The Northern Territory parliament has recently passed a bill which amends the Termination of Pregnancy Law Reform Act 2017, making it easier for women to access late-term abortions. But do these amendments genuinely improve Territorian women’s options and circumstances?

In Australia, the relatively recent phenomenon of ‘tele-abortions’ is being promoted to women as a safe and affordable alternative to surgical abortion, especially for women who live in regional or remote parts of the country. Women are able to access online telehealth consultations with physicians, obtain referrals for ultrasounds and blood tests if required, and then receive the required medications by way of courier to their home or pharmacies in close proximity to where they live.

Australia funds foreign abortions through its long-standing partnerships with leading sexual and reproductive health organisations, including the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) and Marie Stopes International Australia (MSIA). In November 2020, an e-petition (which garnered only two signatures) requested the Australian government to “substantially increase foreign aid to reputable family planning organisations”.

The tragic death of a 30-year-old woman in Poland has sparked protests and calls for a review of the country’s strict abortion laws, which were tightened earlier this year.

Jamal Hakim, Managing Director of Marie Stopes Australia, has called for redress for women who were sterilised without their consent because of a disability. The call is prompted by revelations from the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with a Disability which, according to Hakim’s information, heard “that children as young as seven were sterilised because of their disability, such as having vision impairments”.

Comments made by Taiwanese Netflix star Mike He made in a 2020 interview have surfaced causing a backlash online.

A 26-year-old British woman with Down Syndrome, Heidi Crowter, recently took the Department of Health and Social Care to court, arguing that part of the UK’s Abortion Act was “discriminatory and violated the European Convention on Human Rights”. 

The number of women undergoing medical abortions has increased more than six-fold since the RU486 abortion pill was listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme in 2013. 

Texas has become the first US state to pass a heartbeat bill, after an emergency appeal from abortion providers and others failed in the Supreme Court. The law prohibits abortions once medical professionals can detect cardiac activity, usually around six weeks of pregnancy.

“More lives are lost from violence against women, sex-selection abortion, female infanticide, suicide, egregious maternal mortality, and other sex-linked causes than were lost during all of the wars and civil strife of the 20th century.”