Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Beryl Holmes, one of the co-founders of Queensland's Children by Choice, described the campaign for abortion rights as 'one of the oldest and hardest-fought of women's political struggles', and, as we watch abortion rights being dismantled in the US, we know that the fight is not over. Abortion in Australia is still a postcode lottery, and, despite decriminalisation across most of Australia, far too many people dealing with an unwanted pregnancy simply cannot access abortion because either they can't afford it, or they can't get the time off needed to travel the sometimes hundreds of kilometres to the only provider in the region or they fall outside the strict access rules in their state.

Abortion is health care and should be provided free at public hospitals across the country. More GPs and nurses should be able to prescribe RU486, and the full cost of abortion and contraceptives should be covered by Medicare. I welcome comments from the Labor women's caucus about harmonising laws and improving access, but I urge the government to go back to their previous 2019 commitment to make abortion care a condition of federal hospital funding. It was very sad that the Prime Minister appeared to dump that commitment last week. I welcome commitments from Lyn Allison and Judith Troeth today calling for free and unfettered access, with personal choice being the criterion. This is not a partisan issue; it's a rights issue.

As Children by Choice celebrates 50 years of operation this week, I recognise that progress has been made, but there is still such a long way to go. If 'our bodies, our choice' is to mean anything, abortion must be accessible, affordable, safe, legal, compassionate and free from stigma.