Abortion Law Australia - a legal essay
Abortion Law Australia
Three million, seven hundred and eighty thousand women; that is how many Australian women are likely to choose abortion in their lifetime (Children By Choice, 2013). Do you know how many of those women are able to freely choose abortion without a life-threatening condition in seven of eight Australian states? Zero (Children By Choice, 2014). For this reason, these women are forced to into unwanted parenthood or must seek out unsafe, ‘backyard’ abortions with an extremely high mortality rate. Thousands of families lose loved ones every year at the hands of strict, authoritarian laws that will continue to claim the lives of young women if nothing is done about it. Abortion should be recognised as the choice of an individual woman and should simply not be up for discussion in courtrooms. Therefore; abortion should be decriminalised in every state with uniformity and should be classed a medical matter only; so as to adhere to basic human rights of free will and by extension rape victims need to be catered for if they were to fall pregnant to their rapists and do not desire to carry or birth their child. This will also counteract the deaths caused by unsafe abortions that are made the only option by Australia’s current laws. But what is a safe abortion?
There are two different types of abortion: medical or surgical. A medical abortion is accomplished without having to physically enter the female’s uterus; instead a medication is administered that essentially induces a miscarriage and expels the foetus from the uterus (Healey, 1999). This medication can only be prescribed before the seventh week of pregnancy. After that, a surgical abortion must be sought after. A surgical abortion is the manual removal of a foetus before it has developed into a self-sustaining organism (Healey, 1999). This is where the cervix is opened and the content of the uterus is, in the simplest terms, ‘vacuumed’ out. This procedure is only performed before 22 weeks into
Three million, seven hundred and eighty thousand women; that is how many Australian women are likely to choose abortion in their lifetime (Children By Choice, 2013). Do you know how many of those women are able to freely choose abortion without a life-threatening condition in seven of eight Australian states? Zero (Children By Choice, 2014). For this reason, these women are forced to into unwanted parenthood or must seek out unsafe, ‘backyard’ abortions with an extremely high mortality rate. Thousands of families lose loved ones every year at the hands of strict, authoritarian laws that will continue to claim the lives of young women if nothing is done about it. Abortion should be recognised as the choice of an individual woman and should simply not be up for discussion in courtrooms. Therefore; abortion should be decriminalised in every state with uniformity and should be classed a medical matter only; so as to adhere to basic human rights of free will and by extension rape victims need to be catered for if they were to fall pregnant to their rapists and do not desire to carry or birth their child. This will also counteract the deaths caused by unsafe abortions that are made the only option by Australia’s current laws. But what is a safe abortion?
There are two different types of abortion: medical or surgical. A medical abortion is accomplished without having to physically enter the female’s uterus; instead a medication is administered that essentially induces a miscarriage and expels the foetus from the uterus (Healey, 1999). This medication can only be prescribed before the seventh week of pregnancy. After that, a surgical abortion must be sought after. A surgical abortion is the manual removal of a foetus before it has developed into a self-sustaining organism (Healey, 1999). This is where the cervix is opened and the content of the uterus is, in the simplest terms, ‘vacuumed’ out. This procedure is only performed before 22 weeks into
Bibliography: BBC. (2014). Historical Attitudes towards abortion. Retrieved August 2, 2014, from BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/abortion/legal/history_1.shtml Boseley, S Healey, J. (1999). Issues in Society Volume 119. In J. Healey, The Abortion Debate (pp. 1-3). The Spinney Press. Herzog, D. H. (2012, October 11). The Problem With Incest. Retrieved July 13, 2014, from Psychology Today: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/animals-and-us/201210/the-problem-incest Medical University of South Carolina Museum Victoria. (n.d.). Abortion - Pro Choice. Retrieved August 2, 2014, from Museum Victoria: http://museumvictoria.com.au/collections/themes/2830/abortion-pro-choice Legislation and Cases cited NSW Crimes Act 1990 R v Bayliss and Cullen (1986) R v Leach and Brennan (2010) R v Davidson (1969)