Wednesday, 5 February 2025

Motions

Abortion services

Sarah MANSFIELD (Western Victoria) (16:09): I move:

That this house:

(1) notes that it was 17 years since abortion was decriminalised in Victoria;

(2) acknowledges the many decades of advocacy by fearless individuals that preceded abortion reforms;

(3) recognises that significant barriers still exist for people seeking to terminate a pregnancy, including:

(a) social stigma;

(b) some healthcare providers’ refusal to participate in abortion provision;

(c) costs associated with surgical and medication treatment options as well as employment leave, travel and childcare arrangements;

(d) the complete lack of service provision in many local government areas across Victoria;

(4) further notes the recent efforts in multiple parliaments across Australia seeking to limit and/or repeal reproductive freedoms and access to abortion services;

(5) reaffirms its commitment to abortion as essential, routine healthcare and a basic right; and

(6) commits to actively guard against current and future threats to abortion and Victorians’ reproductive freedoms, including but not limited to consideration of amendments to the Constitution Act 1975.

I stand to speak on motion 787 in my name. When I began working as a GP abortion had been decriminalised for five years in Victoria. It meant that when I was seeing patients who wanted to consider having an abortion, I did not have to worry about the legality of our conversations or of my referrals, but that did not mean that I could provide the care that these patients needed myself. In fact I could not prescribe abortion medication, because until 2023 abortions were not considered a standard part of care for a GP, and anyone who wanted to provide them had to undertake special training, meaning there remained relatively few providers outside specialist clinics or hospitals. While it was technically still a crime when I was at medical school, potentially explaining why we did not learn anything about it then, we still did not learn anything about it during my GP training, well after decriminalisation. Yet abortion is incredibly common.

If you are working as a GP, you will inevitably see people who need to have an abortion. In my time as a GP I saw many, many people seeking an abortion. Being in those very private and personal conversations is a profound privilege, and I can tell you every circumstance, every perspective and every experience was different. The decisions were highly individualised, sensitive and not something that politics had any place in. The reasons people need abortions are so varied, but all are important. I saw people where the decision was immensely difficult for them, potentially even challenging their own beliefs and values, others where it was absolutely clear to them and some who experienced profound grief and loss even when that decision was straightforward. There were people who had to have an abortion despite a very, very wanted pregnancy and others who could not contemplate a child or another child. There were others who chose in the end not to have an abortion after considering one but were grateful to have been able to make a genuine choice. I also saw those who, after deciding to have an abortion, still struggled to access it despite it being legal in this state.

Abortion is time-critical health care, and while it may be legal, too often people are still being denied access due to a lack of local available providers, cost or travel times. Decriminalisation has not translated into access, and we have a long way to go to address these nonlegal barriers and ensure access for all people when they need it, particularly for rural and regional Victorians and those from multicultural communities. While I fully respect the right of those who conscientiously object to abortion to do so on a personal level, I do not accept that this extends to preventing those who are seeking an abortion from accessing it. We know that according to stories heard by 1800 My Options there are doctors who refuse to refer someone to an appropriate provider of abortion despite this being illegal. Institutional conscientious objection is also alive and well, with many health services not providing abortion despite being publicly funded, since abortion is not a basic health service, a requirement expected of the state government.

In data analysis undertaken by Women’s Health Victoria last year it was revealed that 53 local government areas across the state had no surgical abortion providers, 31 had no medication abortion dispensing pharmacies and 15 had no medication abortion prescribers. Regional and rural areas do it particularly tough, with a higher number of people seeking abortion despite the higher likelihood that they are living in an abortion desert, and part of this goes to the correlation between a lack of abortion service providers and a lack of people willing and able to provide certain forms of contraception, particularly long-acting reversible contraceptives. If they were able to access an abortion through their local provider, they then face what is known as the rural health trifecta: travel distance, logistics like child care, and money. Last year Women’s Health Grampians compiled a fantastic project known as Tell Your Story, a collection of testimonies of lived experiences of accessing contraception and abortion in the regions. One participant shared:

When I found out I was pregnant, it was a big shock because I was on the pill. I attempted to get a medical appointment in Horsham, St Arnaud, Bendigo, Ararat, Stawell, Halls Gap, Maryborough, Beaufort, Charlton, Donald, and Ballarat. No one was taking in new patients. I was unable to use the local abortion services, they all had 8 weeks wait lists, which would make me too far along to have a medication termination and would need surgical intervention. I ended up getting an appointment for a medical abortion in Melbourne. I had to take four days off work, pay for travel, three nights’ accommodation and $1200 of medical expenses.

I know that many in this government, including the Minister for Health Mary-Anne Thomas, are all too aware of these access barriers and are doing really, really good work to try and address them. The announcement that was made today about a mobile and virtual women’s health service is something we wholeheartedly welcome. While I am sure the timing is no coincidence given this motion today, these are exactly the sorts of initiatives we need more of to help people like the one I have just quoted.

