Annette Hurley (SA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I have a great deal of sympathy for those members of federal parliament who want to reduce the number of abortions in this community. I also have great respect for the members of the community who see the Therapeutic Goods Amendment (Repeal of Ministerial responsibility for approval of RU486) Bill 2005 as an opportunity to protest about the rate of abortion. I think this particular reference of RU486 to the minister’s discretion is something of an aberration in the parliamentary scheme of things. It was instigated by Senator Brian Harradine, who had a passionate personal view about abortion and he saw this as one way to reduce the number of abortions.

In terms of accountability, accountability in the matter of abortion does not, in fact, lie with federal members of parliament, nor with the federal minister for health; it lies with state administrations. What the federal minister for health could do about the rate of abortions in this country is to put in place and fund programs to educate and counsel to reduce the rate of abortion. This is a subject that I feel very passionately about. I am sure that there are a lot of women in this country who have abortions who should not be having them and who probably should not have conceived in the first place. And I am sure there are a lot of women in this country who have had abortions, who have had terminations, and suffer as a consequence of that. I think if we had proper programs in place to educate and counsel women then we would reduce the number of abortions, and that is certainly within the ability of the federal minister for health and the federal government to put in place.

It is very difficult not to be swayed by the strong community opinions that have come to me about abortion and the rate of abortion in this country and the effects of RU486 that have been described. It is difficult not to respond to the passionate view about killing large numbers of babies. However, I am trained in science, worked in science for a long period of time and have been trained to deal with the facts and outcomes of a particular instance. Clearly, the facts are that abortions do occur in this country and they are conducted legally under certain circumstances. There is no medical procedure that is without risk, and it is prudent to have expert, independent medical opinion on the safest procedure for medical interventions such as abortion.

Also, I have seen no evidence from other countries that the use of RU486 increases the number of abortions, and no evidence that its use in this country would increase the number of abortions. I have seen no evidence that the ban on RU486 has reduced the number of abortions in this country. In fact, people have talked quite passionately about the high rate of abortions in this country. Therefore I will be voting in favour of this bill. I would certainly strongly support, as the Senate committee has recommended, any programs that would reduce the rate of abortion, but I do not believe that voting against this bill will achieve that effect. On the grounds of facts and outcomes, I will be supporting this bill.