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Women's Health West

Leading Melbourne's Western Region in advancing women's health, safety and wellbeing
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Public Support

  • There is broad based support for the removal of abortion from the Crimes Act.


  • Independent studies consistently show over 80% of Australians support the right to choose.


  • Most religious affiliations do not greatly alter these approval levels.


  • This is not a party issue - independent studies show attitudes to abortion are similar across political party affiliation.


    • The current situation

  • Abortion is the only widely practiced medical procedure in Australia that is criminalised.


  • We are currently experiencing a crisis in service provision, with only a handful of private clinics and public hospitals available in the metropolitan region and almost no services in rural and regional areas of Victoria.


  • Women are having difficulty in accessing services due to restrictive practices in some areas, particularly regional and rural parts of the state.


  • These restrictions make abortion unsafe as a result of increased costs and delays leading to later abortion.


  • The legal situation allows hospitals and doctors to avoid their responsibility to provide a full range of medical services to their communities, including reproductive health services such as abortion.


  • The current legal situation places doctors and their staff in an invidious position. It deters young doctors from training to provide abortions, it provides ammunition for those in society who harass and abuse doctors involved with abortion. This further exacerbates the crisis in service provision as older doctors retire and younger doctors do not replace them.


  • The uncertain legal status contributes to an atmosphere that allows groups of people to attack abortion clinics, and harass and intimidate women and their partners attempting to access abortion services.


    • Questions for MPs

  • Would you support the decriminalisation of abortion if it came before the Victorian parliament?


  • Would you ensure that women's control over reproductive decision-making is given the importance it deserves, by voting against any attempts to regulate abortion under the Health Act?


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