I am aware that this motion we have brought forward today has seemingly caused all sorts of political headaches, not just for the coalition but also for Labor, because despite announcements like the ones we heard today from the government, they still struggle to know how to respond in the Parliament to a simple motion about the need to protect abortion rights. This highlights how abortion – what should be routine basic health care – remains a politically charged issue. Moreover, it demonstrates there is still so much stigma surrounding abortion, and it is stigma that remains one of the biggest problems we need to tackle. Stigma creates shame. It prevents people from seeking an abortion. It prevents medical practitioners and pharmacists, especially in rural areas, from publicly advertising that they provide abortions or provide abortion medication, and all too often it prevents them from providing services at all. A clear demonstration of this stigma, extending all the way to how our government deals with abortion, is that Victoria’s public hospitals do not even keep data on abortions performed. They are not required to, unlike most common procedures. We have never received a good answer about why this is the case, but the lack of data makes it hard to know what needs exist and where resources are required. The ongoing stigma and reluctance to talk openly about abortion should serve as a warning to those who think that the legal rights to access are safe. When something only exists in the shadows, it is easier to erase before anyone notices.

We do not have to look far back in time or even too far around our country presently to see that there are plenty of political opportunists ready to remove access to safe legal abortion. We saw it in Queensland when abortion flared up as an issue in their recent state election. We were assured by the now Queensland Premier that abortion was not on his agenda, yet one of his first orders of business was to pass a motion banning any bills, motions or debate on abortion, which has the effect of not only silencing discussion but crucially preventing any expansion to access. Last year in South Australia we saw attempts to wind back access to abortion in certain circumstances, and this motion was only defeated by one vote. There is still a bill from a Liberal and a Nationals MP sitting on the books in the federal Parliament that seeks to wind back abortion provisions. As I said earlier, abortion was still a crime in this state until 2008, and all it could take is a new mix in this Parliament to see it recriminalised. Protecting the right to abortion is just one fight on the road to free and accessible reproductive care. There is so much more that needs to be done, but we cannot make progress if what we have already had to fight so hard for is taken away. I say to all members in this chamber: the time is now to work together to ensure that the right to abortion is entrenched as routine health care every day, in every health service right across this state for good.

Ingrid STITT (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Mental Health, Minister for Ageing, Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (16:17): I do rise to make a contribution on Dr Mansfield’s motion. It is an important motion. From the outset I do want to acknowledge that there are many different views across the Parliament about these issues, but I also acknowledge the very strong support there is across the political divide for the right for a woman’s body to be hers and hers alone and for health decisions to be made by women without political interference. It is really, from my perspective, very simple: abortion care is health care and women have the right to choose.

Labor has a strong track record when it comes to strengthening women’s rights and improving access to reproductive services across our state. I do not mean this in a disrespectful way toward Dr Mansfield or the Greens, but we do not need a motion from the Greens to be motivated to continue to reform, strengthen and defend women’s access to reproductive health services, including abortion services. We have been getting on with that important work. I would argue very strongly that the women and indeed the men of the Australian Labor Party have been continuously getting on with the job of reforming women’s health policy, including reproductive health policy, for decades. Both our state and our national party policy platform unequivocally enshrine a woman’s right to access termination services. Of course there are different views within our ranks, but as a party we have got a mature way to deal with those differences of opinion. I want to be crystal clear: our party’s policy on these matters is settled and it is proudly pro choice. In government we have not wasted the opportunity to continue to strengthen women’s health, including access to termination services and support, and I will talk more about that shortly.

I am curious though about the timing of this motion and the fact that the Greens have also introduced a private members bill this sitting week. I absolutely respect that Dr Mansfield is coming to this debate as a health professional, and nobody doubts Dr Mansfield’s views are strongly and genuinely held, but it does feel like a bit of a coincidence that three days out from the Prahran by-election we are having this debate. Now, do not get me wrong, I listened carefully to Dr Mansfield this morning when she introduced her private members bill, and it is quite right to call out the appalling loss of rights experienced by millions of American women. Nobody on this side of the chamber would ever take for granted the reforms that have already been achieved in Victoria. We know that these gains are hard-fought, and they must be protected and defended.

Just back to the Victorian context for a minute: even a cursory look at recent history in relation to reform of policy in this area shows you that progressive Labor governments have championed women’s health rights. In 2008 the Brumby government decriminalised abortion following a report from the law reform commission. That involved extensive public consultation that was undertaken by the law reform commission, and it was really interesting to look back on Hansard from that time and see the contributions of MPs, including some that are still in the Parliament today. That debate feels very familiar to the debates we continue to have. I was interested to read Mr Davis’s contribution, which was instructive. It is also worth noting that Daniel Andrews was the health minister at the time that we decriminalised abortion. And a shout-out to my friend and colleague Lily D’Ambrosio, who along with many other women in the Labor movement, in the Parliament and across the community spearheaded that campaign to decriminalise abortion in our state. That is a reform that we will never take for granted on our side of politics, and we will never wind it back in government.

In 2015 the Andrews Labor government delivered safe access zones. Another great champion of women’s rights, former health minister Jill Hennessy, worked across the Parliament and the community to deliver this legislation. I think it would be remiss not to acknowledge that Fiona Patten also championed this reform, and this meant that women could access abortion services in Victoria without being harassed and shamed by people who thought they had a right to mess with women’s privacy and their choices.

The current Minister for Health, Mary-Anne Thomas, is continuing with the reform of women’s health at pace, and we are working hard – to your point, Dr Mansfield – to improve access to abortion services and to remove barriers for women, particularly those women who face barriers accessing affordable and comprehensive care. I am thinking in particular of people in regional areas where it is not as easy to access these services.

