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26 January 2012 – Croyden Clinic Stops Late Term Abortions The Herald Sun
Australia’s only clinic offering women late-term surgical abortions has scrapped the service sparking concerns it could lead to a rise in backyard abortions.
19 January 2012 – Range Of Contraception Should Cut Abortion Rates The Canberra Times
Three years ago, when Tony Abbott became Opposition Leader, women's groups went on the attack, convinced the man they labelled the 'Mad Monk' would set back women's progress particularly in areas like reproductive health.
How ironic that Australia now has its second female federal Health Minister and despite this, the Gillard Government shows little interest in improving the sorry state of Australia's fertility control.
11 January 2012 - Putting gender at the top of the agenda The Courier Mail
RECENT media reports have signalled an emphatic warning to Queenslanders, especially women, that the future trend in politics at the state level is ominously masculine.
6 December 2011 - Obsolete laws still rule on abortion The Courier Mail
IN OCTOBER last year, a woman faced trial in Cairns for arranging her own abortion using pills imported from overseas. Her partner was tried for helping her.
6 December 2011 - Higher pay in lean public service, Newman pledges Brisbane Times
Queensland LNP Leader Campbell Newman talks about his priorities ahead of a 2012 state election, including his position on whether changes to abortion law are needed.
21 November 2011 - Out of the shadows: changes in women's reproductive health by Dr Caroline de Costa in the Medical Journal of Australia
It was the first autopsy I attended and it left a lifelong impression. The year was 1970, and I was a medical student in Dublin.
21 October 2011 - "No u-turn on abortion: Abbott" The Age
TONY Abbott says he will not wind back the clock on abortion law should he become prime minister, and argues his personal evolution has been in a ''reassuring'' direction for progressives.
18 October - Interim report of the Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health United Nations Official Report
In the present report, the Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health considers the interaction between criminal laws and other legal restrictions relating to sexual and reproductive health and the right to health. The right to sexual and reproductive health is a fundamental part of the right to health. States must therefore ensure that this aspect of the right to health is fully realized.
17 October 2011 - Independent MP Ann Bressington's anti-abortion pamphlet furore The Australian
ANTI-ABORTION pamphlets published by MP Ann Bressington have come under fire for misleading information. Ms Bressington said she was funding the printing of 120,000 anti-abortion pamphlets to be distributed by a group who had contacted her office concerned about the practice of abortion in South Australia.
11 October 2011 - Contraception the morning after The Age
Contraceptive pills can be missed, condoms can occasionally slip off or tear and unprotected sex sometimes just happens. Thankfully, women who want to avoid an unintended pregnancy have the option of using emergency contraception.
23 September 2011 - Abortions 'won't rise due to pill' AAP
WIDER availability of the abortion pill RU486 in Australia is not expected to spark a jump in pregnancy terminations, a major sexual healthcare group says.
19 September 2011 - Man punched girlfriend to make her miscarry, court told Brisbane Times
A man punched a pregnant teenager in the stomach in the hope she would miscarry their baby, a court has heard. The 24-year-old man allegedly attacked his 19-year-old girlfriend at his home at Annerley, in Brisbane's south, on Friday. He was arrested late Friday and charged with attempting to procure an abortion and common assault.
18 September 2011 -Committed to life The Catholic Leader
DWINDLING numbers at Brisbane's annual Walk for Little Feet and other gatherings opposing the liberalisation of abortion laws in Queensland have pro-life organisers concerned. But a campaign to unseat politicians supporting abortion legislation is gearing up across Quensland.
1 September 2011 - Move for abortion drug RU486 here The Australian
MEDICAL abortion drug RU486 could be widely available from GPs in most states within months, following what is understood to be an application by a drug company to market it in Australia for the first time.
29 August 2011 - Talk choice, no time to waste The Age
Late-term abortions are sought for many reasons - rarely ones that are trivial, despite what the pro-life lobby says.
24 August 2011 - "'Save the humans': Katter Party MP on abortion" Brisbane Times
Katter's Australian Party has signalled it will not accept candidates who support gay marriage or who shun "Christian values". But maverick federal MP Bob Katter yesterday cautioned that the party did not have a policy on abortion, after his state ally Aidan McLindon spoke out against pregnancy terminations.
18 August 2011 - "RU486, sex ed and contraception. That’s all we need." by Dr Caroline de Costa writing for Mamamia
Whatever happened to RU486?
28 June 2011 - "Access to abortion: a human rights issue for Australian women" by Kate Marsh for the National Human Rights Action Plan website.
Of course there are many aspects to the area of sexual and reproductive health rights, including access to good maternity care, sexual health services, contraception and sexuality education. It also includes access to safe and legal abortion - arguably the most contested of sexual and reproductive health rights.
27 June 2011 - "Abortion furore rages after church sacks hospital board" Brisbane Times
Sacked St Andrew's Toowoomba Hospital governors are planning legal action after the Presbyterian Church of Queensland abruptly removed them from their posts amid tensions over the hospital's abortion policy and the church's influence on operations.
15 April 2011 - "Why I won't talk about abortion, euthanasia: Newman" Brisbane Times
LNP leader Campbell Newman has declined to reveal his stance on abortion and euthanasia, describing the divisive social issues as a distraction.
11 April 2011 - "Pro choice and pro voice: when women's abortion stories matter" by Kate Marsh on Online Opinion
Reading Evelyn Tsitas' article 'Abortion: grief, suffering - or relief?', I was struck by the following paragraph: "So I have no time for the women who can't get over their abortions. They obviously didn't want to have a termination in the first place. While I feel sorry for them, I also refuse to buy into the pro-life line that every abortion will cause grief". I'm pro-choice, and these words gave me pause. Is it impossible to do both? To feel compassion for women at the same time as deny anti-choice rhetoric?
5 April 2011 - "Leslie Cannold on abortion law reform" ABC TV Big Ideas
Live recording of Leslie's Pamela Denoon Lecture from International Women's Day, Sleeping dragon: the unfinished business of abortion law reform.
8 March 2011 - "Abortion law reform is still unfinished business" Sydney Morning Herald
Transcript of Leslie Cannold's International Women's Day address at the Pamela Denoon Lecture, Australian National University.
1 January 2011 - "Abortion laws hot topic in 1980 Queensland" The Age
The law in Queensland regarding abortion has always been contentious. But following renewed debate in 2010 - as the first people in the state's 110-year-old criminal code were charged with the offence - newly-released cabinet documents provide an insight into what the law might have been like.
20 December 2010 - "Study debunks theory of post-abortion syndrome" RH Reality Check
A study published this fall in the leading journal Social Science and Medicine found little support for the "abortion-as-trauma" framework pushed by anti-choice advocates who claim that a woman who chooses to terminate an unintended and untenable pregnancy is at higher risk for mental health problems because of the procedure, including everything from depression to suicide.
9 December 2010 - "Birth, pregnancy and baby helpline" ABC Radio ‘Life Matters’ [audio]
The Pregnancy, Birth and Baby helpline replaces the under-utilised pregnancy counselling service set up by the previous government in 2006 with then health minister Tony Abbott.
7 November 2011 - "Abortion on trial" ABC Radio Background Briefing
The bizarre case of young couple Tegan Leach and Sergei Brennan, who faced jail for procuring an illegal abortion using RU486, ended with the jury returning a resounding 'not guilty'. Now no-one knows what the 19th century abortion law means - not the church, and certainly not the state. Reporter Wendy Carlisle.
3 November 2010 - "Abortion: Don't Blame the Voters" ON LINE opinion
The Australian Family Association (AFA) last week released a report entitled "What Queenslanders Really Think about Abortion".
1 November 2010 - "We ask, they tell: What Qld MPs think of abortion" Brisbane Times
Queensland’s Liberal National Party has denied discouraging its MPs from freely expressing their opinions about the state’s abortion laws.
29 October 2010 - "Hospital use of abortion drug RU486 approved as doctors call for reforms" The Courier Mail
The Therapeutic Goods Administration recently authorised specialists at the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital to prescribe RU486 amid claims Queensland abortion laws were a barrier to best patient care.
