A decade on, Victoria still doesn’t have enough publicly provided, accessible abortion services
It took more than 40 years of feminist activism, three days and nights of parliamentary debate and hours-long speeches by religious right MPs railing against decriminalisation for abortion in Victoria to be taken out of the crimes act. Ten years on, this is still a powerful victory. Victoria is one of only three Australian jurisdictions where abortion is legal, despite strong community support. Given recent failures to decriminalise in Queensland and New South Wales, Victoria’s success is a reminder that change is possible.
However, the victory in Victoria is only a partial one. Decriminalisation was intended to remove big barriers to women trying to access an abortion, as well as make abortions less necessary by increasing access to contraception and reproductive health education. This should have become much easier in 2012, when medical abortions became available in Australia. This was a once-in-a-generation clinical and social breakthrough, enabling women to access abortions from their GPs, not just through hospital-based surgery. Despite that, medical abortions are far less common in Australia than in New Zealand, the UK and Europe, and there is still inadequate access to contraception services. A decade on, the promise of decriminalisation has not been realised.
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