The Guardian 23 August, 2006
Women’s right to choose
Another Abbott attack
Jules Andrews
Under proposed new Medicare guidelines doctors will be required to reveal to Medicare — and hence the Federal Government — which women have received advice from their GP to help them decide as to whether or not to have an abortion. The introduction of a new Medicare item code specific for this type of consultation is a gross violation of a woman’s right to privacy and infringes upon a doctor’s ability to help protect that right.
Currently, any discussion of this kind would be charged to Medicare as a regular consultation.
In addition, the government intends to place restrictions as to which GPs will in future be able to provide counselling on pregnancy choices: those who have been involved in any way with the provision of termination services will be excluded, as will those who have not had formal mental health training.
Health Minister Tony Abbott, who has made no secret of being rabidly anti-abortionist in line with his conservative Catholic "morals", told the National Press Club this new measure would bring "personal satisfaction".
"If these initiatives help women to make genuine personal choices rather than socially-conditioned ones, if they help women in an almost impossibly difficult situation to feel less alone, they will ultimately be one of the Howard Government’s more significant achievements."
In reality…
What this Medicare item code does is point the finger.
Unethical behaviour of staff at the doctor’s surgery or Medicare office may expose the fact that these women have sought advice on an abortion.
Fear of exposure may prevent women from seeking advice, thus removing their ability to make a "genuine personal choice".
In his statement Mr Abbott is also suggesting that women who terminate a pregnancy are actually making a "socially conditioned" choice.
However, the reverse is more likely: for hundreds of thousands of women from strict religious backgrounds or from various ethnic communities, the "socially-conditioned choice" those women may feel bound to make is to carry on with an unwanted pregnancy, which will only increase the feelings of loneliness Mr Abbott portends to alleviate.
The Australian Medical Association has strongly attacked Minister Abbott’s planned changes.
Health & human rights
"This is an important health and human rights issue", said Dr Mukesh Haikerwal, AMA President.
"In combination, these … factors will significantly limit Australian women’s access to pregnancy advice, care and counselling — the exact opposite of what the government says the item number is designed to do.
"Linking the item number to mental health training implies that women who are counselled have a mental health problem", Dr Haikerwal said.
"We don’t believe pregnancy is a mental illness", he said.
Offering an alternative to the restrictive "abortion counselling" Medicare item cede, the AMA suggests introducing a general item code for "pregnancy counselling".
This would encompass all pregnancy-related issues such as post-natal depression, genetic disease, contraception, sexual health and miscarriage.
The new item number should be available for use by all GPs who provide these services.
Then, perhaps taking a careful side-swipe at Abbott’s conservative Catholicism, Mr Haikerwal suggests: "If the government wants to reduce Australia’s abortion rate, it would do better to aim to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies by expanding education and access to contraceptives".