27 October 2010 - "Doctors call for abortion law certainty" Brisbane Times
Queensland's abortion laws are a barrier to a doctor's first duty - best patient care, the Australian Medical Association says.
27 October 2010 - "Wrong to run from abortion reform" The Courier Mail
THERE is something deliciously ironic in the fact that an attempt to prosecute a Queensland couple under an ancient law foundered partly on the anachronistic wording of the charge itself.
25 October 2010 - "Abortion study a distortion, Get Up claims" Sydney Morning Herald
Abortion opponent the Australian Family Association (AFA) has been accused of distorting polling to show Queenslanders are evenly balanced in their attitudes to abortion law.
25 October 2010 - "Don’t mention the ‘A’ word" Sydney Morning Herald
In the past week, abortion has invaded the headlines again in Victoria and Queensland.
25 October 2010 - "Queenslanders 'evenly split' in abortion debate" Brisbane Times
Queenslanders are evenly split on whether abortion should be decriminalised, according to a new Galaxy Research poll.
24 October 2010 - "A Woman's Choice" Herald Sun
Pro-life or pro-choice? With 80,000 abortions performed in Australia each year and court cases in the news, the warring sides have never been more vocal.
22 October 2010 - "It's Legal, So Why Is RU486 So Hard To Get?" New Matilda
A not-guilty verdict in Cairns was a win for the pro-choice movement - but the criminal law isn't the only obstacle to abortion access, writes Kate Gleeson.
18 October 2010 - "When Abortion Is Actually A Crime" RH Reality Check
What kind of lessons are there to be learned at the end of the day when contemplating the verdict in the case of Tegan Leach and Sergie Brennan of Queensland, Australia?
18 October 2010 "Abortion case proves need for law change" - The Age
The prosecution of a young couple should never have proceeded.
18 October 2010 - "Abortion legalised by pair's acquittal" The Australian
The doctor who was instrumental in introducing the abortion pill to Australia has broken ranks with her colleagues.
16 October 2010 - "Noxious to a foetus, but not the mother" The Sydney Morning Herald
JURORS in the Cairns abortion trial took note of the Judge, Bill Everson's, direction that to convict the couple they must be satisfied the drugs Tegan Leach took were noxious to her own health, as distinct from that of the foetus.
16 October 2010 - "Law unto itself: abortion crime still lurks in legal shadows" The Sydney Morning Herald
A couple escaped conviction this week, but others can still be jailed in NSW and Queensland for terminating unwanted pregnancies.
15 October 2010 - "Pressure for new laws as couple free over abortion" The Age
PRO-CHOICE advocates have welcomed the acquittal of a Cairns couple charged over a home abortion and have called on the Queensland government to reform the law.
15 October 2010 - "This abortion trial should never be repeated" The Punch
It was like a morning after pill. That’s what Tegan said. That’s how they do birth control in Russia.
15 October 2010 - "Abortion laws here to stay: Qld govt" The Sydney Morning Herald
The Queensland government and opposition have agreed there will be no parliamentary debate on abortion.
15 October 2010 - "Australian Couple Found Not Guilty in Abortion Trial" Ms Magazine
Late this week, a couple accused of obtaining an illegal abortion in Queensland, Australia, was found not guilty by a District Court jury.
15 October 2010 - "Peak medical body urges law repeal" The Australian
QUEENSLAND'S peak obstetrics and gynaecology body has called for the decriminalisation of abortion.
15 October 2010 - "Civil libertarians push for abortion law change" ABC
Civil libertarians say this week's far north Queensland abortion trial has highlighted major deficiencies in the law.
14 October 2010 - "Outcome of Cairns abortion case highlights need for legislative changes" Amnesty International
Amnesty International believes that the acquittal today of a young couple in Cairns charged with procuring an abortion is a clear sign that it is time to decriminalise abortion across Australia in line with the country’s international human rights commitments.
14 October 2010 - "Couple not guilty in abortion trial" ABC
A District Court jury in far north Queensland has found a Cairns couple accused of procuring an illegal abortion not guilty.
14 October 2010 - "Australian couple will not go to prison for abortion" Feministing
Last night, the couple being tried in the Australian state of Queensland was found not guilty on all charges of obtaining an illegal abortion and of supplying the drugs to do so.
14 October 2010 - "Abortion trial sparks legislation debate" ABC
The outcome of the trial of a Cairns couple, accused of procuring an illegal abortion, has sparked calls for Queensland's abortion laws to be overhauled.
14 October 2010 - "Judge to sum up in abortion trial" ABC
The trial for a far north Queensland couple charged over an illegal abortion is expected to finish in Cairns today.
14 October 2010 - "A precedent set in Queensland abortion law, what next?" The Dawn Chorus
As many of you will be aware, earlier today Tegan Simone Leach and Sergie Brennan – charged with “procuring an abortion and supplying drugs to procure an abortion” – were acquitted at trial.
13 October 2010 - "Queensland Abortion Trial May Revolve Around One Word: 'Noxious'" RH Reality Check
The Queensland abortion trial is no doubt the most historic reproductive rights case in Australia.
13 October 2010 - "Blaming women not the answer to abortion law reform" Crikey
Reproductive freedom is one of the most controversial human rights in the globe.
13 October 2010 - "UPDATED: The couple facing jail because they tried to ‘procure an abortion’. Hello, Queensland? It’s 2010." MamaMia
A Cairns couple charged over a home abortion have been found not guilty.
12 October 2010 - "Abortion trial reinforces Queensland stereotypes" The Sydney Morning Herald
Growing up in Queensland, you get to know what the rest of Australia thinks about your home state.
12 October 2010 - "PHAA Calls For QLD To Decriminalise Abortion" Web Child
The Public Health Association of Australia (PHAA) has today called on the Queensland State Parliament to decriminalise abortion in that state.
12 October 2010 - "Abortion case - MP Bonny Barry has apologised" The Cairns Post
FORMER State MP Bonny Barry has apologised for not leading the charge to pass reforms to Queensland's controversial abortion laws while she had the chance.
12 October 2010 - "Abortion law stuck in the 19th century" The Sydney Morning Herald
Queensland's first abortion trial in 24 years begins today in the Cairns District Court.
12 October 2010 - "Couple plead not guilty to home abortion" News.com.au
A YOUNG Queensland man and woman have pleaded not guilty to procuring her abortion, as a vigil outside the courtroom continues.
7 October 2010 - "NATIONAL: Women And GPs Want Abortion To Be A Right…Not A Crime" Marie stopes International Australia
Marie Stopes International Australia today urged state and territory governments to review current abortion laws following a new survey which found that the majority of Australian women and GPs support the removal of abortion from the Criminal Code.
12 October 2010 - "Abortion trial is not just about women" The Sydney Morning Herald
Today, a young Cairns couple go on trial charged under the archaic abortion section of Queensland's criminal code with procuring an illegal abortion. If found guilty, the young woman could face up to seven years in prison, and her partner could face three years.
2 October 2010 - "Abortion trial - Cairns activists speak out" The Green Left Weekly
Green Left Weekly’s Angela Walker spoke to Carole Ford, a founding member of Pro Choice Cairns, about the upcoming trial of a young Cairns couple.
12 September 2010 - "Abortion trial risks women's reproductive freedom" The Scavenger
The charges brought against a young couple from Queensland for taking the RU486 pill have dangerous ramifications for all Australian women.
21 July 2010 - 'Abortion trial 'strange, bizarre'' The Australian
A Young woman and her boyfriend will stand trial in Queensland in October for illegally procuring an abortion.
20 July 2010 - 'RU486 abortion trial set for October' Brisbane Times
A young Queensland couple on criminal charges over a home abortion will face trial in October.
9 July 2010 - 'Doctor calls for greater abortion discussion' ABC Online
A far north Queensland doctor who was the first in Australia to administer the abortion pill RU486 says there should be more public discussion on the issue.
8 July 2010 - 'Challenging Australia's abortion laws' ABC Radio National
Next month a Cairns woman, Tegan Leach, faces a Queensland District Court charged with attempting to procure an abortion under a 111-year-old provision of the Queensland criminal code, one which carries a maximum of seven years' jail.
