Paying for the deception of women

Lisa Macdonald

In February, supporters of women’s right to choose abortion succeeded in removing the abortion drug RU486 from politicians’ control — including Christian fundamentalist health minister Tony Abbott — and giving it back to the medical professionals. But since that victory, the zealots have continued their anti-choice push.

Since its election in 1996, the Howard government has plotted to erode abortion rights. Given that an all-out ban would provoke massive public opposition, the politicians, with the support of the right-wing religious lobby, have concentrated on imposing other limits on women’s right to choose — most recently, Medicare rebates for terminations and access to terminations after 12 weeks’ pregnancy — in preparation for removing more later.

Howard, Abbott and the rest of their pack have also made sure that working people help finance this reactionary campaign. Apart from spending $51 million on a national “pregnancy hotline” and Medicare rebates for “counselling” for women considering abortion, our taxes are being used to fund organisations that claim to offer unbiased, professional advice to pregnant women. But those same organisations refuse to advise, provide or refer for an abortion.

In March, Australian Democrats’ Senator Natasha Stott-Despoja pointed out that the Howard government “directly funds services that are anti-choice ... those associated with the Australian Federation of Pregnancy Support Services” only. That organisation receives Commonwealth funding and is directly linked to anti-choice services. She said that there are only two dedicated pro-choice pregnancy counselling services in this nation and they receive zero federal funding.

The government-funded “counselling” services, whose main purpose is to prevent women from choosing abortion, disguise themselves with generic-sounding names such as Pregnancy Help Australia, which received $300,000 in federal funding last year. Women contact the services expecting information about all their options — abortion, adoption or keeping the child. But they are routinely told lies, such as that abortion causes breast cancer and will prevent them from becoming pregnant in the future. Callers requesting abortion clinic referrals have been yelled at and called “murderers”.

It is estimated that more than 11,000 women come into contact with these services each year. Given the enormous distress and suffering they are causing women, why are they getting away with it?

Currently, “counsellors” who don’t charge for their information (because they are government funded) are not subject to the Trades Practices Act, which prohibits misleading or deceptive advertising.

The good news is that draft legislation to ensure that federally-funded organisations provide unbiased information is now before a Senate committee, due to report on the Transparent Advertising and Notification of Pregnancy Counselling Services Bill 2005, which is sponsored by Stott Despoja, on August 17, following public hearings this month.

It is vital that this year’s RU486 victory is repeated, and that all MPs who helped beat back the right wing unite again to ensure the unamended passage of the new bill.

Women need a safe, secure environment, and comprehensive and unbiased information, to exercise their right to choose. No matter what other political, social or economic rights women have, if we have no control over whether or when we have children, any notion of having control over our lives is meaningless.

If the anti-choice forces are able to continue to whittle away women’s reproductive choices, the outcomes will be horrendous. Experience worldwide shows that when safe, supportive and affordable abortion services are not easily accessible, women continue to have abortions, but many suffer enormously — physically and mentally — in the process. Some die.

We cannot allow a return to the dark days of secretive, shame-ridden, “backyard” butchering of women. Stopping Australia’s religious right, in and outside of parliament, will require defeating every single government assault on reproductive choice. The public funding of deceptive, intimidatory, anti-choice “counselling” services is one such assault and we must campaign to end it.