I just want to touch briefly on some of the key areas of reform that our government, the Allan Labor government, has been pursuing. We have delivered the first ever statewide sexual and reproductive health phone line, 1800 My Options, which is helping Victorian women to find out where the services are that they need and linking them with important health services across the state. We have invested $153 million in the women’s health package, and that is about transforming the way health care for women is delivered in our state. We have opened 20 sexual and reproductive health hubs, and 12 of those are in regional Victoria. We have got 23 public hospitals across Victoria providing surgical abortion, and more than half of them are in regional Victoria. And just today, the health minister announced the free virtual women’s health clinic, which will make it easier for Victorian women to access women’s health services, including abortion.

I note that the Greens are advocating for a change to the constitution as a mechanism to defend women’s reproductive health services, and respectfully, nothing would prevent a future conservative government intent on winding back women’s access to abortion from simply coming in here and changing that back. As long as they had the required statutory majority they could do that, and that would be the end of that. We must never go down the US path, where women are in fear of accessing abortion and health care and where workers are criminalised and women have even died. We are never going down that path in Victoria, but frankly the way to protect these hard-won gains is to engage directly with the Victorian community about these issues. I am sure that the respective positions of all political parties and candidates will be closely scrutinised – because Victorian women care about these issues – at the next election and beyond.

Anyone can move a motion in the chamber, but I would argue strongly that it takes a progressive Labor government to deliver reform in this area. It takes careful policy development; it takes consultation with the health sector, the broader community and the Parliament; and it takes leadership to deliver legislative reform. The Allan Labor government will always support Victorian women seeking reproductive health care. Our government will always defend women’s rights and a woman’s right to make her own decisions about accessing abortion services, and this right will always be protected under a Victorian Labor government. I say that Victorians know that they can trust Labor to always stand up for them when it comes to reproductive and healthcare rights for women.

I thank the chamber. This is an important debate. I do thank Dr Mansfield for her comments, and she has a particular perspective, having worked in the health system. I do not want to disappoint anybody in this chamber, but government policy development and announcements are in no way linked to the motions that we debate in this chamber on a Wednesday. I do not want disappoint anybody, but that is not how it works. Again, this is an incredibly important area of public policy, and there are many, many people on our side of the chamber absolutely committed to continuing this important work. I thank the chamber for listening.

Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (16:27): I rise to speak to Dr Mansfield’s motion, motion 787. That is an important issue, the issue around abortion, and as the minister has just been speaking about in terms of the huge number of reforms that have been undertaken over many years on this important issue, it should not be diminished in any way and it should be recognised.

I frankly think that it is somewhat hypocritical of the Greens to say they are acting in the interest of protecting the issue of abortion from politicisation, yet this motion and the private members bill that they have introduced into the Parliament today to entrench abortion in the constitution are nothing more than a political manoeuvre. As the minister has just said, entrenching laws into the constitution does not stop this chamber or the Parliament from undoing that work.

I want to go back through a little bit of history.

A member interjected.

Georgie CROZIER: As you know, you need two-thirds and you do not have it, so you are still bringing it on. You know what you are doing. This is a politicisation for the Prahran and Werribee by-elections. That is all this is about, so let us not beat around the bush. What your motion goes to, Dr Mansfield, is that it is 17 years since abortion was decriminalised in Victoria, and that is true. In this place in 2008 there was a very extensive debate. I was not in the Parliament at the time. I think Mr Davis was and Ms Lovell was, and they will tell you just how difficult a debate that was because of the very emotive and the very strong views of some.

That was well documented, that was well reported on at the time, and I think there was probably only the President who was in here at the time who went through that debate. Members on this side who I have spoken to have said that they never want to go through that debate again. In fact as one said to me, ‘That bill is sealed, and I never want it to be reopened.’ Because it was an important debate at the time. Victoria was really leading the way. The minister was talking about the Labor Party, but the Liberal Party allows people to have a free vote on these sorts of issues. If you go back in history and have a look, it was in 1969 in the South Australian Parliament where the young Libs were promoting the rights of women. They were leading the charge. There was a huge amount here in Victoria with the Bolte government. They were looking at some reforms around abortion. It was only the Democratic Labour Party that, from my readings and understanding, pulled that back here in Victoria with the then Liberal Party. The Liberal Party was very progressive in many ways about women’s rights and about choice, because that is what our values are about – freedom of choice.

As people know, I do have views on this. The minister referenced Ms Patten’s contribution and when she was trying to bring in a private members bill. I voted against that strongly at the time because I felt it was actually a dangerous reform and she was, I think, misleading women and trying to get health services to conduct abortions and terminations. It just cannot be done. It cannot be done. I do not know if I misheard Dr Mansfield – I think she was referring to medical abortion, not surgical abortion actually, and allowing services in Victoria to have those services, which I do not disagree with. There is much in this motion that I do agree with. Obviously I agree with the first point. Yes, it was 17 years ago that this debate was held. But I do say that there are still some issues around the delivery of abortion and contraceptive care in Victoria. I will come to those abortion deserts in a minute, and I note the minister’s response to some of those issues raised.

The second point in the motion acknowledges the many decades of advocacy by fearless individuals that proceeded abortion reforms, and that is true. As I have already previously mentioned, there were many people on both sides, all sides of politics, that had strong views about the rights of women and the freedom of choice. And if you look at the Menhennitt decision that led to some of the reforms here in this state of the doctor at the time, Dr Davidson I think his name was, who was not found guilty. This is what was built on. So it has been many, many years from a whole range of people. It has been not just women, it has been men and it has been others who have argued for safe access.

