40 years since landmark abortion case Roe v Wade

Tuesday 22 January 2013 7:45AM (view full episode)

40 years on from the landmark US Supreme Court decision legalising abortion in the US, the legacy of Roe v Wade continues to be challenged by religious groups that believe a woman’s rights over her body are superseded by the right to life of a foetus.

But the case has not only changed the landscape of women’s health in the US, it also has had a ripple-on effect throughout Australia, giving moral support and momentum to women’s health campaigners and reformers.

Eva Cox, feminist, social policy advocate and adjunct professor at Sydney's University of Technology, had to suffer through a backyard abortion in the late 1950s before Roe v Wade made abortion clinics a possibility.

‘I had to ride in a taxi to a place in Bondi,' Cox told RN Breakfast this morning. ‘You weren’t allowed to give your names. It was all of that really sleazy, nasty thing. The cops were paid off.’

She says that Roe v Wade changed the debate in Australia, and catalysed women's groups fighting for increased rights over their bodies.

‘Roe v Wade... it encouraged us to try and get the laws changed, it encouraged us to set up abortion clinics, it set up... much better contraceptive advice, it was part of that 1970s, 1960s move saying hang on, women are human beings.’

Cox says that while coverage of the abortion debate often focuses on continued attempts by conservative groups in the US to override the constitutional amendment established in the Roe v Wade case, Australia also has still not worked its way through the issue. Abortion is the subject of criminal law in all Australian states and territories, except the ACT. If you need an abortion, you can get a legal procedure, but it may be expensive depending on where you live.

‘We’ve actually had law reform in some states,’ Cox said. ‘We don’t have it in NSW really, we’re still operating on the basis of the Levine ruling.’

The 1971 Levine Supreme Court decision, like common law in many Australian states, requires a doctor's approval for a woman to receive an abortion, which can be granted on the basis of ‘any economic, social or medical ground or reason’.

Cox also pointed to the 2010 attempted prosecution of 21-year-old Queenslander Tegan Leach, who became the first woman to be charged with unlawful abortion in Australia in over 111 years after taking a morning-after pill.

‘In those two states it is still actually illegal to have an abortion, except when it's covered by the medical doctor making the decision, so it's still very dicey and you could have another case and push it backwards,’ Cox said.

‘I’ve been working with a lot of younger women. They still see it as something which is deeply offensive and needs to be changed.’

Federal threats to women’s access to abortion also exist.

‘The Commonwealth obviously funds Medicare. And there have been odd moments of discussion about possibly removing Medicare benefits for those particular services and being able to sort of proscribe it and limit the access,’ Cox said.

Tony Abbott's refusal to allow the introduction of the abortion pill RU486 (which drew the condemnation of the AMA and the Democrats at the time) when he was federal health minister in 2005 also worries Cox and her fellow campaigners.

‘I think it's interesting listening to the stuff from the USA because it shows, I think it reflects some of the more conservative views that we are also seeing emerging in bits and pieces around Australia, about the fact that some of the things we fought for in the 1970s are not nearly as well entrenched and part of the world that we thought they were.'

'There’s always the possibility of going backwards so I suspect that the 40th anniversary is both a celebration and a warning not to take anything for granted.’

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Professor Kristin Luker
Director of Berkeley Law's Centre on Reproductive Rights and Justice at the University of California, and author of a number of books including the Pulitzer Prize-nominated book Abortion and the Politics of Motherhood
Eva Cox
Australian writer, feminist, sociologist, social commentator and activist

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