5 July 2010 - 'Strong support for abortion heartens law reform supporters' Sydney Morning Herald
Campaigners for abortion law reform in NSW have welcomed the results of a national survey showing substantial support for mid- to late-term abortion in certain circumstances.
5 July 2010 - 'Support for decriminalised abortion in Australia' The Courier Mail
Almost 90 per cent of Australians believe abortion in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy should be lawful.
5 July 2010 - 'Late term abortion gets OK' The Australian
Most Australians support allowing women to have late-term abortions in at least some circumstances.
28 June 2010 - 'RU486 abortion trial without precedent in Australian court' The Australian
The impending trial of a young Queensland woman for allegedly illegally aborting her pregnancy has no precedent in Australia.
3 March 2010 - 'Women to voice support for abortion' City South News
Pro-abortion campaigners will use the International Women's Day rally on Saturday in Brisbane's CBD to protest against those who want the practice banned.
17 February 2010 - 'Abortion, Queensland, and a law unchanged since 1861' Crikey
Late last year, a young Australian woman whom I will call Joanne* was delighted to find that her home pregnancy test was positive. She and her partner had been hoping for some time for this moment - the pregnancy was very much wanted.
29 December 2009 - 'Premier Bligh rejects bid for abortion law reform' The Australian
A push by doctors and pro-choice activists to have abortion decriminalised in Queensland has been formally refused.
28 December 2009 - 'Queensland abortion law overhaul dismissed' Brisbane Times
The Bligh Government has formally rejected a fresh push to decriminalise abortion in Queensland.
24 November 2009 - 'Doctors fear abortion changes won't be enough' The Australian
Queensland doctors say changes to the state's abortion laws designed to give them immunity from prosecution still leave them at risk of legal action if they perform the procedure.
6 November 2009 - 'Cairns woman sent to Darwin for abortion' The Cairns Post
A Cairns woman is being sent to Darwin to have her abnormal foetus aborted because local doctors fear they will be jailed if they perform the operation here.
31 October 2009 - 'Pain of abortion even harder for women who have to go interstate' The Australian
Shay's baby boy lives in the memory box they gave her after she made her forlorn way from Brisbane to Lismore to end his life.
26 October 2009 - 'Qld Health considering abortion consent form' ABC Online
Queensland Health says it is considering a request from doctors to introduce a consent form for women faced with having an abortion for medical reasons.
26 October 2009 - 'Abortion women told: get a lawyer' The Australian
Women having abortions arising from birth defects or other medical problems will be advised by the Queensland government to get their own legal advice on whether they risk criminal prosecution.
10 October 2009 - 'Some doctors 'nursing objection' to abortion law' The Age
SOME doctors are refusing to comply with Victoria's new abortion laws, according to an opponent of the legislation, which was passed one year ago today.
10 October 2009 - 'Time to stop dragging our heels on abortion law reform' The Sydney Morning Herald
Abortion is more or less legal in all states - but it's not supposed to be mentioned or owned up to in polite society. It's like cancer used to be - secret and shameful.
5 October 2009 - 'Anna Bligh challenged on abortion stance' The Australian
NEW research showing MPs and voters in Queensland would back the decriminalisation of abortion undermines Premier Anna Bligh's assertion that reform of the existing law is a lost cause.
5 October 2009 - 'Red tape stress over abortions' The Courier Mail
WOMEN referred interstate for late terminations are having to find thousands of dollars to pay upfront medical fees and travel expenses because Queensland Health is taking 10 days to approve costs.
19 September 2009 - 'Abortion couple not aware they broke law' The Sydney Morning Herald
The young woman facing jail for procuring an abortion was fearful of surgery and oblivious of the legal ramifications, writes Cosima Marriner.
18 September 2009 - 'Terminations with prejudice The Sydney Morning Herald Tegan Leach, 19, and her boyfriend, Sergie Brennan, 21, said they had no idea they were committing a crime. Neither did I, which shows how far from the real world I live.
18 September 2009 - 'Abortion stand-off continues — and Queenslanders pay'Crikey
The case of the young Cairns couple charged with procuring an abortion will now proceed to a jury trial in the District Court, although the date for this has not been set and may be months away. Meanwhile, the couple, on bail, are hunkered down in a new and hopefully secure residence following the intense publicity the case has generated for them and a firebomb attack on their previous home.
15 September 2009 - 'Two thirds support abortion law change: poll' The Courier Mail
ALMOST two-thirds of Queenslanders support the decriminalisation of abortion, according to an exclusive Galaxy opinion poll.
15 September 2009 - 'Cairns abortion trial outrage' Westender
Queensland pro-choice supporters declare they will intensify campaign against Cairns abortion charges.
8th September 2009 - 'Abortion is a health issue' Civil Liberties Australia
Abortion is a difficult societal issue where health concerns are paramount. Women should have the right to make decisions about their own bodies. Laws around the issue of abortion should be based on health grounds, not criminal penalties.
4th September 2009 - 'No drug evidence in abortion case' The Australian
POLICE do not have physical evidence of the drugs alleged to have been used by a Cairns teenager in a self-administered abortion, a court has heard.
4th September 2009 - 'Greens urge uniform abortion laws' The Sydney Morning Herald
The federal government is not considering implementing nationally consistent abortion laws, Health Minister Nicola Roxon says.
4th September 2009 - 'Women to have say on abortion pill' The Age
MELBOURNE'S Royal Women's Hospital will be able to offer the abortion pill RU486 to more women, after the Federal Government broadened its licence to prescribe the drug.
4th September 2009 - 'Abortion case stirs calls for law overhaul' The Sydney Morning Herald
WHEN 19-year-old Tegan Simone Leach found she was pregnant late last year, she and her boyfriend, Sergie Brennan, 21, consulted their mothers.
3rd September 2009 - 'Abortion amendments pass Qld Parliament' ABC
The Queensland Parliament has passed amendments to the state's criminal code that will protect doctors who perform medical procedures, including drug-induced abortions.
3rd September 2009 - 'Abortion law changes pass' The Courier Mail
LATEST:TECHNICAL changes to Queensland's abortion laws have passed State Parliament with the opposition of just one MP - independent Liz Cunningham.
3rd September 2009 - 'Queensland abortion law change to spark vexed debate' The Courier Mail
A TECHNICAL change to Queensland's abortion laws to be rushed through Parliament today could prompt full-blown debate on the issue of pregnancy termination.
3rd September 2009 - 'Abortion accused awaits decision on trial' ABC
A Cairns magistrate has reserved her decision on whether a far north Queensland couple will face trial on charges of illegally procuring an abortion.
3rd September 2009 - 'Qld abortion laws under scrutiny' ABC 'The 7.30 Report'
LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: The Queensland Government remains at loggerheads with obstetricians this evening over the state's abortion laws.
2nd September 2009 - 'Amendments to Queensland's abortion laws do not go far enough, lawyers say.' ABC Local
The Queensland Government introduced a bill of amendments on Tuesday evening to offer protection to doctors carrying out medical abortions in Queensland, following a legal row in state hospitals over the procedure.
1st September 2009 - 'Legal precedent protects abortion doctors' Brisbane Times
A little known legal precedent set in Queensland about 20 years ago will protect obstetricians who perform drug-induced abortions from criminal conviction, a medical law expert says.
31st August 2009 - 'Queensland abortion laws to be changed' The Sydney Morning Herald
The Queensland government is expected to change abortion laws this week to give more legal protection to doctors who perform medical abortions.
31st August 2009 - 'Qld women forced interstate for abortions' ABC
A prominent Brisbane obstetrician says the health of Queensland women will be in danger if the state's hospitals continue to restrict access to abortions.
25th August 2009 - 'Queensland Parliament has no choice but to act on abortion laws' Crikey
The Queensland government has tried their best for a quite a few years to ignore the calls to change the state’s laws on abortion.
25th August 2009 - 'Hospitals Demand Certainty on Abortion' New Matilda
Anna Bligh has been forced to act on abortion law after a revolt by public hospitals over the issue. But her changes don't go far enough, writes Anna Greer.
