Wednesday 19th of June 2024,
Victorian Legislative Council, Melbourne

Rachel PAYNE (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (17:52): 

My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Health and relates to abortion access.

Under Victoria’s Abortion Law Reform Act 2008, a registered health practitioner is allowed to voice a conscientious objection to a pregnancy termination.

In practice this means that people like doctors, nurses and pharmacists can refuse to offer you any assistance, but they are then legally required to refer you to another provider.

However, recent reporting by the ABC details an insidious trend of noncompliance and an utter absence of any reporting or enforcement. This is not a new issue.

A University of Melbourne-led study over five years ago showed that conscientious objectors in Victoria were breaking the law by not referring patients to another professional. They also found that this led to people having abortions much later than necessary or being forced to have an unwanted pregnancy.

The decision to have an abortion is a personal one, not a political one.

The continued existence of conscientious objector provisions in Victoria’s abortion laws goes against everything that these laws stand for – a person’s right to control their own body.
Quite frankly, if you refuse to provide an abortion to someone, you are refusing to provide them an essential medical care.

If you cannot do your job, maybe you should consider a different career.

The Premier stood in this place when the legislation for abortion access was debated in Victoria.
She said that people should be able to:
… make a choice unencumbered by a stigma conferred by outdated and prejudicial legislation.
Well, I am here to tell you that this legislation is outdated, this legislation is prejudicial and this legislation needs to change.

So the action I seek is that the Premier make it illegal for a health practitioner to raise a conscientious objection to a pregnancy termination or, in the alternative, require that every conscientious objector report their referral and their objection to the Department of Health or face penalties.

Written Response, Received 14th of August, 2024
The Hon Mary-Anne Thomas MP
Minister for Health, Minister for Health Infrastructure, Minister for Ambulance Services:

The Allan Labor Government is committed to ensuring that women have access to the health services they need, as close to home as possible. This includes access to contraception, medical and surgical abortion.

The Abortion Law Reform Act 2008 (the Act) ensures that clear laws are in place which reflect current clinical practice and community standards to protect the informed decision of women, in consultation with their doctor. 

Victoria has the strongest and most progressive protections for women’s rights and access to reproductive choices in Australia.

As part of the focus on supporting women’s sexual and reproductive health, support for access to safe and affordable abortion care is available through an existing network of metropolitan, regional and some rural public health services.

Our expanding network of sexual and reproductive health hubs are improving access to contraception methods, medical abortion and referral for surgical abortion.

The Victorian Government also funds the 1800 My Options website and phone line which provides a free, confidential non-judgemental information service for women’s contraception, abortion, and sexual health options.

We have also worked with Peninsula, Eastern and Western Health services to increase access to surgical termination and create additional capacity for The Royal Women’s Hospital, allowing them to focus on providing more complex termination and other gynaecological services and ensuring women are able to access surgical terminations closer to home.

These services have been running since November last year.

The Allan Labor Government will continue to work with our community, women’s health and health service partners to improve access to timely and safe abortion care.