2018-10-19
The ACT Greens are pleased today that legislation to improve access to medical abortions in the ACT has passed in the Legislative Assembly.
The passing of the Health (Improving Abortion Access) Amendment Bill 2018 will ensure medical abortion is made more readily available across the ACT, improving access for Canberrans to exercise their reproductive rights.
Medical abortions involve the use of mifepristone and misoprostol, commonly known as MS 2 Step, with the first step being the much publicised RU486. These drugs, prescribed with support from a licenced medical professional, can be taken at home as with other prescription drugs.
Medical abortion provides a safe, accessible and private means of terminating an early pregnancy with medication. Medical abortions are prescribed in other states and territories by licenced medical professionals, including GPs. Telehealth providers can also provide professional consultation by phone without a need to visit a GP clinic.
This legislation ensures that medical termination procedures can be carried out by all authorised doctors. Until today, abortions could only be performed in an “approved facility”—limited to Marie Stopes and the Canberra Hospital.
In NSW, QLD, WA, Victoria and Tasmania, women can access medical abortion services to terminate a pregnancy without the need to do so in an approved facility.
The Bill also:
- Ensures that a doctor or nurse must not refuse to carry out, or to assist in carrying out, an abortion in an emergency where a woman’s health is in danger;
- Ensures that a medical practitioner must inform patients if they are exercising their right to conscientiously object;
- Clarifies the Health Act to ensure those who undertake a medical abortion are not inadvertently criminalised;
- Provides for gender neutral language, recognising that persons who do not identify as women may be capable of being pregnant, and seeking an abortion.
The Greens are pleased today to further protect the reproductive rights of women. In November 2015, a Greens bill creating privacy zones in specific areas around approved abortion clinics passed the Legislative Assembly.
Comments attributable to Greens spokesperson for Women Caroline Le Couteur:
“The passing of the Greens’ legislation today is a landmark moment for Canberrans. This reform has been well overdue. These drugs have been available on the PBS for many years: for the first time, Canberrans will be able to better access these drugs in a timely way.
“This is especially good news, given that the ACT is a progressive jurisdiction that was among the first Australian jurisdictions to decriminalise abortion.
“Access to affordable sexual and reproductive healthcare, including medical abortion, is part of every person’s right to control their own body—no matter where they live.
“We’re pleased that Canberrans will now no longer need travel across the border to Queanbeyan to access these services. This is especially important for those more vulnerable people in our community, including those experiencing domestic violence.”