24th August 2009 - 'Abortion statute on cards for repeal' The Australian
OFFICIALS in Queensland have raised the possibility that a statute banning women from procuring their own miscarriage would be repealed as part of a review of the state's century-old abortion law.
24th August 2009 - 'Qld abortion law re-write cowardly' Brisbane Times
Pro-choice advocates have slammed the State Government's move to rewrite part of its contentious law on abortion without decriminalising the practice as "cowardly".
22nd August 2009 - 'Abortion may be an emotive and thorny issue, but it shouldn’t be a crime' Sydney Morning Herald
Parallel universe time.
22nd August 2009 - 'Bligh widens abortion law as doctors revolt' The Australian
THE Queensland government will rewrite part of its contentious law on abortion to avert a revolt by public hospital doctors refusing to perform drug-induced terminations.
22nd August 2009 - 'Vigil for abortion law reform' Green Left
Doctors at the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital will no longer perform medical terminations due to legal uncertainty, after criminal charges were laid against a 19-year-old woman and her partner in Cairns for allegedly procuring an abortion, said the August 21 Australian.
21st August 2009 - 'Bligh to rewrite law to abortion to protect doctors' The Australian
QUEENSLAND will rewrite part of its hotly contested law on abortion to accommodate doctors' concerns that they may be liable to criminal prosecution for performing drug-induced terminations.
21st August 2009 - 'Queensland doctors advised to stop medical abortions' ABC Radio National
During the Bjelke-Petersen era in Queensland, it was well known that women who wanted abortions would cross the NSW border in numbers, heading for Tweed Heads to have their termination outside the jurisdiction of Queensland's more restrictive laws. Now, it could be happening again.
21st August 2009 - 'UQ law academic calls for abortion law reform' UQ News
Abortion laws in Queensland are out of date and in urgent need of reform, according to a University of Queensland law academic.
21st August 2009 - 'Ruling to shift abortions interstate' The Australian
QUEENSLAND women facing the trauma of a medical abortion will have to cross the border for the procedure because the state's biggest hospital has scrapped its service, forcing the state government to review its controversial laws on abortion.
18th August 2009 - 'Pro-choice petition won’t go before Parliament' ABC News
A pro-choice campaigner says she is disappointed a petition demanding abortion law reform, with more than 800 signatures from residents in Cairns, in far north Queensland, has not been tabled in State Parliament.
18th August 2009 - 'Bligh legalises non-profit surrogacy' The Australian
QUEENSLAND has fallen into line with the rest of the country by decriminalising not-for-profit surrogacy.
18th August 2009 - 'Premier faces call to act on abortion' The Australian
LABOR senator Claire Moore has urged Anna Bligh to swing behind a renewed push to decriminalise abortion in Queensland, saying the Premier could "not hide" from the use of the existing law to prosecute a young couple in Cairns.
18th August 2009 - 'Abortion petition rejected' The Cairns Post
A PETITION signed by more than 800 Cairns residents supporting abortion law reform has been thrown out of State Parliament.
17th August 2009 - 'Draft abortion laws ready for Anna Bligh' The Australian
A FORMER Labor MP has revealed the existence of draft legislation to decriminalise abortion in Queensland, increasing pressure on Premier Anna Bligh to act.
16th August 2009 - 'Full access to RU486 – abortion is a woman’s choice' Green Left
Access to safe medical and surgical abortion is a right that women have fought for and are still to fully achieve.
11th August 2009 - 'One step forward, two steps back' The Age
THIS week's announcement by Marie Stopes International that clients of its clinics in Victoria, NSW, Queensland, the ACT and Western Australia can now terminate pregnancies at less than nine weeks using RU486 is one more step in Australian women's struggle for full equality and reproductive rights.
11th August 2009 - 'Abortion pill rules loosened at clinic'The Australian
AUSTRALIA'S drug regulator has accepted that it is safer for women to terminate pregnancy than to give birth, clearing the way for dramatically wider use of the abortion pill, RU486.
11th August 2009 - 'More approvals for RU486' ABC Radio National
The abortion drug RU486 is very restricted in Australia.
10th August 2009 - 'RU486 access ‘won’t cause more abortions' Australian Associated Press
DISPENSING the abortion pill RU486 from community-based clinics will not lead to more terminations, said the not-for-profit sexual health service behind the move.
10th August 2009 - 'Abortion pill available to more women'Australian Associated Press
THE abortion pill RU486 will become more widely available in Australia after a not-for-profit sexual health group was approved to use the drug in its clinics.
10th August 2009 - 'Abortion pill to be widely available' The Brisbane Times
MEDICAL abortion is about to become more widely available across Australia, after not-for-profit sexual health organisation Marie Stopes International won the right to use the so-called 'abortion pill' RU486 in its clinics.
10th August 2009 - 'Women given more access to abortion pill' ABC News
The medical abortion drug RU486, or mifepristone, will now be more widely available in Australia.
8th August 2009 - 'Abortion accused speaks out';The Weekend Australian
THE couple charged with breaching Queensland's century-old abortion laws, triggering the first prosecution of its kind, have told of how they were firebombed out of their home near Cairns.
8th August 2009 - 'Caught in abortion crossfire'The Weekend Australian
SPARE a thought for Tegan Leach and her boyfriend, Sergie Brennan. Late last year they were faced with a decision 100,000-odd Australian women make annually: Leach, 19, had become pregnant and, after talking things through with her partner, is alleged by police to have resolved not to have the baby.
6th August 2009 - 'Pious pill posturers blind themselves to women's real pain' The Australian
THERE are lots of myths about early miscarriage. Two of the common ones are (a) that it's no big deal because no one could have bonded with a biological barnacle that looks like something someone stepped on in a garden in Eraserhead and (b) that it's fast. Neither is true.
5th August 2009 - 'Abortion: “we will uphold the law,” police' Brisbane Times
Queensland Police will not reveal whether they are investigating any women following revelations a controversial abortion drug sold on the black-market overseas is being smuggled into the state.
5th August 2009 - 'Murder hunt led to abortion pair' The Australian
CAIRNS teenager Tegan Leach, facing up to seven years' jail under Queensland law for procuring her own abortion, came to the attention of police with her 21-year-old boyfriend during an unrelated murder hunt in the northern city.
4th August 2009 - 'Abortion laws 'feed illegal drug trade'' ABC Radio National
The president of the Australian College of Obstetricians has renewed the call for abortion to be decriminalised throughout Australia.
4th August 2009 - 'Trade in abortion drugs exposed' The Australian
A VETERAN Brisbane obstetrician has blown the whistle on a new form of backyard abortion, involving contraband supplies of the controversial drug RU486 smuggled into the country for women to terminate their own pregnancies.
1st August 2009 - 'Scared kids in abortion case first' The Weekend Australia
TEGAN Simone Leach was 19, pregnant and "scared" when her boyfriend's sister arrived in Cairns last Christmas Day with a consignment of contraband tablets and doctor's instructions written in Ukrainian.
30th July 2009 - 'Queensland Rising' episode of ABC TV’s Q&A
Premier Anna Bligh appeared on live-to-air interactive panel show Q&A and was asked why she had failed to act on abortion law reform, given a young woman is facing charges under Queensland’s archaic abortion laws in the Criminal Code.
14th July 2009 - 'Misinformation abounds in abortion case' Crikey
Last Wednesday, 8 July, in the Cairns Magistrates’ Court, the case against a young woman charged with procuring her own abortion was adjourned until September 3, when she will face two days of committal hearings.
8th July 2009 - 'Woman charged for using abortion pill' Australian Associated Press
A YOUNG woman charged with procuring her own miscarriage will face a committal hearing alongside her boyfriend in September.
2nd July 2009 - 'You can’t be just a little bit pro-choice' New Matilda
Were Anna Bligh's public comments on an abortion case in Queensland deliberately misleading, or just an honest mistake?
18th June 2009 - 'Abortion case put off' The Cairns Post
A YOUNG couple accused of attempting to procure an abortion have had their case adjourned.
