Tuesday, 15 August 2023

Rural and regional abortion services

Georgie PURCELL (Northern Victoria) (16:06): (377) My adjournment matter this afternoon is for the Minister for Health, and the action I seek is for her to urgently address the abortion accessibility crisis in regional and rural areas of Victoria. New data has revealed that there are currently 17 areas in Victoria where people have no access to abortion, and a vast majority of these are in my electorate of Northern Victoria. Access to essential health care is being described as a postcode lottery, and it is pregnant people in the country that have the losing ticket. Recently the federal government announced increased access to medical abortion, also known as the abortion pill, and while this is a great first step, there are still glaring gaps in reproductive health care across regional Victoria. This not only puts pregnant people at risk but further increases and perpetuates the stigma attached to terminations.

I have spoken publicly and openly about my own personal experience with abortion, not because it is always easy but because one of the most powerful ways to overcome the stigma attached to it is to normalise the conversation around it. I got an abortion because I did not want to have a child. I think that is important to say, because too often we defend abortion by using the most extreme and less common examples of why they are necessary, such as sexual assaults and unviable pregnancies. But when it comes to making the decision to have an abortion, no-one needs a justification or an excuse. And while I was grateful to have access to safe and legal health care when I needed it the most, to get an abortion as soon as possible my only option was for the procedure to be undertaken at a city location with an out-of-pocket cost of over $500. For many Victorians this is a cost they simply cannot afford to bear. For regional Victorians it is compounded by travel time and expenses, arranging time off work, added cost for childcare arrangements and in most cases a support person being required to do the same.

We know that inaccessibility of abortion increases the risks of the people requiring them turning to unsafe measures and leads to poor mental health outcomes and additional stress at a time that for many is already difficult enough. There is so much more that this government could be doing to ensure that we regional Victorians do not have to travel across the state or pay an exorbitant amount to access what is in no uncertain terms basic health care. At a time where bodily autonomy is under attack across the world, I hope the minister and this government can show that here in Victoria bodily autonomy is not negotiable by expanding abortion services into our regional areas.