A local lawyer and women’s health advocate is lamenting the closure of a non-government abortion clinic in Newcastle at the end of the month.
And, she’s calling on Premier Gladys Berejiklian to urgently provide funding, or other measures, to allow females to access such a vital service.
Catherine Henry said the cessation of the Marie Stopes Australia centre at Broadmeadow would make it much harder and considerably more expensive for Novocastrians to utilise their right to safe abortions.
Marie Stopes Australia is shutting the doors of its four regional clinics – in Newcastle and in three regional Queensland cities – due to costs.
The organisation has been the largest provider of abortion services in the Hunter region and its closure means that most women wanting an abortion will have to go to Sydney, according to Ms Henry.
However, travelling to that city is problematic due to COVID-19 lockdowns.
“Even in a non-COVID environment, having to fund travel and accommodation costs to have an abortion in Sydney is additional stress that a woman in this situation does not need,” she stated.
“Those costs are on top of the cost of the procedure which is around $500.”
Abortion is the most performed therapeutic procedure in Australia with one third to one quarter of Australian women likely to have one during their lifetime.
And, surveys consistently show that more than 75% of Australians believe that abortion should be freely available.
“We spent decades trying to get abortion out of the Crimes Act and recognised as a health issue, not a criminal issue,” Ms Henry said.
“But, with abortion decriminalised in NSW for almost two years we need to ensure equitable access to services for women across the state.”
Ms Henry said the current NSW Upper House Inquiry into health outcomes and access to health and hospital services in rural, regional and remote NSW did not include this important health issue.
Reproductive and sexual health issues aren’t in the Inquiry’s terms of reference.
“Given the statistics and contemporary attitudes to abortion, I find it quite disturbing that access to abortion services is not being considered,” she added.
There are two types of abortions.
Medical abortions are available during the first eight or nine weeks of pregnancy and generally done by the woman at home under the advice of a GP.
More women have a surgical abortion, which is mostly performed up to 14 weeks gestation by doctors with procedural skills.
Ms Henry said the difficulties in accessing surgical abortion meant more women would have to have a medical abortion in regional areas.
For this to happen, GPs needed to be trained and upskilled.
“At present, a lot of abortions are being done by telehealth and this is not desirable,” she said.
“Work is being done to develop referral pathways to John Hunter Hospital but a public hospital environment is not always the ideal environment.”
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