13th June 2009 -'Abortion reform too hard to swallow' The Australian
ANNA Bligh can look back on the week after the biggest gamble of her political life with some satisfaction. The ALP state conference last weekend broadly backed her plan to sell off $15 billion worth of state assets, with even union opposition muted.
13th June 2009 - 'On a legal knife’s edge' The Cairns Post
Despite abortions being performed in Queensland for years, a 19-year-old woman and her partner were recently charged in Cairns.
13th June 2009 - 'Qld abortion debate heats up' Green Left
Last week was one of much activity in the regional city of Cairns, as the push for abortion law reform in the state shows no sign of slowing down.
12th June 2009 - 'The abortion law reform saga continues in Queensland' Crikey
In the Cairns Magistrates’ Court yesterday the case against a young woman and her partner, accused of procuring an abortion for the woman in December last year using the drug misoprostol, was adjourned until 18 June.
12th June 2009 -'Anna Bligh flouts state ALP policy to pursue abortion-drug charge' The Australian
QUEENSLAND Premier Anna Bligh has defended the state's right to charge a 19-year-old Cairns woman with procuring an abortion with the controversial drug RU486, despite the ALP state conference last weekend reaffirming that the offence should be abolished.
11th June 2009 -'Govt urged to change QLD abortion laws' ABC News
A Cairns women's group is calling on the Queensland Government to amend the criminal code to repeal abortion laws.
11th June 2009 - 'Cairns woman to face court over abortion' Brisbane Times
Abortion doctors are being urged to "down tools" while a 19-year-old Cairns woman and her partner face court on criminal abortion charges.
11th June 2009 - 'Abortion doctors stop medical abortions' ABC Far North Queensland
19-year-old Cairns woman Tegan Simone Leach, is reappearing in Cairns Magistrates' Court today charged with procuring a miscarriage.
10th June 2009 - 'Doctors stop abortions'The Cairns Post
DOCTORS across Queensland have been advised not to provide medical abortions over fears they may face prosecution.
7th June 2009 - 'Where rights, medicine and law collide' Sydney Morning Herald
LAST YEAR an Australian woman undertook a medical procedure. This week she and her boyfriend will face court because of it, charged with a crime. If found guilty, the 19-year-old and her 21-year-old boyfriend could get 10 years' jail.
3rd June 2009 - 'Abortion drug caught in legal loophole' ABC 'Lateline'
The use of legal drug RU486, which is used in abortions, is in question after a 19-year-old Cairns woman was charged with procuring an abortion and could face up to 14 years in jail.
3rd June 2009 - 'Abortion doctor halts pill supply' The Courier Mail
CONTROVERSIAL Cairns doctor Caroline de Costa has stopped dispensing the abortion pill RU486 for fear of criminal prosecution.
2nd June 2009 -'Legal issues lead Cairns doctors to cease medical abortion' Crikey
As senior medical practitioners who for the past three years have been offering medical abortion services to women in Far North Queensland, it is with great regret that we announce that we are, at least temporarily, ceasing this practice.
2nd May 2009 - 'Abortion: a woman’s choice' Green Left
On March 21, Anna Bligh’s election victory night, she answered a question from a journalist about how it felt to be the first female premier to be elected in Australia. She suggested the snide remarks made when she was a young woman, about Queensland being a “backward” state, could now be laid to rest.
28th April 2009 - 'Queensland abortion prosecution' ABC Radio Law Report
A young Queensland woman has been charged with procuring her own abortion after she allegedly ingested a drug imported from the Ukraine. Pro-choice activists say the charges make it very clear that Queensland's abortion laws need reform.
22nd April 2009 - 'Queensland’s ‘antiquated and repressive’ abortion laws' Crikey
The headline in the Cairns Post of 17 April summed it up well: “Miscarriage of justice”. On the previous day in the Cairns Magistrates’ Court, a 19-year-old woman was charged with procuring her own abortion.
21st April 2009 - 'Abortion debate reignites in Queensland' ABC Radio 'PM'
For the first time in at least 50 years a Queensland woman has been charged with organising her own abortion. The 19-year-old from Cairns in the state's far north faces up to 14 years in jail after allegedly bringing in an illegal drug from overseas to carry out the procedure.
21st April 2009 - 'Pro-abortion lobbyists rally for teenager' The Courier Mail
A CAIRNS teenager who allegedly self-aborted at two months with an abortion pill smuggled in from overseas has gained support from the pro-choice lobby.
16th March 2009 - 'State falls behind the times' The Courier Mail
ONE of the donations I make each year is to the Women's Access Fund which raises money to assist disadvantaged Queensland women seeking an abortion.
12th March 2009 - 'Both sides vow no change on abortion' The Australian
ABORTION is likely to remain a crime in Queensland regardless of who wins government.
13th October 2008 - 'Late-term desperation' The Australian
YOU may recall two weeks ago hearing on the radio or reading in your morning newspaper a few bleak details about a 12-year-old girl who was 18 weeks pregnant and whom the Queensland Supreme Court had ordered to undergo a late-term abortion.
26th October 2008 - 'Judge allows 12-year-old an abortion' The Courier Mail
IN a landmark case, a Supreme Court judge has given permission for a 12-year-old girl to have an abortion.
22nd January 2008 - 'Why abortion law reform is also needed in Queensland' Crikey
Abortion law in Australia is state law, and the law varies considerably from one jurisdiction to another. Currently in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland abortion is still covered by the Criminal Codes.
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How ironic that Australia now has its second female federal Health Minister and despite this, the Gillard Government shows little interest in improving the sorry state of Australia's fertility control.
The Australian Family Association (AFA) last week released a report entitled "What Queenslanders Really Think about Abortion".
1 November 2010 - "We ask, they tell: What Qld MPs think of abortion" Brisbane Times
Queensland’s Liberal National Party has denied discouraging its MPs from freely expressing their opinions about the state’s abortion laws.
29 October 2010 - "Hospital use of abortion drug RU486 approved as doctors call for reforms" The Courier Mail
The Therapeutic Goods Administration recently authorised specialists at the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital to prescribe RU486 amid claims Queensland abortion laws were a barrier to best patient care.
27 October 2010 - "Doctors call for abortion law certainty" Brisbane Times
Queensland's abortion laws are a barrier to a doctor's first duty - best patient care, the Australian Medical Association says.
THERE is something deliciously ironic in the fact that an attempt to prosecute a Queensland couple under an ancient law foundered partly on the anachronistic wording of the charge itself.
25 October 2010 - "Abortion study a distortion, Get Up claims" Sydney Morning Herald
Abortion opponent the Australian Family Association (AFA) has been accused of distorting polling to show Queenslanders are evenly balanced in their attitudes to abortion law.
In the past week, abortion has invaded the headlines again in Victoria and Queensland.
25 October 2010 - "Queenslanders 'evenly split' in abortion debate" Brisbane Times
Queenslanders are evenly split on whether abortion should be decriminalised, according to a new Galaxy Research poll.
24 October 2010 - "A Woman's Choice" Herald Sun
Pro-life or pro-choice? With 80,000 abortions performed in Australia each year and court cases in the news, the warring sides have never been more vocal.
22 October 2010 - "It's Legal, So Why Is RU486 So Hard To Get?" New Matilda
A not-guilty verdict in Cairns was a win for the pro-choice movement - but the criminal law isn't the only obstacle to abortion access, writes Kate Gleeson.
What kind of lessons are there to be learned at the end of the day when contemplating the verdict in the case of Tegan Leach and Sergie Brennan of Queensland, Australia?
The prosecution of a young couple should never have proceeded.
The doctor who was instrumental in introducing the abortion pill to Australia has broken ranks with her colleagues.
JURORS in the Cairns abortion trial took note of the Judge, Bill Everson's, direction that to convict the couple they must be satisfied the drugs Tegan Leach took were noxious to her own health, as distinct from that of the foetus.
A couple escaped conviction this week, but others can still be jailed in NSW and Queensland for terminating unwanted pregnancies.
