The National Foundation for Australian Women is a non-partisan feminist organisation, independent of government funding. (www.nfaw.org)
We have been involved for many years in public policy discussions on issues impacting women’s sexual and reproductive health, and have made submissions to numerous relevant inquiries by the Parliament of Australia. Our position as a feminist organisation is to support the rights of women to control their own fertility, and to support policies which assist women, and their partners, to make informed decisions about managing the numbers and spacing of their children.
We have watched with interest the progress of the Reproductive Health (Access to Terminations) Bill 2013 in the Parliament of Tasmania.
We welcome the intent of the legislation to remove abortion from the criminal code. This has been the legal situation in the Australian Capital Territory for a number of years. A decision to terminate is best made by a voluntary decision of the woman in consultation with her doctor. A doctor with a conscientious objection to abortion can easily refer the woman to a body such as the Family Planning Association if need be, who in turn may be able to refer the women to a practitioner who does not hold such an objection. In the ACT, for example, such procedures are available from facilities operated by the ACT Government, but not from those operated through health services operated by the Catholic health system.