How Australian Women Won the Right to Abortion
Today, the right to abortion is secure across Australia. It wasn’t won by parliamentary means, however, but by militant campaigning and union solidarity.
Protest rally in Sydney, Australia on March 21, 1979, against a motion by MP Stephen Lusher that would have denied health fund rebates for abortion. (Stevens / Fairfax Media via Getty Images).
When news hit Australia that the US Supreme Court had overturned Roe v. Wade, thousands rallied in solidarity with US women. Although there are still barriers to abortion in Australia — including restrictions and cost — the right to choose is largely taken for granted. But prior to the 1970s, abortion was a criminal offense. Thanks to an 1861 act of the British parliament that applied in the Australian colonies, abortion was punishable by a maximum penalty of life in prison.
It took decades of campaigning by doctors, lawyers, Women’s Liberation Movement (WLM) activists, and trade unions to change popular attitudes and lay the basis for reform. The political establishment tried to hold back progress, and this included politicians from the Liberal and National parties as well as the Catholic right of the Australian Labor Party (ALP). However, by the 1980s, Australian women had won the right to choose. In light of the new threat to abortion rights, it’s a history well worth revisiting today.
Anti-Choice, Pro-Death
Prior to reform, the criminalization of abortion did not stop women from obtaining the procedure — but it did expose them to a deadly risk. According to Stefania Siedlecky, a pioneering doctor, teacher, and feminist, “women who had means could attend a skilled abortionist. Otherwise, they went to someone less skilled or tried to abort themselves.” As she explains, the risk was considerably higher for working-class women, and abortion “remained the highest single cause of maternal death in Australia until the 1970s.”
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