A Senate Committee reported on Thursday 25 May on its inquiry called "Universal Access to Reproductive Health Care". This was to be the Australian Parliament's grand response to the overturning of Roe v Wade by the US Supreme Court.
But the report is a really big non-event. While calling for more funding and better access for a range of reproductive health care options there is only one recommendation of note:
The committee recommends that all public hospitals within Australia be equipped to provide surgical pregnancy terminations, or timely and affordable pathways to other local providers.
It is a silly proposal. What it asks is that Catholic or Christian public hospitals must either perform abortions or refer patients to hospitals that will. This is the Victorian legislation.
So the Senators who supported this report want Catholic nurses and even Catholic nuns to have to assist in abortions or book patients into the nearest abortion clinic. Why not demand that the religious medical professionals have to pay for the cab as well? It is a ridiculous proposal and will never happen.
Public hospitals run by religious bodies need to have their right of conscientious objection to not participate in abortion in any way. Anything else is a fundamental restriction on religious freedom.
The Senators backing this report are not happy that 100,000 Australians are not allowed to be born to become citizens each year. They think that number is too low. Access to pregnancy help and support, not access to abortion should be increased in Australia, just as it has been in the United States since the overturn of the infamous Roe v Wade Ruling.
