When Brisbane mother Amy-Clare learned she was pregnant a second time, she almost opted not to undertake prenatal genetic testing. “We were really happy – we really wanted that baby,” she recalls.
Because she already had a healthy first child, Amy-Clare was inclined to believe things would go smoothly the second time. But for peace of mind, her partner talked her into getting the expensive test, which screens for chromosomal disorders early in pregnancy.
The test, in January 2021, showed that the foetus had an extra copy of chromosome 18. It was a serious genetic condition. Most babies affected die prenatally, or not long after birth.
Hopes that there had been a testing error were dashed when Amy-Clare had an ultrasound late in her first trimester. The specialist performing the scan narrated to the couple what she saw: the baby’s stomach was outside the body, she couldn’t find evidence of any kidneys, the head was enlarged. The baby would be unlikely to make it to birth, they were told.
Amy-Clare and her partner were left alone in the room, processing the news. “We knew, even from that moment,” she says. “Walking around pregnant [for months longer], knowing you’re expecting a miscarriage at any point, would have been traumatic. I wasn’t going to put myself through that; I wasn’t going to put my body through that.”
Unable to access a termination of pregnancy at her local public hospital, Amy-Clare had an abortion at a private clinic. “I remember the doctor who performed the abortion holding my hand and saying: there’ll be another baby.”
Amy-Clare says it would be “an absolute nightmare” if abortion were to be recriminalised in Queensland.
“I can’t imagine someone who had to go through what I had to go through doing that and feeling like a criminal as well,” she says.
“Even though my abortion felt like the only choice for medical reasons … anyone who has a pregnancy they don’t want should be able to terminate that pregnancy and to do so safely.”
When the bill that would legalise abortion came before the Queensland parliament in 2018, all but three Liberal National party MPs voted against it. David Crisafulli, who is now the party’s leader, and his current deputy, Jarrod Bleijie, were among those opposed to legalisation.
At a live event last year, Crisafulli said he did not “believe in late-term abortions”, Guardian Australia revealed on Tuesday. Throughout the Queensland election campaign, the opposition leader has repeatedly refused to rule out a conscience vote on the issue if elected, despite giving a “personal guarantee” that abortion laws would not change.
On Monday, leading health organisations including the professional bodies for GPs (RACGP) and obstetricians and gynaecologists (RANZCOG) released a joint statement saying a recriminalisation of abortion in Queensland “would be a harmful step backwards, risking the health and safety of pregnant people and undoing years of progress.”
When Brisbane psychologist Lara was pregnant with her first baby, a girl, she was devastated to learn during her 20-week scan that brain abnormalities had been identified.
An MRI a few days later showed that the foetus had agenesis of the corpus callosum, a rare birth defect in which the band of nerve fibres connecting the left and right hemispheres of the brain does not form properly. In isolation, the condition can cause impairments ranging from mild to severe. But doctors weren’t able to rule out other disorders such as Aicardi syndrome, which causes recurrent seizures.
Lara found herself desperate not to be pregnant. But it was 2017, when abortion was still illegal in Queensland, and to access a termination of pregnancy through the public system she was told she would have to declare before a panel of doctors that she was at risk of killing herself.
At the time, women who had “unlawful” abortions faced up to seven years’ imprisonment. Abortion providers could be penalised with up to 14 years, with exemptions from criminal liability “to preserve the mother’s life”.
“I didn’t feel like I was willing to say that I was suicidal at a point when I wasn’t, even though, in hindsight, I was extremely distressed,” Lara recalls. She looked into the possibility of travelling interstate, but decided against it because it would probably delay the termination she sought.
“At the time, I was visibly pregnant, and being in public was like torture for me,” she says. “The experience of being pregnant when you no longer want to be pregnant is just excruciating.”
Lara eventually found a private obstetrician who performed an induced labour termination, treating her with compassion and not without professional risk. “That was just pure luck that I was able to find someone … and my own privilege, being a healthcare worker.”
Lara has since had two children. “I was so scared to have another baby and to [potentially] go through it again,” she says. During her second pregnancy, abortion was legalised in Queensland. “It was healing for me when that law changed. I didn’t want anyone else to go through [what I did].”
“So-called ‘late term abortion’ looks like my story – a very wanted pregnancy, devastating news, a heavy decision and a lot of grief no matter what you decide.”
Prof Deborah Bateson, a clinician researcher and female reproductive health expert at the Daffodil Centre, points out that abortions in later gestation are rare, and carried out as a result of medically or socially complex situations. “These are never, ever decisions that are taken lightly.”
There is no standardised national data on abortion currently available in Australia, but South Australian data showed that 89.5% of terminations in the state in 2023 occurred before 14 weeks’ gestation, which is in line with US statistics finding the vast majority of abortions occur in the first trimester.
The criminalisation of abortion can lead to an increase in unsafe abortions, Bateson says. “We’ve seen that in the United States.”
“To think that we could have [a] retrograde step back is a very shocking thing for reproductive rights in Australia, but it does show that we can’t take things for granted.”
Criminalising abortion would result in an inequitable system that limits reproductive healthcare access to those most financially well off or able to travel, says Jill McKay, the chief executive of Children by Choice, which offers Queensland-wide counselling services for pregnancy decision-making.
“The World Health Organization is incredibly clear that abortion is healthcare,” McKay says. “To put it into any other sphere stigmatises our healthcare workers but most importantly injures the health and wellbeing of women.”
“Children by Choice will always be here to continue to advocate for safe, compassionate, affordable, legal abortion care.”
“I’ve never regretted the decision I made,” Lara says. “But when you give someone only one option, it’s a recipe for regret and resentment.”
That abortion rights could be stripped again is “so unfair and so distressing,” she says. “How depressing for every woman.”
“If you or your daughter got the same news at their 20-week scan, I guarantee that you’d want to be able to make an informed and difficult choice about what suffering you can endure, and what suffering you can spare your unborn child.”
“You might not make the same choice as me, but there is still enormous relief and strength that comes from being able to choose what the future looks like for you and your family.”
“If anyone finds themselves in this situation, no matter what happens with the laws, they’re not alone. You’re not alone.”