PRO-CHOICE advocates have welcomed the acquittal of a Cairns couple charged over a home abortion and have called on the Queensland government to reform the law.
It was like a morning after pill. That’s what Tegan said. That’s how they do birth control in Russia.
The Queensland government and opposition have agreed there will be no parliamentary debate on abortion.
Late this week, a couple accused of obtaining an illegal abortion in Queensland, Australia, was found not guilty by a District Court jury.
QUEENSLAND'S peak obstetrics and gynaecology body has called for the decriminalisation of abortion.
Civil libertarians say this week's far north Queensland abortion trial has highlighted major deficiencies in the law.
Amnesty International believes that the acquittal today of a young couple in Cairns charged with procuring an abortion is a clear sign that it is time to decriminalise abortion across Australia in line with the country’s international human rights commitments.
A District Court jury in far north Queensland has found a Cairns couple accused of procuring an illegal abortion not guilty.
Last night, the couple being tried in the Australian state of Queensland was found not guilty on all charges of obtaining an illegal abortion and of supplying the drugs to do so.
14 October 2010 - "Abortion trial sparks legislation debate" ABC
The outcome of the trial of a Cairns couple, accused of procuring an illegal abortion, has sparked calls for Queensland's abortion laws to be overhauled.
The trial for a far north Queensland couple charged over an illegal abortion is expected to finish in Cairns today.
As many of you will be aware, earlier today Tegan Simone Leach and Sergie Brennan – charged with “procuring an abortion and supplying drugs to procure an abortion” – were acquitted at trial.
Reproductive freedom is one of the most controversial human rights in the globe.
A Cairns couple charged over a home abortion have been found not guilty.
Growing up in Queensland, you get to know what the rest of Australia thinks about your home state.
The Public Health Association of Australia (PHAA) has today called on the Queensland State Parliament to decriminalise abortion in that state.
FORMER State MP Bonny Barry has apologised for not leading the charge to pass reforms to Queensland's controversial abortion laws while she had the chance.
Queensland's first abortion trial in 24 years begins today in the Cairns District Court.
12 October 2010 - "Couple plead not guilty to home abortion" News.com.au
A YOUNG Queensland man and woman have pleaded not guilty to procuring her abortion, as a vigil outside the courtroom continues.
Marie Stopes International Australia today urged state and territory governments to review current abortion laws following a new survey which found that the majority of Australian women and GPs support the removal of abortion from the Criminal Code.
Today, a young Cairns couple go on trial charged under the archaic abortion section of Queensland's criminal code with procuring an illegal abortion. If found guilty, the young woman could face up to seven years in prison, and her partner could face three years.
21 July 2010 - 'Abortion trial 'strange, bizarre'' The Australian
A Young woman and her boyfriend will stand trial in Queensland in October for illegally procuring an abortion.
20 July 2010 - 'RU486 abortion trial set for October' Brisbane Times
A young Queensland couple on criminal charges over a home abortion will face trial in October.
9 July 2010 - 'Doctor calls for greater abortion discussion' ABC Online
A far north Queensland doctor who was the first in Australia to administer the abortion pill RU486 says there should be more public discussion on the issue.
Next month a Cairns woman, Tegan Leach, faces a Queensland District Court charged with attempting to procure an abortion under a 111-year-old provision of the Queensland criminal code, one which carries a maximum of seven years' jail.
Campaigners for abortion law reform in NSW have welcomed the results of a national survey showing substantial support for mid- to late-term abortion in certain circumstances.
Almost 90 per cent of Australians believe abortion in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy should be lawful.
Most Australians support allowing women to have late-term abortions in at least some circumstances.
The impending trial of a young Queensland woman for allegedly illegally aborting her pregnancy has no precedent in Australia.
Pro-abortion campaigners will use the International Women's Day rally on Saturday in Brisbane's CBD to protest against those who want the practice banned.
Late last year, a young Australian woman whom I will call Joanne* was delighted to find that her home pregnancy test was positive. She and her partner had been hoping for some time for this moment - the pregnancy was very much wanted.
29 December 2009 - 'Premier Bligh rejects bid for abortion law reform' The Australian
A push by doctors and pro-choice activists to have abortion decriminalised in Queensland has been formally refused.
28 December 2009 - 'Queensland abortion law overhaul dismissed' Brisbane Times
The Bligh Government has formally rejected a fresh push to decriminalise abortion in Queensland.
24 November 2009 - 'Doctors fear abortion changes won't be enough' The Australian
Queensland doctors say changes to the state's abortion laws designed to give them immunity from prosecution still leave them at risk of legal action if they perform the procedure.
6 November 2009 - 'Cairns woman sent to Darwin for abortion' The Cairns Post
A Cairns woman is being sent to Darwin to have her abnormal foetus aborted because local doctors fear they will be jailed if they perform the operation here.
31 October 2009 - 'Pain of abortion even harder for women who have to go interstate' The Australian
Shay's baby boy lives in the memory box they gave her after she made her forlorn way from Brisbane to Lismore to end his life.
26 October 2009 - 'Qld Health considering abortion consent form' ABC Online
Queensland Health says it is considering a request from doctors to introduce a consent form for women faced with having an abortion for medical reasons.
26 October 2009 - 'Abortion women told: get a lawyer' The Australian
Women having abortions arising from birth defects or other medical problems will be advised by the Queensland government to get their own legal advice on whether they risk criminal prosecution.
10 October 2009 - 'Some doctors 'nursing objection' to abortion law' The Age
SOME doctors are refusing to comply with Victoria's new abortion laws, according to an opponent of the legislation, which was passed one year ago today.
10 October 2009 - 'Time to stop dragging our heels on abortion law reform' The Sydney Morning Herald
Abortion is more or less legal in all states - but it's not supposed to be mentioned or owned up to in polite society. It's like cancer used to be - secret and shameful.
5 October 2009 - 'Anna Bligh challenged on abortion stance' The Australian
NEW research showing MPs and voters in Queensland would back the decriminalisation of abortion undermines Premier Anna Bligh's assertion that reform of the existing law is a lost cause.
5 October 2009 - 'Red tape stress over abortions' The Courier Mail
WOMEN referred interstate for late terminations are having to find thousands of dollars to pay upfront medical fees and travel expenses because Queensland Health is taking 10 days to approve costs.
19 September 2009 - 'Abortion couple not aware they broke law' The Sydney Morning Herald
The young woman facing jail for procuring an abortion was fearful of surgery and oblivious of the legal ramifications, writes Cosima Marriner.
18 September 2009 - 'Terminations with prejudice The Sydney Morning Herald Tegan Leach, 19, and her boyfriend, Sergie Brennan, 21, said they had no idea they were committing a crime. Neither did I, which shows how far from the real world I live.
18 September 2009 - 'Abortion stand-off continues — and Queenslanders pay'Crikey
The case of the young Cairns couple charged with procuring an abortion will now proceed to a jury trial in the District Court, although the date for this has not been set and may be months away. Meanwhile, the couple, on bail, are hunkered down in a new and hopefully secure residence following the intense publicity the case has generated for them and a firebomb attack on their previous home.
15 September 2009 - 'Two thirds support abortion law change: poll' The Courier Mail
ALMOST two-thirds of Queenslanders support the decriminalisation of abortion, according to an exclusive Galaxy opinion poll.
15 September 2009 - 'Cairns abortion trial outrage' Westender
Queensland pro-choice supporters declare they will intensify campaign against Cairns abortion charges.
8th September 2009 - 'Abortion is a health issue' Civil Liberties Australia
Abortion is a difficult societal issue where health concerns are paramount. Women should have the right to make decisions about their own bodies. Laws around the issue of abortion should be based on health grounds, not criminal penalties.
4th September 2009 - 'No drug evidence in abortion case' The Australian
POLICE do not have physical evidence of the drugs alleged to have been used by a Cairns teenager in a self-administered abortion, a court has heard.
4th September 2009 - 'Greens urge uniform abortion laws' The Sydney Morning Herald
The federal government is not considering implementing nationally consistent abortion laws, Health Minister Nicola Roxon says.
