Advocates say Victorian women are struggling to access abortion services amid conscientious objectors
Women's health services in Victoria say they are receiving reports from women who are struggling to access abortion services in the state. They say conscientious objectors are failing to fulfil their legal requirements to refer women seeking abortions to alternative services.
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TVTranscript
00:00 Abortion is legal, safe and common and there is that legal provision, but what we know
00:06 is that that's not being universally or regularly practised.
00:11 So we hear stories of women saying that they'll go to a GP and the GP will automatically register
00:17 them for maternity leave, not discuss their options.
00:21 We also know that there'll be referrals made to other GPs or other services where the service
00:29 isn't provided to meet the needs of the woman.
00:32 So it's the direct objection, but then we also see it sort of through the system as
00:38 well, the availability of the service, the fact that it's not delivered equitably and
00:44 it's made more difficult if you're a woman from a migrant background or even if you,
00:49 and also if you live in rural and regional Victoria.
00:52 And how often is this happening, Kit?
00:54 Well, we have 1-800-MY-OPTIONS that gets about 600 calls a week from people looking for services
01:01 and they regularly will get calls across the week from women who are saying that they are
01:06 facing conscientious objection and they can't get access to the service in a timely way.
01:12 And that of course makes their quality of life, their choice for their future even more
01:18 difficult.
01:19 But it's only the GP, is it, who can conscientiously object by law?
01:24 Others in the chain of care can't.
01:25 Yeah, well if you're a health practitioner, so under the definition and you're providing
01:31 the service, you can conscientiously object.
01:34 So that can also be other practitioners apart from GPs as well.
01:38 All right, so how can women discreetly find out about the attitudes of health care providers?
01:43 Yeah, so in Victoria we've got 1-800-MY-OPTIONS, which is a website and a phone service that
01:49 women in Victoria can call for advice.
01:52 And the other thing too is to contact a local women's health service who will be able to
01:56 provide advice as well.
01:57 But I think there's also just the knowledge that if you are in a public health system
02:02 in Victoria, there is access to that as well.
02:06 The public health system does provide access to the service.
02:09 So this is what happens in Victoria, Kit.
02:11 Is it the same in other parts of the country?
02:13 Look, I think it's fair to say that because we've got the information system set up in
02:19 Victoria like 1-800-MY-OPTIONS, that doesn't exist across Australia.
02:24 So there'll be extra barriers.
02:26 We know that women use their networks, their information networks, their peers to find
02:31 information on who's available.
02:33 And women also find out who are the good GPs to deal with and who are not.
02:37 Even those GPs that say that they're a women's health service, we know that they do encounter
02:42 these challenges of getting the service health care that they need.
02:46 So how can this be handled differently to spare women distress?
02:50 So I think what we're saying, what we're arguing from the women's health perspective is that
02:54 there needs to be monitoring of it.
02:56 There needs to be transparent monitoring across Australia.
03:00 So if the reports come in, and can I just say that if you are a women that does face
03:05 it and you want to report it, the reporting through to the APRA, to the national regulator,
03:11 it can be quite onerous.
03:12 So easier reporting mechanisms in place, and then transparently reporting on that to understand
03:19 the impact of it and to enable us to talk about it more freely.
03:23 So just finally, a reminder about the advice to women about where to go for treatment and
03:27 help.
03:28 Yeah, so in Victoria, you can go to 1800MYOPTIONS and the website is the same as that.
03:35 And then your public health provider will be able to provide the support as well through
03:39 their women's health service.
03:40 [BLANK_AUDIO]