Some of the stories are terrible. And going back that 2008 debate when colleagues, my friend Andrea Coote said to me the debate was so intense and – here comes the President. I think he was here at the time in the 2008 debate, and he is probably agreeing that he never wants to go through that again. But it was pretty full-on. We have got that reform. Why change it? We have got this good law. It is working in Victoria. I think this is just unnecessary scaremongering by the Greens, purely political in the scheme of the by-elections that will be occurring on the weekend. No doubt they have got their press releases ready to pump out and put out into these electorates. On this side of the house we will always have a conscience vote on this, and it is not that I disagree with the issue. I am pro choice. I have said it many times. I have worked at the Women’s. I have seen people come in and storm the hospital. I have been there. I have seen it. I have seen the sad circumstances of some very tragic, tragic events, and unnecessarily so. My views are my views. But I respect that others have different views from me, and they have every right to have a different view to me around this very difficult issue. They have a right to not agree with me about my view on being pro choice and women having the right to have that choice. These women’s rights, for me, are very, very important. I am somewhat disappointed that we are debating this issue today – not taking away the importance of it, but it being used for the purposes that it will be.

The third point of the motion goes to significant barriers, and there are significant barriers. I note that there are many issues that have been raised by Women’s Health Victoria where they have talked about the local government areas in rural and regional high-disadvantage areas that do not have IUD or hormonal implant service providers listed on the 1800 My Options map. I am hoping that has now been resolved with the minister’s announcement today or what has been discussed in terms of looking at some of those issues that have been highlighted. Across the state 67 per cent of LGAs had no surgical abortion providers, 39 per cent had no medication abortion dispensing pharmacy and 19 per cent had no medication abortion prescribers, as I said. These issues are really important to address, and as the CEO says in this media release of last October:

… the lack of choice that women from under-served communities have starts with their access to contraception and goes all the way through to their right to choose if, when and how to have an abortion.

I agree with those sentiments. I fully endorse what they are they are calling for to give access to those things. There are a lot of abortion deserts in this state, as they are called, and more needs to be done.

To just go to the last point, which is what I have a real issue about, the constitution is our framework that looks at our governing. It should not be abused like this by putting this in for political purposes. It is a very important document. It goes nowhere near addressing this issue. It is really important that the constitution gives the Parliament authority to make the laws and gives us that framework. Do not dabble with it by putting such an emotive issue in the constitution like this. I will not be supporting the motion. I will leave it to my side of the house to see fit how they will be voting.

Georgie PURCELL (Northern Victoria) (16:38): I am pleased to speak in support of this motion brought by Dr Mansfield today, and I thank her for bringing such an important topic to the chamber, particularly at a time where the right to choose does feel like it is increasingly being attacked across the world and even here at home.

I have been pregnant when I did not want to be, and I have accessed abortion multiple times in my lifetime. I will just take up Ms Crozier’s point that we have these laws and that they are working well, because they are not working well. Not once when I have accessed abortion in my life was it easy, was it accessible or could I necessarily afford it. It was not easy, just because of the way that accessing expert medical care continues to be perceived. I ran the gauntlet of protesters once in my life before the government created safe access zones – and I thank them for that – but there is more work that needs to be done. That is because abortion right now in this state is not physically accessible and it is absolutely not affordable.

I will never forget how confronted I was when I found out in my early 20s and then again later in my life that I was pregnant, because I was always pro choice despite my religious upbringing. But I think for many of us, when we are pro choice, we never expect to end up in that situation ourselves, and in my mind I was never going to have to be someone who actually accessed that care until I was confronted with it. It took me multiple calls and I finally got an appointment. In that time and since accessing abortion again, the price for a surgical abortion – I paid $500 for a surgical abortion around 10 years ago – has almost doubled in that time, in a cost-of-living crisis. The cost of a private surgical abortion is now around $1000, and it is a price women choose to pay over languishing on a public waitlist for up to a month or more because there are no spots for them. There are no spots for them with the public providers. They are faced with staying in a situation that they do not want to be in or somehow finding the way to cough up $1000 in these times that we are currently living in.

Representing a regional electorate, I see this issue and I feel it more deeply every single day. My home of Northern Victoria is host to the majority of what have become known as abortion deserts. Every single time I speak about my own personal experience with this issue, I am contacted by constituents who have had an absolute nightmare experience navigating our state’s abortion system. Just some recent comments on an Instagram post that I did last week read:

Access to abortion is absolutely abysmal in this state, and you’re made to jump through so many hoops to access it

…

… I paid over $700 just before Christmas for a medical ab0rtion, had to wait 2-3 weeks before I could even go cos despite a blood test, they had to see it on a scan.

…

I’m in NE vic, and a few months ago had to inquire about medical abortion in my area, there was only one provider and wait times for the service were so long that many women are actually unable to access the service within their required time frame and are then needing to go elsewhere (ie Melbourne) to have the surgery.

…

I had a surgical termination pre covid in QLD for $300, too my shock it cost me $720 for the medical option this year in VIC. I’m grateful to be able afford this but extremely sadden that the price is so out of reach for a lot of us.

This is just a handful of personal experiences accessing abortion in Victoria in the last few months.