4th September 2009 - 'Women to have say on abortion pill' The Age
MELBOURNE'S Royal Women's Hospital will be able to offer the abortion pill RU486 to more women, after the Federal Government broadened its licence to prescribe the drug.
4th September 2009 - 'Abortion case stirs calls for law overhaul' The Sydney Morning Herald
WHEN 19-year-old Tegan Simone Leach found she was pregnant late last year, she and her boyfriend, Sergie Brennan, 21, consulted their mothers.
3rd September 2009 - 'Abortion amendments pass Qld Parliament' ABC
The Queensland Parliament has passed amendments to the state's criminal code that will protect doctors who perform medical procedures, including drug-induced abortions.
3rd September 2009 - 'Abortion law changes pass' The Courier Mail
LATEST:TECHNICAL changes to Queensland's abortion laws have passed State Parliament with the opposition of just one MP - independent Liz Cunningham.
3rd September 2009 - 'Queensland abortion law change to spark vexed debate' The Courier Mail
A TECHNICAL change to Queensland's abortion laws to be rushed through Parliament today could prompt full-blown debate on the issue of pregnancy termination.
3rd September 2009 - 'Abortion accused awaits decision on trial' ABC
A Cairns magistrate has reserved her decision on whether a far north Queensland couple will face trial on charges of illegally procuring an abortion.
3rd September 2009 - 'Qld abortion laws under scrutiny' ABC 'The 7.30 Report'
LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: The Queensland Government remains at loggerheads with obstetricians this evening over the state's abortion laws.
2nd September 2009 - 'Amendments to Queensland's abortion laws do not go far enough, lawyers say.' ABC Local
The Queensland Government introduced a bill of amendments on Tuesday evening to offer protection to doctors carrying out medical abortions in Queensland, following a legal row in state hospitals over the procedure.
1st September 2009 - 'Legal precedent protects abortion doctors' Brisbane Times
A little known legal precedent set in Queensland about 20 years ago will protect obstetricians who perform drug-induced abortions from criminal conviction, a medical law expert says.
31st August 2009 - 'Queensland abortion laws to be changed' The Sydney Morning Herald
The Queensland government is expected to change abortion laws this week to give more legal protection to doctors who perform medical abortions.
31st August 2009 - 'Qld women forced interstate for abortions' ABC
A prominent Brisbane obstetrician says the health of Queensland women will be in danger if the state's hospitals continue to restrict access to abortions.
25th August 2009 - 'Queensland Parliament has no choice but to act on abortion laws' Crikey
The Queensland government has tried their best for a quite a few years to ignore the calls to change the state’s laws on abortion.
25th August 2009 - 'Hospitals Demand Certainty on Abortion' New Matilda
Anna Bligh has been forced to act on abortion law after a revolt by public hospitals over the issue. But her changes don't go far enough, writes Anna Greer.
24th August 2009 - 'Abortion statute on cards for repeal' The Australian
OFFICIALS in Queensland have raised the possibility that a statute banning women from procuring their own miscarriage would be repealed as part of a review of the state's century-old abortion law.
24th August 2009 - 'Qld abortion law re-write cowardly' Brisbane Times
Pro-choice advocates have slammed the State Government's move to rewrite part of its contentious law on abortion without decriminalising the practice as "cowardly".
22nd August 2009 - 'Abortion may be an emotive and thorny issue, but it shouldn’t be a crime' Sydney Morning Herald
Parallel universe time.
22nd August 2009 - 'Bligh widens abortion law as doctors revolt' The Australian
THE Queensland government will rewrite part of its contentious law on abortion to avert a revolt by public hospital doctors refusing to perform drug-induced terminations.
22nd August 2009 - 'Vigil for abortion law reform' Green Left
Doctors at the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital will no longer perform medical terminations due to legal uncertainty, after criminal charges were laid against a 19-year-old woman and her partner in Cairns for allegedly procuring an abortion, said the August 21 Australian.
21st August 2009 - 'Bligh to rewrite law to abortion to protect doctors' The Australian
QUEENSLAND will rewrite part of its hotly contested law on abortion to accommodate doctors' concerns that they may be liable to criminal prosecution for performing drug-induced terminations.
21st August 2009 - 'Queensland doctors advised to stop medical abortions' ABC Radio National
During the Bjelke-Petersen era in Queensland, it was well known that women who wanted abortions would cross the NSW border in numbers, heading for Tweed Heads to have their termination outside the jurisdiction of Queensland's more restrictive laws. Now, it could be happening again.
21st August 2009 - 'UQ law academic calls for abortion law reform' UQ News
Abortion laws in Queensland are out of date and in urgent need of reform, according to a University of Queensland law academic.
21st August 2009 - 'Ruling to shift abortions interstate' The Australian
QUEENSLAND women facing the trauma of a medical abortion will have to cross the border for the procedure because the state's biggest hospital has scrapped its service, forcing the state government to review its controversial laws on abortion.
18th August 2009 - 'Pro-choice petition won’t go before Parliament' ABC News
A pro-choice campaigner says she is disappointed a petition demanding abortion law reform, with more than 800 signatures from residents in Cairns, in far north Queensland, has not been tabled in State Parliament.
18th August 2009 - 'Bligh legalises non-profit surrogacy' The Australian
QUEENSLAND has fallen into line with the rest of the country by decriminalising not-for-profit surrogacy.
18th August 2009 - 'Premier faces call to act on abortion' The Australian
LABOR senator Claire Moore has urged Anna Bligh to swing behind a renewed push to decriminalise abortion in Queensland, saying the Premier could "not hide" from the use of the existing law to prosecute a young couple in Cairns.
18th August 2009 - 'Abortion petition rejected' The Cairns Post
A PETITION signed by more than 800 Cairns residents supporting abortion law reform has been thrown out of State Parliament.
17th August 2009 - 'Draft abortion laws ready for Anna Bligh' The Australian
A FORMER Labor MP has revealed the existence of draft legislation to decriminalise abortion in Queensland, increasing pressure on Premier Anna Bligh to act.
16th August 2009 - 'Full access to RU486 – abortion is a woman’s choice' Green Left
Access to safe medical and surgical abortion is a right that women have fought for and are still to fully achieve.
11th August 2009 - 'One step forward, two steps back' The Age
THIS week's announcement by Marie Stopes International that clients of its clinics in Victoria, NSW, Queensland, the ACT and Western Australia can now terminate pregnancies at less than nine weeks using RU486 is one more step in Australian women's struggle for full equality and reproductive rights.
11th August 2009 - 'Abortion pill rules loosened at clinic'The Australian
AUSTRALIA'S drug regulator has accepted that it is safer for women to terminate pregnancy than to give birth, clearing the way for dramatically wider use of the abortion pill, RU486.
11th August 2009 - 'More approvals for RU486' ABC Radio National
The abortion drug RU486 is very restricted in Australia.
10th August 2009 - 'RU486 access ‘won’t cause more abortions' Australian Associated Press
DISPENSING the abortion pill RU486 from community-based clinics will not lead to more terminations, said the not-for-profit sexual health service behind the move.
10th August 2009 - 'Abortion pill available to more women'Australian Associated Press
THE abortion pill RU486 will become more widely available in Australia after a not-for-profit sexual health group was approved to use the drug in its clinics.
10th August 2009 - 'Abortion pill to be widely available' The Brisbane Times
MEDICAL abortion is about to become more widely available across Australia, after not-for-profit sexual health organisation Marie Stopes International won the right to use the so-called 'abortion pill' RU486 in its clinics.
10th August 2009 - 'Women given more access to abortion pill' ABC News
The medical abortion drug RU486, or mifepristone, will now be more widely available in Australia.
8th August 2009 - 'Abortion accused speaks out';The Weekend Australian
THE couple charged with breaching Queensland's century-old abortion laws, triggering the first prosecution of its kind, have told of how they were firebombed out of their home near Cairns.
8th August 2009 - 'Caught in abortion crossfire'The Weekend Australian
SPARE a thought for Tegan Leach and her boyfriend, Sergie Brennan. Late last year they were faced with a decision 100,000-odd Australian women make annually: Leach, 19, had become pregnant and, after talking things through with her partner, is alleged by police to have resolved not to have the baby.
