There are two major themes uniting the speakers at Melbourne’s State Library on Saturday, addressing a crowd of roughly 15,000 people protesting the US Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v Wade. The first is a raging solidarity, which frequently turns the speakers’ words to static through the echoing sound system, a rage that becomes almost corporeal, smacking against the buildings on either side of the crowded street. The second is a feeling of contingency, a feeling that a switch can be flicked and decades of work will be erased.
Take, for example, the US government’s “global gag rule” — a block on federal funding for non-government organisations that provide abortion services, counselling or referrals, or advocate for decriminalising abortion or expanded abortion services in their home country. It’s been imposed by every Republican president since Ronald Reagan, switched on and off whenever the ruling party changes.
In Australia, things are different. Talk to anyone who has worked in women’s rights organisations and they’ll tell you the risk doesn’t necessarily come from the ghoulish trolls celebrating the end of Roe v Wade — that group hasn’t succeeded in making abortion rights a mainstream culture war talking point in this country in quite some time. But what is always under threat is access.
“Rights aren’t everything,” Cecilia Judge, health worker and delegate with Victorian Allied Health Professionals Association (VAHPA), tells the crowd. “Someone may have XYZ rights, but it’s about being able to access those rights.”
So if 15,000 seems like a lot of people protesting a court decision affecting a foreign country — not to mention similar protests occurring in Sydney, Perth and other capital cities — consider the following:
Consider the “postcode lottery” in Australia determining whether women can access abortions based on their location and financial situation. Consider that in Western Australia, laws governing abortion still fall under the state’s criminal code.
Consider the saga of abortion pill Mifepristone, or RU486 (detailed in Crikey last week): access continues to be restricted, an echo of the decade-long ban between 1996 and 2006, imposed for craven political reasons by the Howard government to keep anti-abortion senator Brian Harradine onside.
“It only takes one politician” WA Greens Senator and Yamatji-Noongar woman Dorinda Cox tells the Melbourne crowd.
Other speakers reinforce what’s at stake.
“Banning abortions has never prevented them, but what it guarantees is more of us will die in the process,” says sex history researcher and academic at the University of Melbourne Esme James.
Her voice bubbling with rage and sadness, James tells the crowd the brutal reality of what women are forced to do when abortion is criminalised — drinking castor oil or Everclear grain alcohol; bathing in boiling water.
“We need to stand up and let them know, if they try to bring it to our shores, we’ll fucking give them hell,” she says.
As ever, the signs are a highlight: “Keep your beliefs out of my briefs”. “Girls just wanna have fun-damental rights”. My favourite simply read “Supreme Cunt”.
Anneke Demanuele, billed as a student activist and socialist, takes things home, the sound system curdling into fuzz as she leads the crowd in a chant of “Fuck the church/fuck the state/women will decide their fate”. It’s all very, well, student socialist activist, and I briefly think of Matt Canavan’s time as a self-proclaimed communist and Marxist at university, falling out of love with doctrine once his acolytes started attacking John Howard as a racist.
If Canavan was all the abortion rights movement was up against, that might not be such a problem. But, of course, he’s not.
It’s staggering to see how much the Republicans have stacked the cards in their favour. There seems to be a rule in place for every conservative administration to pull out to maintain the status quo. The Supreme Court appears to have not even a shred of neutrality. In the last fortnight, they’ve overruled bans on carrying handguns, Roe, and now any effective measures on fossil fuel emissions.
Americans were warned and still almost 50% voted for Trump.Its a shame that 50% aren’t the only victims of their ignorance.
But not gun rights? What a curious perspective you have.
What? Did the implications of the judgement escape you entirely? Nearly every red state is looking at banning abortion in almost any circumstance. Since when does allowing half the country to pass draconian laws exempt the Supreme Court of all responsibility for such a decision? If you’re ‘staggered’ by such ignorance, get a Zimmer frame.
Perhaps the worst thing about the US Supreme court is that 2 of the 3 scum Trump appointed lied at their confirmation hearings, both stating they would not overturn Roe because it was a 50 year precedent. From there what happens to vpting rights I wonder?
I am not in favour of abortion in general because it must be traumatic. I would much rather see it become mostly unnecessary. But sometimes it is the least bad solution and if that is the case the simpler and less intrusive the process the better. Laws banning it bring death and corruption and the concept that a foetus conceived in rape or incest cannot be terminated is abhorrent. These puffed up preachers make me sick and given that they are mostly male, it is not them who have to live with the results.
I hope this disaster in the US teaches people not to vote conservative ever again. It only ever represents the patriarchy, a highly anti female, misogynistic,racist system. It could happen here too. Scott Morrison was a huge risk to women as most in the LNP are. I have yet to hear anyone talk about mandatory vasectomies which would reduce unwanted pregnancies dramatically, is reversible and would relieve women of the burden of pretty much everything to do with reproduction. Its probably time for a change. Women have had their share of suffering for the patriarchy. Must be time for the lads. Abortion is not ideal by any stretch but needs to always be accessible and legal.
Using the USA as a cautionary tale is quite smart on the road to better conditions here. While we’re all talking about the issue, let’s make things a little better here.
Canavan’s excision from public life would be a bloody appetising start though.
With George Christensen’s unlamented departure surely there’s no bigger oxygen thief gracing Australia’s parliament.
Hearing women screaming at abortion protests over the weekend, in Australia, tells everyone that was watching, that women will complain about anything, even when they have the thing that they are protesting, and which all Australians accept. If you start screaming about something, that no one is thinking about, all you do is tell the fringe that it could be an issue that they can use against you. Just wait for the hysterical right to start talking about abortion, when they never have in the past. The protests did more damage than good.
Bring it to their attention and they use it against you? Reminds me of the whistle blower ‘protection’. There I was thinking we lived in a free country with all its checks and balances, although not if you are female.