NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has shown support for a reform of archaic abortion laws, writes Sophia Irvine.
IT WAS ONLY a couple of months ago that our news and social media was flooded with the disturbing new law that had banned abortions in Alabama.
People worldwide in every country were posting their disgust at the law and a stance of “our body, our rights” and “keep your laws off my body”.
What many of us were unaware of or failed to take such a vocal stance on is the fact that whilst abortions are available in NSW and in other areas of Australia, the laws around them aren't much better.
The current abortion status in NSW is still legally under the Crimes Act.
Many arguing against decriminalisation in NSW say that since abortion clinics already operate legally, there's no need to change anything.
— Marie Stopes Aus (@mariestopesaus) September 3, 2019
In the past 25 years, 12 women have been prosecuted under NSW abortion law. It's 12 too many.https://t.co/VnRIW01hVD
Yes, we can access them, but only with a doctors signed permission that the female cannot have this child.
No doctors certificate, no abortion. Sure, you can go to another doctor but with a ticking clock inside you, any delay is not welcomed.
There aren't any strict timeframes for abortions currently in NSW but you fill find most practitioners are only comfortable within the 12-week pregnancy timeframe. After 20 weeks, you hit some serious hurdles in order to continue the process.
As it stands, the abortion law is under the Crimes Act 1900, making it dangerous for women and doctors to perform the procedure. Crimes Act equals crime — any woman or doctor can face legal persecution when dealing with the termination of pregnancy.
Thankfully, Alex Greenwich, independent MP for Sydney, has introduced a reform of the law and swiftly pushed it into Parliament. How or why is not relevant at this point — the law is ancient and needs to be changed.
Enter general party-pooper Gladys Berejiklian, NSW current Premier and, if you ask any person under the age of 40, the main person who has kept NSW in its nanny ways. She even added some ridiculous touches of her own to make sure very little is done to even consider environmental issues as an essential part of our Government and a cosmopolitan city closes around 1:30 AM. Yes, this varies area to area but regardless, Gladys isn't our favourite politician.
Gladys Berejiklian Is Facing An Internal Revolt Over The Abortion Bill https://t.co/tmusk8Uhb3
— Sandra Sully (@Sandra_Sully) September 4, 2019
However, Gladys is behind this abortion reform, pushing it as hard as you can get any abortion-related issues past Archbishops and freakishly conservative party members.
Is Gladys cool now? Do we modern thinkers and doers have to change our whole stance against our MP? Well, no, this isn't The Bachelor — we don't fall that easily for our politicians just because they have had one good episode. Gladys doesn't get the rose yet.
However, she has been a staunch supporter of passing this bill through.
I haven't even touched on how groundbreaking this will be for females and Australians in general to finally show some forward movement law-wise in an incredibly personal act.
We just need to take some time to question, watch closely and ponder the fact that Gladys Berejiklian may have done something decent for once.
Conservative Liberals could launch the biggest challenge against Gladys Berejiklian's premiership with the controversial abortion bill set to overshadow the state party's council meeting on Saturday. https://t.co/G0zcjzleYa
— John Mills (@JohnMil48810492) September 7, 2019
Sophia Irvine is a freelance writer, residing in Sydney Australia.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Australia License
Support independent journalism Subscribe to IA.