6th August 2009 - 'Pious pill posturers blind themselves to women's real pain' The Australian
THERE are lots of myths about early miscarriage. Two of the common ones are (a) that it's no big deal because no one could have bonded with a biological barnacle that looks like something someone stepped on in a garden in Eraserhead and (b) that it's fast. Neither is true.
5th August 2009 - 'Abortion: “we will uphold the law,” police' Brisbane Times
Queensland Police will not reveal whether they are investigating any women following revelations a controversial abortion drug sold on the black-market overseas is being smuggled into the state.
5th August 2009 - 'Murder hunt led to abortion pair' The Australian
CAIRNS teenager Tegan Leach, facing up to seven years' jail under Queensland law for procuring her own abortion, came to the attention of police with her 21-year-old boyfriend during an unrelated murder hunt in the northern city.
4th August 2009 - 'Abortion laws 'feed illegal drug trade'' ABC Radio National
The president of the Australian College of Obstetricians has renewed the call for abortion to be decriminalised throughout Australia.
4th August 2009 - 'Trade in abortion drugs exposed' The Australian
A VETERAN Brisbane obstetrician has blown the whistle on a new form of backyard abortion, involving contraband supplies of the controversial drug RU486 smuggled into the country for women to terminate their own pregnancies.
1st August 2009 - 'Scared kids in abortion case first' The Weekend Australia
TEGAN Simone Leach was 19, pregnant and "scared" when her boyfriend's sister arrived in Cairns last Christmas Day with a consignment of contraband tablets and doctor's instructions written in Ukrainian.
30th July 2009 - 'Queensland Rising' episode of ABC TV’s Q&A
Premier Anna Bligh appeared on live-to-air interactive panel show Q&A and was asked why she had failed to act on abortion law reform, given a young woman is facing charges under Queensland’s archaic abortion laws in the Criminal Code.
14th July 2009 - 'Misinformation abounds in abortion case' Crikey
Last Wednesday, 8 July, in the Cairns Magistrates’ Court, the case against a young woman charged with procuring her own abortion was adjourned until September 3, when she will face two days of committal hearings.
8th July 2009 - 'Woman charged for using abortion pill' Australian Associated Press
A YOUNG woman charged with procuring her own miscarriage will face a committal hearing alongside her boyfriend in September.
2nd July 2009 - 'You can’t be just a little bit pro-choice' New Matilda
Were Anna Bligh's public comments on an abortion case in Queensland deliberately misleading, or just an honest mistake?
18th June 2009 - 'Abortion case put off' The Cairns Post
A YOUNG couple accused of attempting to procure an abortion have had their case adjourned.
13th June 2009 -'Abortion reform too hard to swallow' The Australian
ANNA Bligh can look back on the week after the biggest gamble of her political life with some satisfaction. The ALP state conference last weekend broadly backed her plan to sell off $15 billion worth of state assets, with even union opposition muted.
13th June 2009 - 'On a legal knife’s edge' The Cairns Post
Despite abortions being performed in Queensland for years, a 19-year-old woman and her partner were recently charged in Cairns.
13th June 2009 - 'Qld abortion debate heats up' Green Left
Last week was one of much activity in the regional city of Cairns, as the push for abortion law reform in the state shows no sign of slowing down.
12th June 2009 - 'The abortion law reform saga continues in Queensland' Crikey
In the Cairns Magistrates’ Court yesterday the case against a young woman and her partner, accused of procuring an abortion for the woman in December last year using the drug misoprostol, was adjourned until 18 June.
12th June 2009 -'Anna Bligh flouts state ALP policy to pursue abortion-drug charge' The Australian
QUEENSLAND Premier Anna Bligh has defended the state's right to charge a 19-year-old Cairns woman with procuring an abortion with the controversial drug RU486, despite the ALP state conference last weekend reaffirming that the offence should be abolished.
11th June 2009 -'Govt urged to change QLD abortion laws' ABC News
A Cairns women's group is calling on the Queensland Government to amend the criminal code to repeal abortion laws.
11th June 2009 - 'Cairns woman to face court over abortion' Brisbane Times
Abortion doctors are being urged to "down tools" while a 19-year-old Cairns woman and her partner face court on criminal abortion charges.
11th June 2009 - 'Abortion doctors stop medical abortions' ABC Far North Queensland
19-year-old Cairns woman Tegan Simone Leach, is reappearing in Cairns Magistrates' Court today charged with procuring a miscarriage.
10th June 2009 - 'Doctors stop abortions'The Cairns Post
DOCTORS across Queensland have been advised not to provide medical abortions over fears they may face prosecution.
7th June 2009 - 'Where rights, medicine and law collide' Sydney Morning Herald
LAST YEAR an Australian woman undertook a medical procedure. This week she and her boyfriend will face court because of it, charged with a crime. If found guilty, the 19-year-old and her 21-year-old boyfriend could get 10 years' jail.
3rd June 2009 - 'Abortion drug caught in legal loophole' ABC 'Lateline'
The use of legal drug RU486, which is used in abortions, is in question after a 19-year-old Cairns woman was charged with procuring an abortion and could face up to 14 years in jail.
3rd June 2009 - 'Abortion doctor halts pill supply' The Courier Mail
CONTROVERSIAL Cairns doctor Caroline de Costa has stopped dispensing the abortion pill RU486 for fear of criminal prosecution.
2nd June 2009 -'Legal issues lead Cairns doctors to cease medical abortion' Crikey
As senior medical practitioners who for the past three years have been offering medical abortion services to women in Far North Queensland, it is with great regret that we announce that we are, at least temporarily, ceasing this practice.
2nd May 2009 - 'Abortion: a woman’s choice' Green Left
On March 21, Anna Bligh’s election victory night, she answered a question from a journalist about how it felt to be the first female premier to be elected in Australia. She suggested the snide remarks made when she was a young woman, about Queensland being a “backward” state, could now be laid to rest.
28th April 2009 - 'Queensland abortion prosecution' ABC Radio Law Report
A young Queensland woman has been charged with procuring her own abortion after she allegedly ingested a drug imported from the Ukraine. Pro-choice activists say the charges make it very clear that Queensland's abortion laws need reform.
22nd April 2009 - 'Queensland’s ‘antiquated and repressive’ abortion laws' Crikey
The headline in the Cairns Post of 17 April summed it up well: “Miscarriage of justice”. On the previous day in the Cairns Magistrates’ Court, a 19-year-old woman was charged with procuring her own abortion.
21st April 2009 - 'Abortion debate reignites in Queensland' ABC Radio 'PM'
For the first time in at least 50 years a Queensland woman has been charged with organising her own abortion. The 19-year-old from Cairns in the state's far north faces up to 14 years in jail after allegedly bringing in an illegal drug from overseas to carry out the procedure.
21st April 2009 - 'Pro-abortion lobbyists rally for teenager' The Courier Mail
A CAIRNS teenager who allegedly self-aborted at two months with an abortion pill smuggled in from overseas has gained support from the pro-choice lobby.
16th March 2009 - 'State falls behind the times' The Courier Mail
ONE of the donations I make each year is to the Women's Access Fund which raises money to assist disadvantaged Queensland women seeking an abortion.
12th March 2009 - 'Both sides vow no change on abortion' The Australian
ABORTION is likely to remain a crime in Queensland regardless of who wins government.
13th October 2008 - 'Late-term desperation' The Australian
YOU may recall two weeks ago hearing on the radio or reading in your morning newspaper a few bleak details about a 12-year-old girl who was 18 weeks pregnant and whom the Queensland Supreme Court had ordered to undergo a late-term abortion.
26th October 2008 - 'Judge allows 12-year-old an abortion' The Courier Mail
IN a landmark case, a Supreme Court judge has given permission for a 12-year-old girl to have an abortion.
22nd January 2008 - 'Why abortion law reform is also needed in Queensland' Crikey
Abortion law in Australia is state law, and the law varies considerably from one jurisdiction to another. Currently in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland abortion is still covered by the Criminal Codes.