When Brisbane mum Amy-Clare found out she was pregnant for the second time, she almost chose not to undergo prenatal genetic testing. “We were very happy – we really wanted that baby,” she remembers.
Having already had a healthy first child, Amy-Clare was inclined to believe that everything would go smoothly the second time around. But for her peace of mind, her partner persuaded her to have the expensive test, which screens for chromosomal abnormalities early in pregnancy.
The test, in January 2021, showed that the fetus had an extra copy of chromosome 18. It involved a serious genetic condition. Most affected babies die prenatally or not long after birth.
Hopes that a testing error had been made were dashed when Amy-Clare had an ultrasound scan late in her first trimester. The specialist who performed the scan told the couple what she saw: the baby’s stomach was outside the body, she couldn’t find any kidneys, the head was enlarged. The baby is unlikely to make it to birth, they were told.
Amy-Clare and her partner were left alone in the room and processed the news. “We knew it from that moment,” she says. “Walking around pregnant (for months longer), knowing that you expected a miscarriage at any moment, would have been traumatic. I wouldn’t do that to myself; I wouldn’t burden my body with that.”
Unable to access a termination of pregnancy at her local public hospital, Amy-Clare had an abortion at a private clinic. “I remember the doctor who performed the abortion holding my hand and saying, there’s another baby coming.”
Amy-Clare says it would be “an absolute nightmare” if abortion were recriminalized in Queensland.
“I can’t imagine that someone who has had to go through the same thing as me also feels like a criminal,” she says.
“Even though my abortion felt like the only choice for medical reasons… anyone who has a pregnancy they don’t want should be able to terminate that pregnancy safely.”
When the bill that would legalize abortion was introduced into the Queensland parliament in 2018, all but three Liberal National Party MPs voted against it. David Crisafulli, who is now the party’s leader, and his current deputy, Jarrod Bleijie, were among those opposed to legalization.
At a live event last year, Crisafulli said he “didn’t believe in late-term abortions,” Guardian Australia revealed on Tuesday. Throughout the Queensland election campaign, the opposition leader has repeatedly refused to rule out a conscience vote on the issue if elected, despite giving a “personal guarantee” that abortion laws would not change.
On Monday, leading health organisations, including the professional bodies for general practitioners (RACGP) and obstetricians and gynecologists (RANZCOG), released a joint statement saying that a recriminalization of abortion in Queensland would be “a harmful step backwards, affecting the health and safety of pregnant women.” would endanger people. undoing years of progress.”
When Brisbane psychologist Lara was pregnant with her first baby, a girl, she was devastated to learn she had been diagnosed with brain abnormalities during her 20-week scan.
An MRI a few days later showed that the fetus had agenesis of the corpus callosum, a rare birth defect in which the band of nerve fibers that connect the left and right hemispheres of the brain do not form properly. On its own, the condition can cause impairments ranging from mild to severe. But doctors couldn’t rule out other conditions such as Aicardi syndrome, which causes recurring seizures.
Lara found herself desperate not to be pregnant. But it was 2017, when abortion was still illegal in Queensland, and to access a termination of pregnancy through the public system she was told she had to declare before a panel of doctors that she was at risk of suicide.
At the time, women who had an “illegal” abortion risked a seven-year prison sentence. Abortion providers can be punished for up to fourteen years, with exemptions from criminal liability “to preserve the life of the mother.”
“I didn’t feel like I was ready to say I was suicidal at a time when I wasn’t, even though in retrospect I was extremely upset,” Lara recalls. She explored the possibility of interstate travel but decided against it as it would likely delay the termination she requested.
“At the time I was visibly pregnant, and being in public was torture for me,” she says. “The experience of being pregnant when you no longer want to be pregnant is simply unbearable.”
Lara eventually found a private midwife who performed a forced termination of labor, treating her with compassion and not without professional risk. “That was just pure luck that I was able to find someone… and my own privilege, to be a healthcare worker.”
Lara has since had two children. “I was so scared of having another baby and (possibly) going through it again,” she says. During her second pregnancy, abortion was legalized in Queensland. “It was healing for me when that law changed. I didn’t want anyone else to experience this (what I did).”
“The so-called ‘late-term abortion’ is similar to my story – a highly sought-after pregnancy, devastating news, a tough decision and a lot of sadness, whatever you decide.”
Prof. Deborah Bateson, a physician-researcher and female reproductive health expert at the Daffodil Center, points out that abortions during later pregnancy are rare and are performed due to medically or socially complex situations. “These are never decisions that are taken lightly.”
There are currently no standardized national data on abortion available in Australia, but South Australian data showed that 89.5% of abortions in the state in 2023 occurred before 14 weeks’ gestation, which is consistent with US statistics It has been found that the vast majority of abortions occur in the first trimester.
The criminalization of abortion could lead to an increase in unsafe abortions, Bateson says. “We have seen that in the United States.”
“The thought that we could take a step back is very shocking for reproductive rights in Australia, but it shows that we cannot take things for granted.”
Criminalizing abortion would result in an unjust system that limits access to reproductive health care to those who are most financially well-off or able to travel, says Jill McKay, the CEO of Children by Choice, which offers decision-making advisory services across Queensland about pregnancies.
“The World Health Organization is incredibly clear that abortion is health care,” says McKay. “If we place it in any other area, we stigmatize our health care workers, but it especially harms the health and well-being of women.”
“Children by Choice will always be here to continue advocating for safe, compassionate, affordable and legal abortion care.”
“I have never regretted the decision I made,” says Lara. “But giving someone only one option is a recipe for regret and resentment.”
That abortion rights could be abolished again is “so unfair and so poignant,” she says. “How depressing for any woman.”
“If you or your daughter were to receive the same news during the twenty-week ultrasound, I guarantee you that you would want to be able to make an informed and difficult choice about what suffering you can tolerate and what suffering you can spare your unborn child. .”
“You may not make the same choice I did, but there is still tremendous relief and strength that comes from being able to choose what the future looks like for you and your family.”
“If anyone is in this situation, regardless of what happens with the laws, they are not alone. You are not alone.”