History
At Federation in 1901, abortion remained governed by the British Offences Against the Person Act of 1861. The Act made abortion illegal under any circumstances. Since then, however, abortion law has remained subject to case law and legislation in each of the states.
Generally, judicial interpretations changed in the late 1960s and early 1970s such that abortions were not subject to criminal prosecution if necessary to preserve the mother's health. Over time this has come to be broadly defined so as to include the mental health of the patient, to which an unwanted pregnancy is interpreted as clinically injurious.
In practice, early-term surgical abortions are generally available around Australia for those women who seek them. The procedure is partially rebatable under Medicare, the government-funded public health scheme. Prosecutions against medical practitioners for performing abortions have not occurred for decades, with one exception – a prosecution in 1998 in Western Australia that soon after led to the explicit legalisation of on-request abortions under certain circumstances in that state.
RU486, a drug widely used overseas to induce abortions, was effectively banned in Australia until February 2006. This was because of a deal in the Federal Senate between pro-life Tasmanian Senator Brian Harradine and the major parties to get his vote on other issues. Abortifacient drugs were deemed to belong to a special class of medications – "restricted goods" – for which approval from the health minister would have to be obtained before the drug could be assessed by the Therapeutic Goods Administration.
In early 2006, a private members bill was introduced in the Senate to strip the health minister of their power of veto over abortifacients. This bill was approved by both houses of parliament and passed in March 2006, removing the veto power from the health minister and granting authority to the Therapeutic Goods Administration. Health Minister Tony Abbott and previous ministers wouldn't allow it to be made available prior to the vote. Abbott responded to the vote by calling for funding of alternative counselling to pregnant women through church-affiliated groups.
Pro-life groups exist in Australia, and stage protests outside clinics providing abortions. However, the wider public seems largely happy with the status quo, and most politicians prefer to avoid the topic entirely if possible. Exceptions to this include Senator Ron Boswell, Senator Barnaby Joyce and the former federal Health minister Tony Abbott, who describes the current scale of abortion as a "national tragedy" and has proposed the addition of a Medicare item number for counselling to lower the national abortion rate.
The violence seen in the United States against abortion providers has not occurred in Australia, with one exception. In 2001, Peter Knight forced his way into a Melbourne clinic carrying a rifle, kerosene, and equipment to lock the doors of the clinic. Three people attempted to disarm him after he pointed his rifle at a woman at the clinic. He shot a security guard. Afterwards, Knight, described by the prosecution as a "hermit obsessed with killing abortion doctors" was convicted of murder.
Read more about this topic: Abortion In Australia
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