We are constantly told by the government that there are options, and I will always be grateful that abortion was decriminalised in this state, but those options that they say exist for us continuously fall flat or are completely out of reach for many, many Victorians. In the regions of Northern Victoria where there are essentially zero surgical options for abortion, we are told to seek out a GP who will prescribe medical abortion, yet there are barely any prescribers, and those who do offer services are often too afraid to show this on 1800 My Options out of fear they will be attacked by anti-choice protesters. It results in doctor shopping, where my constituents will pay for appointment after appointment until they can finally find someone who will prescribe it to them. Those that do not will try and get a telehealth abortion, only to find out there are no imaging appointments available to confirm the pregnancy is not ectopic and reach a dead end yet again.

For incarcerated women the access is even worse. According to advocates who spoke to the Saturday Paper recently, it is considered the most urgent of healthcare needs that are inadequately addressed. One advocate says:

… abortions are available, but it’s a long process …

But as we all know, with the time-sensitive parameters around terminations any suspension has reverberating impacts on the patient in question. Appointments are cancelled and rescheduled at the last minute, increasing the possibility of trauma, and when a service is finally accessed, appropriate aftercare can be denied. One custodial officer notes that:

… while there are prison social workers and psychologists, “a reproductive counsellor is not within those delegations. So often the prisoner was left with no real aftercare in terms of counselling and emotional support.”

Despite it not being easy, all of my abortion experiences were actually still ones of great privilege. I was in an unfortunate circumstance, but I did have the money to pay for private care and to access quick surgery, the ability to take time off work and the ability to travel. I was not burdened by having to make childcare arrangements – it is very, very important to note that a large proportion of people who access abortion in this state are already parents themselves – and I did not have to hide something from those required to care for me.

But many other women in this state just cannot say the same thing. It is leaving them with nowhere to go and nowhere to turn, and in the worst-case scenarios they go to unsafe choices. While abortion rights are under attack across the world and even here at home, here in Victoria our true threat, our realest threat, is a lack of services and accessibility. My office has actually spent some time talking to choice groups and women’s organisations recently due to our fears about this issue as well, and this government says that they will defend our right to choose, which I appreciate, but they are not doing anything right now to make access to abortion a reality, just as around the world the rhetoric on it grows and our right to abortion is slowly being eroded.

Just some of the reforms that could be implemented right now to actually improve abortion access in Victoria are: increasing public surgical providers, particularly in remote and regional areas, to stop women from languishing on waitlists or being forced to pay a private price they cannot afford; increasing imaging options across Victoria to make telehealth medical abortion less burdensome; and removing the ability for religious hospitals to conscientiously object. It is completely outrageous that some hospitals that receive taxpayer money in this state can still refuse to provide abortion or contraception. In fact, I had to get my IUD taken out a few weeks ago. I had to wait for a spot in a hospital that would take me because the religious hospitals would not remove my IUD as emergency surgery. It is completely outrageous, and not allowing these hospitals to provide abortion services is limiting access in this state. We can make medical and surgical abortions free to eligible community members, upskill and empower the medical workforce to increase providers and very, very importantly, improve data collection and listings on 1800 My Options to ensure that it is always relevant and always up to date so people know what choices they have.

I am aware there are other members who want to speak on this motion, and I understand how much of an important topic it is, but I obviously have lived experience with this, and it is very, very important to me and close to my heart, and there are countless others like me who have navigated this system. It is a nightmare. Nobody wants an abortion, but for many of us it is a reality in our lifetimes. You might not know it, but someone you know, someone you love, they have had an abortion, and we are just asking the government to please listen to us. We want to be able to access this care safely, we want to be able to afford this care, and right now that is just not possible, and it is scary when this issue and our rights to access reproductive health care in a safe way are under attack across the world. I commend the motion to the house.

Sonja TERPSTRA (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (16:47): I also rise to make a contribution on the motion brought by the Greens regarding abortion care. I just want to commend Dr Mansfield for raising this issue. I will talk a bit about my thoughts on the motion in a minute, and I actually agree with what Ms Crozier had to say about the real intent behind this motion. But I just really want to commend Ms Crozier, Ms Purcell and Dr Mansfield for the way in which this debate is being conducted, because there are so many women in this chamber now, which is a great thing to see, and so many of us will be and have been touched by the need to make a decision around abortion. I note Ms Purcell’s disclosure that she herself has had to access abortion services, but there will be other women in this chamber who have had to access abortion services as well.

I was just saying to Mr Batchelor while I was listening to the debate, I can recall my mother when I was younger telling me about the many tales that other older women had to endure. I feel fortunate as a woman born in the late 1960s that I had the benefit of accessing contraception if I needed it, I had the benefit of accessing abortion services, and in later years now the introduction of medical terminations where previously there was only surgical termination as an option. But the stories that my mother told me about the many women in the 1940s and 50s who died on their kitchen floors while performing abortions on themselves is a horrific tale and legacy. I know for younger women like Ms Purcell, they may not have had those stories told to them, but it left an indelible mark upon me as a woman listening to those tales and understanding and connecting strongly with the trauma that was felt by not only those women. The women who died were then also not around to care for their very large brood of children, often, because they were all told they had to have kids – they really did not have a choice in the matter. If you were a good Catholic woman, you had kids, whether you liked it or not. For those women, they did not have contraceptive services. I reflect on those experiences, and it is not to take away anything from Ms Purcell. Your experiences are very valid and important, and that is why I commend all of you for speaking about it in the way that you have today, in a very sensitive way.

