Volume 182 - Issue 2
Abortion: time to clarify Australia’s confusing laws
Author: Leslie Reti
Med J Aust 2005; 182 (2): 94-95. || doi: 10.5694/j.1326-5377.2005.tb06592.x
Published online: 17 January 2005
Published online: 17 January 2005
To the Editor: The article by de Crespigny and Savulescu is certainly thought provoking and timely. The harms they cite as caused by an uncertain legal environment are lamentable, although the outcomes were probably the result of multiple factors in addition to the justice system.
To bring order, reason, compassion and justice to a clinical problem as complex as termination of pregnancy — especially late termination — requires a framework for decision-making. This should operate at the hospital level, at the national level among the professionals involved, and, as de Crespigny and Savulescu contend, in the national legal system.
Most hospitals have now developed consistent guidelines to assist clinicians and patients in decisions regarding pregnancy termination (in the past, there was significant intrahospital diversity and uncertainty). More recently, clinicians involved with late termination of pregnancy for fetal abnormality in eight centres in six states and the Australian Capital Territory met in Melbourne to develop a consistent national set of guidelines. There was adequate consensus to produce a document that will soon be submitted for publication for wider community comment. Hopefully, this will facilitate better outcomes for all and perhaps even provide a stimulus for review and consistency of abortion laws.