By Belinda Selke and Jess Howell
Women's right to control their reproductive lives through access to abortion is under attack in the ACT, and Resistance is involved in a major campaign to defend it.
A bill, first put up by right-wing Catholic ACT parliamentarian Paul Osborne, and then re-presented with only small changes by Liberal MLA Gary Humphries, will impose the greatest restrictions on abortion in Australia.
The reactionary Osborne-Humphries legislation, which masquerades under the deliberately misleading title "Health Regulation (Maternal Health Information) Bill", is supported by myths about abortion propagated by anti-choice groups such as Right to Life, which Resistance and other pro-choice campaigners firmly reject:
Myth 1. Abortion kills "unborn children".
Right to Life says foetuses are children, using emotive language and photos. In reality, the foetus is only a potential human being, unable to live independently of the pregnant woman for at least its first six months.
A foetus has no human thoughts or emotions, as it has no contact with the outside world nor any developed brain or central nervous system. Right to Life hypocritically raises concern for the life of a potential human being over the real human life of a pregnant woman.
Myth 2. Abortion is about convenience for women.
Abortion is not a matter of "convenience". Access to abortion is about women being able to control their reproductive lives. Contraceptives give women greater control over their reproductive lives, but the myth of abortion's "convenience" ignores the fact that no contraceptive is 100% effective, because of side-effects, mistakes in use and incest and rape.
It's not like someone chooses to have any medical procedure, including terminating a pregnancy, lightly.
Myth 3. If abortion were legalised, the rate of abortion would increase.
The abortion rate is not dependent primarily on legislation, but on factors such as the availability of contraception and sex education programs — a fact proven again and again by experience worldwide.
Myth 4. Adoption is the alternative to abortion.
Anti-choice groups want to make this the only alternative to abortion. Women must have the right to decide to bring a pregnancy to term and give up the child if they so choose. Women are not "breeders", and the decision to bear and give up a child is not an easy one for many women.
A woman's access and freedom to choose abortion is a fundamental precondition to having control over her life. Any woman should be able to choose whether and when to work, study, bear and raise children or undertake any other activity she likes. This is why Resistance is actively campaigning against all attacks on women's reproductive rights.