Zealots push anti-abortion agenda
As of July 1 the Federal Government will have control of both houses of Parliament, the first time this has happened since 1981. It will then begin to rush through its anti-people agenda. It has made very clear this will include taking away the right of women to safe, affordable abortion. The National Party Senators and the one Senator from the Christian fundamentalist Family First, who gained his seat on the back of preferences from Labor, have signaled they expect anti- abortion measures in exchange for backing the Government's broader agenda i.e. the sale of Telstra, anti-union laws etc. They are cloaking their intentions in soft language — "It's very important that this decision is not done lightheartedly", said Family First Senator Steve Fielding, as if abortion is a life style choice for women. But Deputy Prime Minister John Anderson was more forthright, claiming that the number of abortions had "got out of hand". Catholic Health Australia wants a national inquiry. Anderson has called for the now standard bogus "debate". This government's track record on "debates" should set alarm bells ringing for those who support women's right to have control over their reproductive systems. "Debate" has been used by this Government as a means to push through its policy agenda. For example, there was the "debate" on Indigenous rights during which the Government and its commercial media mouthpieces went on with a lot of racist claptrap while the Government pushed through legislation taking away Indigenous rights. This has been a mode of operation of Prime Minister John Howard, tied closely to the beating up of fear, a tactic at each election — from fear of asylum seekers, to fear of terrorism and, in the last election, fear of interest rates. (This tactic, as we know, wasn't used when it came to the momentous decision to take the country to war. Masses of people came onto the streets to demonstrate their opposition to Australia joining the coalition of the killing. But no discussion was entered into as the Government secretly signed up to the USA's criminal invasion force.) Indeed, Howard is using all the firepower available to him to push the anti-abortion agenda. Just when people may have thought they'd rid themselves of a religious zealot for a Governor General — the disgraced archbishop Peter Hollingworth — they now discover they have another in Major General Michael Jeffery who last week made a public statement supporting Health Minister Tony Abbott's beat up about abortion numbers. What are the facts? The termination of a pregnancy is a medical procedure. As such it is, rightly, covered by Medicare. It is the states that legislate on abortion law. The law allows for an abortion if the pregnancy poses a threat to a woman's physical or mental health. One in three Australian women will undergo an abortion. Laws are restrictive after 12 to 14 weeks. Abortions are rare after 20 weeks. These are inevitably undertaken to protect the woman's health. The only laws that should pertain to abortion are those pertaining to medical practice generally: privacy provisions, ethical obligations, malpractice laws etc. Historically it is the religious Right, with its disproportional political influence, that has pushed this medical procedure into the legal arena. The lies that Abbott and others are peddling about abortion numbers will be used to make claims based on the values of religious fundamentalists, who, with a fundamentalist government in office, believe the time is right to ram home their objective of putting abortion out of reach for most women. Their first step is to have it taken out of Medicare. If they succeed in their aims, essentially blocking women's access to legal terminations as has happened in the USA, it will not mean women will stop having abortions. It will mean that women with enough money will pay to have safe medical procedures, and those who don't have the money will have dangerous and potentially fatal medical procedures.