One of the things I noticed when I first was elected to this Parliament was I had meetings with Women’s Health East – and I want to give a shout-out to Women’s Health East, who do a power of work in my electorate, but also to the network of Women’s Health networks across Victoria – who brought to my attention the lack of access around abortion services. I looked into this, and I was actually shocked and horrified because I think, as all good feminists do, we often talk a lot about women’s health and reproductive rights. I am a co-convener of EMILY’s List, a very staunch feminist organisation. It just goes to show that none of us can take our eyes off this issue ever, because it is not just under attack now, it is constantly under attack.

When I came into this place in 2018, what I will talk about is that whilst there was not a front-on attack about restricting access to abortion in a legislative way, what we saw that was introduced by the then federal minister for health – and I think he might even have been the minister for women at that time – Tony Abbott was to make sure that if you were a chemist, you had to undertake special training to be able to dispense the RU 486 pill, and if you did not have the training, you could not dispense it. That also meant that your access to a termination of pregnancy was restricted. All the things that Ms Purcell just talked about – (a) you have got to find a doctor; can you get to a doctor in time. Because this is a time-sensitive matter; you have got 12 weeks pretty much in that period of time. If you cannot get to see a GP, you cannot get access to an appointment, you cannot find a chemist who will dispense it, how do you get there? You find yourself pretty quickly being pushed over into the surgical termination route. Then you have got to find a provider, then you have got to get there, then you have got to find the money. The compounding circumstances and policy decisions of conservative governments to ensure that these little landmines were left along the way were still there when I got elected in 2018. I am so grateful that we now have a willing partner in the federal Labor government, who we have worked closely with through the Minister for Health in this place and also federally, to help wind back some of these little landmines, these zombie policies that were left behind by the conservative federal government. Those things bother me. Those things bother me today, that women’s health and reproductive rights and access to abortion services are still seen as a political plaything.

To point (6) of this motion about saying we should have it in the constitution, I agree with what Ms Crozier said, and Minister Stitt said the same thing: it is not going to protect it. You know, we put it in the constitution, we get the statutory majority, another government can still do the same thing – get a statutory majority and take it out – so it is not going to protect it. What we need to ensure is that we have conversations with women and girls around why it is so important to do exactly what I just spoke about, which is to never take your eyes and attention away from this issue, because it is under attack by conservative governments.

Overseas, in America, it is horrendous. We hear stories about women dying. Again, we have gone back to what I talked about earlier, in the 1940s and 50s, that was experienced by women right here in Australia – dying on their kitchen floors or languishing in a bed somewhere bleeding to death and being denied basic health care. If you look at what Amnesty International actually says about access to abortion rights, it is a human right. Access to abortion is a human right because it is health care – it is health care. You would like to think in this day and age that the politicisation of women’s health and reproductive rights would end because we are so much more educated, we know so much more about these things, but no. There is a constant need to weaponise women’s health care. We are all over it – over it completely.

The point is I think this motion does do exactly that. As well intentioned as it might be, it is wedge politics, Dr Mansfield. It is about wedging the government again to say, ‘Why don’t you take this step?’ Because it is not going to fix the problem. Minister Stitt took us through extensively all the things that the Labor government is doing, and I will not repeat them. But I want everyone in this chamber to know and anyone who is watching at home that the work that we are doing is ongoing. Yes, there is more work to do. I agree with Ms Purcell, there are abortion deserts out there, and particularly a lack of access for women who are 18 to 24. It is bloody frightening. I could not believe it. I think Dr Mansfield talked about the lack of data, but there is data; if you look at the Women’s Health Atlas you can see where women are accessing abortion services. You can see the chemists who prescribe the RU 486 pill, and there is also the morning-after pill. Again, there are more gains to be made by asking for the federal government to have the morning-after pill freely available. I mean, we talk about free pads and tampons, but having the morning-after pill being made free of charge to women and something you can pick up from the chemist locally would be a game changer because it takes that pressure off women having to find a doctor’s appointment and even coming up with the money if they cannot find a bulk-billing doctor. So again, the financial imposts on women and the costs that they may have to face are really, really challenging.

But I want women to know in Victoria that we, as a Labor government, continue to work on removing those barriers. I am committing to everyone in this Parliament today and certainly to the constituents in my region that I will not stop working on this. I will continue to advocate through our own government and with the federal government that we need to do more to make sure that women can have free and easy access to contraception as they deem fit and that they can access the morning-after pill if they need it and the medical termination pill RU 486 and surgical termination if they need it. Nobody wants to choose to have an abortion. It is not something you want to go and do easily, but you need it when you need it because you make life choices according to your own life and your own health, and that is not a matter that should be politicised. Again, this is nothing but a wedge motion. Trying to wedge the government is not going to fix it. It is just not going to fix it, and we are frightening people by talking about it quite frankly, because people do not want to see American-style politics come here. Australia is not America, but we are right to be alarmed about this, because there are constant moves by conservatives to continue to have this debate. I mean, you drive into Parliament and the abortion protesters are out at the back gate every week. So look, I will conclude my remarks there, but we will be voting against this motion.

