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

The recent Greens initiated Senate inquiry into universal access to sexual, maternal and reproductive health care delivered a strong cross-party statement on the importance of access to abortion among other things. The report set out a clear, comprehensive roadmap for improving access to abortion care right across the country, and we heard repeatedly about the difficulty of attracting and retaining skilled practitioners in regional and rural areas and the prohibitive costs of additional training for doctors who wanted to upskill.

The Australian Medical Students Association's Global Health has launched a campaign calling on universities and teaching hospitals to ensure that abortion is in the standard curricula and accessible through the public system. As well as ensuring abortion care is part of the general curricula for future medical professionals, current doctors need access to professional development in reproductive health care. The AusCap website currently provides practical advice for practitioners, and funding for that service must be maintained. Medical and surgical abortion are standard public health services, and all doctors should have the necessary skills to provide those services to everyone who needs them.

The inquiry called on universities to review their programs to provide abortion training, and it's fantastic to see student doctors get behind that. I urge everyone to back AMSA's campaign for universities and teaching hospitals to ensure that abortion is in the standard curricula. The best way for Labor to support health practitioners and the community is to act swiftly and commit to implementing the recommendations of the reproductive healthcare inquiry in full.