Thanks for that article - it is so important that people are aware what Costello is trying to do to women.

Someone wise (whos name escapes me just now) once said that restricting abortion only meant that "the rich get abortions,the poor get butchered"... I completely agree - and taking abortion off the list for medicare certainly means those back-yard coat hanger weilding quacks can start rubbing their grubby hands together once more.

I shall be writing immediately to register my concern.

A pox on Costello and anyone else who thinks the decision to end a pregnancy has anything to do with them, unless they are the woman whos' body it concerns

I've had a look at the proposed legislation and there's no mention of the item numbers Kate seems concerned about.

In any case, the idea that a pregnant woman owns her body and the child within is simply ridiculous. After all, it took a man to create half the genes of the child.

This is no attack on women by men, as nasty feminists like to frame the debate. They seem to forget that men are part of the birth equation and that men play a very important role as fathers, sons, uncles, grandpas etc, roles that women could never imitate.

It is about time feminists realise that Australia's population is dying and that we are losing a classroom of children every day to abortion. Surely we ought to act, in the interests of the innocent children and our nation.

Having an abortion is definitely elective surgery, on a par with a hip replacement or cosmetic surgery. I cannot see why a woman who wants an abortion has any greater claim on medicare than someone needing a hip replacement who currently has to endure a painful waiting period of 6-12 months. It must be elective as the woman is not ill. Perhaps the best compromise would be to retain medicare access as elective surgery, with a minimum waiting period of twelve months.

Neat trick, Plerdus, 12 months is a little too long to wait if you need or want an abortion, indeed, unless we want more late -term abortions, the waiting list idea is a spectacularly bad one.
It has already been pointed out that most late term abortions happen either because a woman found it hard to access an abortion earlier, or because the foetus is discovered to be unviable late, or it is discovered later in the pregnancy that the woman's life is endangered. Very, very, very few late-term abortions are merely elective.
No, the previous poster is correct. Removing the medicare benefit will not affect wealthier women and will force poorer women to take great risks. Some propose a further negative consequence.
Did anyone read Caroline Overington's column in the Weekend Australian called "Crime Rates seen as a matter of life and death"? She cites a US study which "after sober analysis of the data" concludes that the fall in the crime rate in the US can be traced back to liberalised abortion laws.
"..the US crime rate has been dropping like a stone since 1991. As it happens that's roughly 18 years after the US Supreme Court upheld a woman's right to abortion." In other words, unwanted kids have such a lousy start, particularly the unwanted kids of the already poor and dysfunctional, that they often turn to crime.
I have no idea whether this shocking idea is true or not, but surely it ought to be further investigated? What if it turns out that it is sometimes better not to be born?

Thanks for your article Kate on how the Health Legislation Amendment Bill can be used to stop abortion against the wishes of the majority of Australians.

QUESTION: Why does an Irishman use a condom?
a. to stop unwanted pregnancy
b. to stop the spread of disease
c. as a political act, saying “up you ** palace of cardinals”
d. to bolster a brewers droop erection

ANSWER: c, the others are side effects

Women of childbearing age need to stand up and be counted otherwise we will head back to the 1950’s. Do we really want to have to proceed with unplanned pregnancies and give up unwanted babies for adoption? How does pregnancy effect your career or standing in the community? How does society look after those babies that no body wants?

2004 figures tabled in parliament indicated Australia has 200,000 live births and estimated 80,000 abortions per year (40% of 200,000). Its estimated about 10% of couples are infertile so lets assume the infertile couples all want to adopt. ie there is a demand to adopt 30,000 babies.

What do we do with the remaining 50,000 babies? Perhaps the grateful tax payer can be prevailed upon to fund orphanages at an appropriate level to allow children to grow up to be useful members of society. Anything less and we are breeding a welfare dependent underclass.

The reasons for abortion appear to be overlooked. Women who have access to birth control, have been educated on contraception and have a self-esteem level to insist on using preventative measures are less likely to become pregnant, but become pregnant we do! I know of no woman who is using abortion as an unemotional birth control method. It takes alot of courage to decide to terminate a pregnancy. A woman may be financially, mentally or socially unable to raise a child or she may not be healthy, old enough or too old to safely carry the child. The conception may be the result of a rape. The woman may not have the family, social network or partner support to care for the child.
An abortion is not an easy decision, and just because someone had rights over my body for 15 minutes does not mean they can make decisions that affect it for years to come. My body is my body and it is my decision on what to do if I fall pregnant.
If I have the money to go private if I need an abortion then the covering of expenses by Medicare is a moot point. If I don't have the money to pay then please don't look at my body as a breeding machine to repopulate Australia, support me in such a tough decision and assist me in making it safely and legally.