Rachel PAYNE (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (16:57): I rise to speak to this motion on behalf of Legalise Cannabis Victoria, and it has been a passionate debate so far because I think we can all agree that healthcare services should be accessible, they should be safe and they should be affordable, and it is something we are clearly all in agreeance on. Abortion care is health care, and I am pleased to see that the government’s announcement this morning is pointing more in that direction. However, access to abortion here in Victoria is not an easy thing. We are still dealing with the aftermath of a history of criminalisation, of stigma and of shame. We should not have to have this debate today, but in the wake of recent concentrated efforts to politicise access to abortion care we are forced to speak up and to ensure that our right to body autonomy is protected. We have seen the South Australian Parliament narrowly vote down a motion to heavily reduce access to abortion care. In Queensland their Parliament is now prohibited from amending their abortion laws or expressing any view for the next four years. And when we look at the scenes in America we see some of our worst fears realised. We have a duty not to be silent in the face of these attacks. Abortion access is a community responsibility, so I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this motion today.

Here in Victoria we have learned the hard way that legalisation does not guarantee accessibility. The reality is that people face many barriers when trying to access abortion care. For those living in regional or remote communities, living with a disability or as a member of a culturally and linguistically diverse community, these barriers are even greater. When there are limited services, this also impacts the quality of care that can be provided. Where I live in the south-east, last year a woman sadly lost her life soon after accessing a surgical abortion. Harjit Kaur, a mother of two – a wife, a mother – accessed an abortion for financial reasons. Now, Harjit deserved quality, safe healthcare, and she did not deserve to die. When we have conversations about access to abortion services people throw around things like ‘pro-life’. But when abortion access is restricted, lives are ruined and people die – what is pro-life about that?

Access to abortion services is a postcode lottery, and people living in high-disadvantage regional communities are always losing out. Travel, accommodation, time off work, caring responsibilities – these all add up and make it so much harder for people to access the care that they need. Women’s Health Victoria’s Realising access: Abortion and contraception inequities and enablers in Victoria highlights that seven out of 10 Victorian local government areas have no surgical abortion providers and one in five have no medical abortion providers. Clearly something needs to change, and again I reiterate that the government’s announcement this morning makes steps towards rectifying some of those issues. Yet more needs to be done. We have seen in the ACT great work in this space. They have made medical and surgical abortions free to access, and that includes for people without access to a Medicare card. But even where abortions are free there must be health practitioners with the skills to provide them, or these changes mean nothing. There is a real and persistent shortage of GPs who provide and are trained in these services, and I appreciate Dr Mansfield’s reflections on that issue. Upskilling is costly, and understandably many do not want to risk suffering the stigma often associated with offering these services.

The Victorian government must act to improve access to abortion services in our state, and they must start by listening to those in the sector about what they need. Over the summer break my colleague Georgie Purcell and I made a point of listening to these voices in order to understand our role in advocating for improved access to services. I want to thank those who have already taken the time to meet with us and those who we are yet to meet with. What we heard about is the real lack of local services, the costs to access, gaps in the workforce training and the need for better data collection. By understanding these barriers we can better understand how to effect change.

Fiona Patten’s Health Legislation Amendment (Conscientious Objection) Bill 2022 might be a good place to start. This bill dealt with taxpayer-funded hospitals refusing to offer reproductive health services and becoming a kind of corporate conscientious objector. As Ms Patten so eloquently put it in her second-reading speech:

An organisation does not have a conscience, it cannot think, which means it is ideology not conscience that is preventing access to contraception, abortion and voluntary assisted dying.

Any reforms to abortion laws in this state must include the removal of the right of hospitals that receive any taxpayer funding to refuse to offer reproductive health services – this is corporate conscientious objection. Currently, public funds are being used to deny people access to essential health care. At a time when there are so few providers of abortion services in our state, the institutional denial of these services has to be stopped. When it comes to conscientious objectors, we also have a real problem with data collection. We do not know how many there are and whether they are complying with their obligation to refer patients to other providers. Despite calls from the Victorian AMA for doctors to be more up-front about their conscientious objection, we continue to hear stories of people who go to their local GP expecting a commonsense conversation about their options and instead are met with judgement and silence. This forces people to have unwanted pregnancies or to have abortions much later than necessary. It is shameful that health care is being denied in this way.

A consideration of amendments to Victoria’s constitution is just one step in improving access to abortion services. But in the current climate, it is also an important one to safeguard access. We commend the Greens for their advocacy on this issue. Legalise Cannabis Victoria wholeheartedly supports this motion, and we call for the Victorian government to undertake a broader suite of reforms that will improve access to abortion services, because legal does not mean accessible. Healthcare services should be accessible, safe and affordable, and abortion care is health care. It was the Brumby Labor government that legislated abortion access in Victoria, and it will be an Allan Labor government to protect it. Unfortunately, progress is not linear, and until we take firm action people will continue to politicise this essential healthcare service.

Sheena WATT (Northern Metropolitan) (17:05): Thank you, Ms Payne, for your contribution before me and for giving me a little space here to join others and make a contribution on the motion before us. Can I take this opportunity to reaffirm that the Allan Labor government, like all Labor governments before it, will always stand up for women’s reproductive rights. Women in Victoria know this, and this is why they have entrusted us with government for 21 of the past 25 years, and they trust us to protect healthcare services. We will never take that trust for granted.

It really is an honour to speak on this motion following after two amazing Labor women, so can I just take a moment to acknowledge and thank Minister Stitt and Ms Terpstra for their contributions, as well as the contributions from others here in the chamber. It is worth noting that all of the contributions so far have been by women, women not only sharing their experience and commitment to access to health care but also sharing their lived experience. We are fortunate to be a chamber that enjoys having women in here that have a background in the health sector, much like myself.

