I am a woman who lives in the Northern Territory and I have taken RU486, a drug which is illegal here.
It was 2014 and I had an incomplete miscarriage. I had been bleeding for a few days when a scan confirmed my pregnancy was not viable. The GP offered three options: go home and wait it out, book in for surgery, or take a pill at home to help things along more quickly.
I opted to go home and wait without the pill, but when the miscarriage was ongoing 10 days later, I chose surgery. The longer it went on, the risk of infection increased.
Prior to the operation, I was given the pill in question: Mifepristone, aka RU486.
The Northern Territory is the only place in Australia where RU486 – which induces medical abortion – is not available to women, except under “special circumstances”.
Given my pregnancy was not voluntarily ended, I guess I fell into that category. But if the drug is safe enough to offer to women in my situation, why then is it not available to women in other circumstances?
The only option for women in the Territory choosing an abortion is surgery, which for many women means travelling a great distance to Darwin. For some it will mean not having an abortion at all.
Last week NT politicians were supposed to be discussing amendments to the Medical Services Act that would bring the Territory into line with every other state and allow access to RU486.
Instead what they were talking about was how they feel about abortion itself.
The debate led nowhere and avoided the issue at hand – why are Territorians denied access to this drug when considered safe in every other state and Territory?
Most of parliament’s lowlights came from Independent Member for Nelson, Gerry Wood.
They include, but are not limited to:
Our nation is slipping into a vacuum of values and beliefs where people who have views based on the belief in God, a god from whom all life comes, are ridiculed and mocked.
Just because something is the fashion doesn’t mean it is correct.
Thank God there are doctors today who believe in the Hippocratic oath.
This bill is an attempt to make a move to have abortion on demand.
What he seems to have been forgotten is that this was not an opportunity to debate abortion. That issue was dealt with in 1974 when the Territory legalised abortion.
The other point that seems to be lost is that abortions are not mandatory, and nor would RU486 be.
Politicians should be talking about what’s at the heart of this matter: equitable access to medical services for women in the Territory, particularly those in remote areas.
The member for Arnhem, Larissa Lee briefly hit the nail on the head when she said: “My biggest concern is for the Aboriginal people in the most remote of communities accessing this drug and having nothing in place for them when they’re actually going through this.”
She also asked who is going to offer counselling to women who’ve had an abortion in remote areas if the Bill is passed. Good question. Who does it now? Anyone?
Member for Barkly Gerry McCarthy told the Parliament of the time when his partner had to deliver a stillborn child while they were living in Borroloola.
“We had no services … why am I sharing this story? Because we are people who have lived in the bush with no services and no support,” he said.
All this debate showed was that our politicians clearly need to be looking at the state of our health system, particularly given Ms Lee’s revelation that the majority of Aboriginal health workers “can’t even put a drip in”.
Medical inequality and access in the Territory is an issue that needs addressing, and legalising RU486 is merely one step in this direction.
Rather than ranting about God or morals or the “fashion” of abortion, we need our politicians to recognise that without RU486 as an option, some women wanting to terminate a pregnancy have no option at all.
RU486 isn’t promoting “abortion on demand”. That claim by Mr Wood is spectacularly insulting and implies women are fickle and stupid. Making the process of abortion easier does not make the decision to have one easier.
All RU486 would do is make access to an abortion possible for some women who it previously might not have been, or offer an alternative to surgery, which for some women might make a traumatic situation even more so.
And whether RU486 goes ahead or not, the NT Government needs to put in place support services for any woman living remotely who has lost a pregnancy whether by choice or not, as from what our pollies have said, it would seem these do not currently exist.
I’ve now had two miscarriages. With my own experience of loss, I could easily have swung the other way and been critical of women who choose not to have their child. But remember, this debate was never about abortion. It’s about access.
And as for Gerry Wood’s praise of doctors who refuse to perform abortions, it’s nice that they have a choice, isn’t it? If only choice were afforded to all Territorians.
