The Politics of Abortion in Australia: Freedom, Church and State

Abstract

Through legislation against abortion the State has claimed an interest in, and indeed rights over, women's bodies, and reproduction. Consequently, the Parliaments and legal systems were the institutional arenas in which the initial battles for abortion rights had to be fought. Australia is a confederation of states, each with its own criminal code. Abortion law, and hence practice, differs from state to state and territory. The prevailing situation in each, however, has its origins in particular historical conditions and localized struggles. In each state the outcome of conflicts over legislative reform or repeal in the late 1960s and early 1970s defined particular parameters which have both enabled and constrained the actions of protagonists since, and marked out boundaries around a range of possibilities for political action and abortion practice. This article will focus firstly, then, on abortion struggles at the level of parliamentary, party and electoral politics during the period of liberalization. Analysis of each particular struggle will show, however, that the outcomes were less the result of debates over the issue of