Vol. 75/No. 42      November 21, 2011

A group of seven men, most wearing black T-shirts with the acronym “BVM” (Blessed Virgin Mary) and one carrying a large wooden crucifix, invaded the meeting of 50 people and attempted to disrupt it. Participants used banners to physically block the rightists from approaching the front of the room.

The meeting was held to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Levine ruling, the common law court decision that opened up access to safe, legal abortion for women in New South Wales. The Oct. 28, 1971, ruling came after doctors charged for performing abortions following a 1970 police raid on Sydney’s Heatherbrae abortion clinic were acquitted.

Speaking for WAAC, Samantha Campbell pointed out that during World War II women entered the workforce in large numbers and gained more economic freedom. By the time of the 1970 police raid attitudes on abortion had changed. “The police thought that the raid would be supported by the public, instead it was met with outrage,” she said.

Dr Stefania Siedlecky, who graduated from medical school in 1943, explained, “Working in a women’s hospital during the war years I witnessed women die from infection and hemorrhaging following illegal abortions alongside the hypocrisy of doctors who would do a discreet safe abortion for their private patients.”

Dr Caroline de Costa, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology in Cairns, in North Queensland, was instrumental in the 2005-2006 campaign to make the abortion pill RU486 available in Australia.

She spoke about the case of the young couple from Cairns who were acquitted by a jury in 2010 after being charged with using RU486. This, she said, highlighted the need to repeal the abortion provisions from the criminal codes of Queensland and New South Wales.

The meeting proceeded despite the attempts by rightists who tried to interrupt presentations and discussion with shouts such as “machine-gun her, murderer” and “put them in jail.”

“This is the first time in more than 20 years that a WAAC-organized public forum has been targeted by antiabortion forces,” Margaret Kirkby, a leader of WAAC, told the Militant in a phone interview. “Their behavior was designed to intimidate us but they failed. We will continue to campaign for a woman’s right to choose abortion.”  
 
 
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