I will also say that for many years the former member for Altona, the former Minister for Health and Attorney-General Jill Hennessy led the fight to protect a woman’s right to make her own reproductive health choices. Like so many in this state, I was incredibly inspired, I have got to say, by her leadership when she introduced the Public Health and Wellbeing Amendment (Safe Access Zones) Bill in 2015. That bill passed into law with the strong support of the Victorian Labor government and ensured that women could access reproductive health care without fear, without intimidation, harassment or obstruction.

Before this law women in Victoria, as was rightly said by Ms Purcell, were being harassed and demonised simply for walking near a healthcare clinic irrespective of whether they were seeking advice or not. Thanks to former minister Jill Hennessy and this Labor government it is now an offence to engage in behaviour that harasses or intimidates women seeking reproductive health care within 150 metres of hospitals, GP clinics and health services that provide abortion care. I know that she did not do that alone and was supported not only strongly by members of the Labor team but also by members of the crossbench here in this place, and I will take a moment to acknowledge Fiona Patten for her esteemed leadership during that time.

Victorians know that progressive Labor governments will always protect women’s health and women’s safety. I am truly inspired by the incredible women that lead this state to be a better place for all, whether it is women in the workforce, women in leadership or women accessing the health care that they deserve. We are standing on the shoulders of trailblazers like Jill, and we will continue to fight for many generations to come. As was said by Minister Stitt, our record is clear. We decriminalised abortion in Victoria 17 years ago, a landmark reform for women’s reproductive rights. We established safe access zones to ensure women can access abortion care without harassment and introduced the first sexual and reproductive health plan to better ensure access to contraception services, abortion and fertility services.

One that I am particularly proud of and that I am quite close to is 1800 My Options, which I recall being spoken about in a number of contributions. 1800 My Options is a service run by Women’s Health Victoria, and I had the good fortune of serving on the Women’s Health Victoria board before coming into this place. I saw very much each and every day the work that they were doing to provide fully informed health care to Victorian women about their sexual and reproductive health. To the workers on that line that work tirelessly to support women often in very distressing situations, can I send to you my thanks for all that you do. You are not alone in being such an important part of our health services system. You are of course supported by other women’s health organisations like Women’s Health In the North in the northern suburbs and Women’s Health Victoria. There is also an incredible expansion of abortion care through our 20 sexual and reproductive health hubs that have ensured that 23 public hospitals provide surgical abortion services. More than half of them, it is worth noting, are in regional Victoria. We are not stopping there, and I sound a little bit pollyanna about it because the truth is that it is still tough out there, okay. It really is. We know that significant barriers still exist for people seeking abortion care, including the stigma and some healthcare providers’ refusal to provide abortion services.

I know the incredibly tough work that 1800 My Options did to map who was in fact providing a full scope of care across the state so that they can provide the full advice to Victorian women. There are of course costs associated with surgical and medical abortion, and thank you to the speakers earlier who detailed the costs involved. They are not only costs at the service provider, they are also travel, child care and leave, and these are incredibly troubling times for women as they try to navigate all of that while getting some really critical health care. Can I just say I too am completely furious that there are over 10 local government areas that lack service provision. It is not good enough, and we must, must, must do more. I know it is something that Mary-Anne Thomas, our Minister for Health, has taken up with great gusto. Thank you to you, Minister, for all your efforts.

Can I also declare, like Ms Terpstra, I am a member of EMILY’s List, a really proud pro choice, feminist-led organisation. I remember signing up my pledge to continue to be a staunch pro choice MP as I entered this place, and I will continue to do that. This is just one of the ways that I can, but I know that that goes beyond the speeches that I make in Parliament. It is also about the advocacy that I do inside our party and inside our community, both with organisations like 1800 My Options and Women’s Health Victoria, Women’s Health in the North and others.

I have got to tell you that there is still so much to be done when it comes to under-served communities across our state, and I am thinking of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women in particular. They are at the front of my mind, as some of the work that I did was at Women’s Health Victoria and Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation, the peak health organisation here in Victoria. They came into Parliament I think it was last October or November, I cannot recall. But we have so much more to do to make sure that abortion services in our state are available to everybody regardless of the colour of your skin, where you live or how much money is in your bank account. Like Ms Terpstra, I just will not stop, and know that there is so much more that we can do. I thank you for the opportunity to speak this afternoon on what is a really important motion.

Harriet SHING (Eastern Victoria – Minister for the Suburban Rail Loop, Minister for Housing and Building, Minister for Development Victoria and Precincts) (17:13): This is such a significant issue, and it is an issue not just of health care but of access to services. This is an issue of bodily autonomy. This is something that strikes right to the heart of women’s access to services that enable us to make the choices that are right for us. So it was with a measure of dismay that I read this motion that reopens a settled issue in a way that again seeks to impute a desire upon this Parliament or indeed the community to move away from the rights as protected to access medical services, whether that is surgical or medical abortion.

Ms Crozier made a contribution in this place about 2008 and what occurred around decriminalisation. That debate is well worth reading. It was a marathon effort, as a number of matters in this chamber have been marathon efforts. It was a process that led to an outcome which is settled in this Parliament. There were I think four members of this place who are still here, and their contributions are worth reflecting upon. I would hate to see –

The PRESIDENT: I am sorry, Minister, it is 5:15. I have to interrupt you for statements on reports and papers.

Business interrupted pursuant to sessional orders.