Thursday, 12 May 2022

Women’s reproductive rights

Ms HALL (Footscray) (17:12): (6361) Before I commence I would just like to acknowledge the Sunbury Youth Advisory Council up in the gallery, here for the most exciting part of the day, the adjournment debate. My adjournment is directed to the Minister for Women. The action I seek is for her to consider the implications of the public debate on Roe v. Wade on Victorian women. In the past week we have witnessed scenes in the United States that have sent shockwaves around the world, with the very real scenario that girls in the United States may inherit fewer fundamental reproductive rights than those of their grandmothers. The stacking of the Supreme Court with conservative judges means that an ideological war over reproductive health rights and the access to safe, affordable abortion may be at risk with the overturning of Roe v. Wade. The late Ruth Bader Ginsburg, former judge of the United States Supreme Court, once commented:

The decision whether or not to bear a child is central to a woman’s life, to her well-being and dignity. It is a decision she must make for herself. When Government controls that decision for her, she is being treated as less than a fully adult human responsible for her own choices.

According to the World Health Organization the proportion of unsafe abortions is significantly higher in countries with highly restrictive abortion laws than in countries with less restrictive laws, and the United States demonstrates a good example of that, as the rate of abortion-related deaths decreased by 85 per cent in the five years following Roe v. Wade. It might feel like we are a long way from the United States, but in my electorate of Footscray there is a Liberal Party MP who does not support the rights of women in the western suburbs to access their human right of reproductive choice. He does not support the right of women who are rape victims to reproductive choice. He once invited a prominent Neo-Nazi to his March for the Babies rally. He is an extremist, and for years the Liberal Party has turned a blind eye. He is bad for the western suburbs, he is bad for this Parliament, he is bad for women, he is bad for Victoria, and the Liberals must act to remove his toxic influence from the public debate in our state—a state that is all about equality and fairness, not extremist, misogynistic agendas.

Our local women’s health service GenWest note in their reproductive health strategy Action for Equity that women in the west must have:

The right to control decision making, to support active and informed decisions about their sexual and reproductive health free from violence (including reproductive coercion), stigma and discrimination.

They must be free from violence, free from stigma, free from discrimination and free from the outrageous hectoring of Mr Finn.