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.

While the abortion laws are state based, support for the campaign in other states is crucial in breaking down the isolation of the case that the Queensland government is trying to create. Furthermore, the case will affect women throughout the country – if these charges are upheld, it will give greater confidence to the anti-abortion forces everywhere. We cannot allow this to happen.

In February 2010, abortion activists from three states met in Sydney and decided to call for a national day of protest to be held on the Saturday before the young couple face trial. The Pro-Choice Action Collective in Brisbane will also be coordinating a ‘convergence’ on Cairns – to join with Cairns abortion rights supporters outside the court during the trial.