Legalising abortion: its time [editorial]

In September 1995 Australias National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) issued its draft report on abortion and recommended that abortion be provided in a optimal fashion as part of health care services. This recommendation is to be commended. Whereas health policies can have ethical goals it is wrong to impose minority religious views on a pluralistic community. Many health care services raise ethical questions and it is simply an historical accident that abortion has been criminalized and other procedures (such as in vitro fertilization) have not. Abortion is an admirable public health procedure. When performed by skilled practitioners in hygienic conditions it is effective and safe. Its availability reduces maternal and perinatal mortality and morbidity rates. Contraceptive provision can never completely eliminate the need for abortion. While in practice a woman in Australia with enough effort information and money can obtain a legal abortion a change in the law is necessary to increase access and remove inequities. The Public Health Association (PHA) Womens Health Special Interest Group has responded to the draft report with the recommendation that abortion should be decriminalized and that its regulation and monitoring should fall under existing medical and surgical legal and administrative provisions. Support for decriminalization from the NHMRC and the PHA should aid in the process.