Queensland Abortion Trial Set to Start
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Created: 08:18 PM, Monday 11 October, 2010
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Tomorrow, Tuesday 12 October, a young couple in Queensland go on trial under abortion statutes dating back to the 1860s.
Tegan Leach, 20, and her partner, Sergei Brennan, 22, face charges over an alleged illegal abortion using the abortion pill. They could face seven and three year terms of imprisonment respectively. Yes, this is what it means for abortion to be a crime and not a medical matter.
Pro-choice activists in Australia staged a national day of action on Saturday calling for the charges to be dropped, and for Queensland’s harsh laws to be repealed. They are planning a vigil outside the court in Cairns tomorrow.
In New Zealand, as we all know all too well, abortion remains a crime and women are only able to get abortions under a limited number of grounds set out in the Crimes Act. Our laws have been updated since the days of the 1861 Offences Against Persons Act (which NZ adopted wholesale in 1866), but so long as abortion remains a crime, so does the risk of prosecutions like the one being faced by Tegan Leach and Sergei Brennan.
Curiously, anti-abortion advocates in Queensland have gone on record as opposing the prosecution of Ms. Leach and Mr. Brennan. Ian Baker of the group Cherish Life Queensland, was quoted in The Australian in July as saying that prosecution of a woman who had had an abortion was victimization, because “to be pro-life is to be pro-woman.” Um, so why do they oppose liberalizing abortion laws? Cherish Life gives supporters some talking points on opposing decriminalization in its February 2009 newsletter including:
“The current Queensland laws against abortion at least stand as a safeguard for women being pressured by their partners
and
“Even though not being enforced, [ed. note: obviously not true] the laws against abortion still have a vital educative role.”
Those simply aren't good enough reasons for a criminal statute, which is why the campaign there, and here, to decriminalise abortion will continue.
For background on the Queensland case, click here.
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