Abortion in Australia

Abortion in Australia

Our world today is full of unsolved, devisive and controversial issues. Most

of them relate to our morals, ethics and religion, thus creating a very strong ‘yes’

and ‘no’, or ‘good’ and ‘bad’ side. Like the Chinese Yin and Yang sign, abortion

has a very prominent ‘black’ and ‘white’ side but also contains traces of each in the

alternating colour. This shows that if you were to come to any kind of conclusion

on abortion, there would still be a downside to it, and that is primarily why the

world cannot agree on this sensitive and emotional issue.

Being female myself, I can understand why a woman would want to have an

abortion. Being pregnant and wishing you weren’t is probably the worst feeling a

woman can have. Knowing that if you brought a child into the world and you

didn’t want it, or you would have to give it up for adoption is such a disheartening

way to start off, and you and the un-born child would be so much better off if

you were to terminate the pregnancy and wait for a more appropriate time, or in

the case of rape, put the past behind you and move on.

Society has attached a stigma to abortion. When we hear of women having

abortions, we seem to automatically think that she wasn’t careful enough, or she

didn’t use contraception. We forget to stop and think about the other possible

reasons she may have accidentally become pregnant. Just forgetting to take one

pill per packet can reduce it’s effectiveness and also taking anti-biotics, or being ill

can also undermine the way the pill works. Condoms can tear or be forgotten,

and emergency contraceptives like the ‘morning after’ pill are underprescribed and

not readily available. Would it surprise you that over 50% of women getting an

abortion in Britain used some form of contraception when they got pregnant?

This obviously shows that women are having huge problems with using

contraception, and something needs to be done about it now. Starting by

educating women more on the pill and the way it works, the after effects of

abortion, and the risks of having an abortion. We don’t want abortion to become

the easy way out though. People just need to know more about it and have to

satisfy specific criteria before having the pregnancy terminated, for instance by

interviews with doctor’s, given unbiased advice, and consultations with peop...

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...at Justice Menhennit ruled that abortion was legal in Australia, to protect the

life or health of the woman. This has made abortion available to all who need it,

and women can go to Family Planning Centres all over Australia and receive the

advice and support that they need. So far about 20,000 Victorian women have

an abortion in a year, but that doesn’t compare to the statistics in Britain where 1

in every 4 women will have an abortion at some stage. Lets just keep abortion as

the very last option and not travel down the path in which Britain and the USA are

heading. We don’t want babies getting thrown out in bins like vegetable waste

now do we??

Works Cited:

1) “Doctor quits, cites anti-abortion threats”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/cgi-bin/gx.cgi/AppLogic

2) “Half UK Women seeking abortion used contraception”

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/999013/sc/health_contraception_2.html

3) Abortion Information

http://www.medico.abort.jk24/ss_health.com

4) “Scotland Church Chided on Abortion”

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/19991011/wl/scotland_pregnancy_4.html

5) Abortion at Family Planning Centres

171 Berkeley Street, Carlton, 3053

Melbourne, Australia