From today, residents in the ACT can access medical and surgical abortions for free — including those without a Medicare card.
Residents will be able to access medical abortions up to nine weeks gestation at a range of medical clinics, including trained GPs, telehealth services (such as Tele-Abortion, or Abortion Online — a Medical Abortion at home, with the Abortion Pill, for women who can’t easily access in-clinic abortion services) and MSI Australia — which offers surgical abortions up to 16 weeks gestation.
At this stage, free abortions will only be available through MSI Australia, while the ACT government works on expanding the initiative to other providers.
The announcement comes eight months after the ACT Government pledged a $4.6 million commitment over four years to remove out-of-pocket costs for those seeking the healthcare service.
ACT Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith said that free access to abortions is the “first step” towards expanding people’s reproductive rights.
“We’re really proud that the ACT is becoming the first jurisdiction to provide people with free surgical and medical abortions for anyone who needs it, up to 16 weeks,” Stephen-Smith said.
“This is about providing women and people who need an abortion with access to the right supports and services without stigmatisation or financial burden.”
“Abortion is a health service and not being able to access appropriate care in a timely way can have a detrimental impact on a person’s mental and physical health as well as socioeconomic consequences.”
“The ACT Government will continue to invest in appropriate, accessible and equitable healthcare to ensure all Canberrans can access the right care, at the right time.”
Deputy Chief Minister and Minister for Women Yvette Berry said giving citizens access to free abortions was a key commitment in the ACT Women’s Plan 2016-26 — an initiative that also plans to cover the cost of providing selected patients with long-acting reversible contraception including the intra-uterine device (IUD).
“The ACT Government is committed to ensuring that women and people who can become pregnant can be in control of and make informed decisions about their health care based on what is best for them and their circumstances,” Berry said.
CEO of independent think tank, Women’s Health Matters, Lauren Anthes is enthusiastic about the new initiative, though admits she wants to see more done to ensure everyone has access to the service, no matter their life circumstance.
“We’ve learnt through our research how different barriers work together to make it really challenging to access what is a time-sensitive medical procedure,” Anthes told ABC.
“We also have an issue in the ACT at the moment around gestational limits, which means that women who are over 16 weeks’ gestation can’t access surgical abortions — and that is due to facility and workforce limitations.”
“It means that [those patients] will still need to go to NSW, and that’s a critical problem.”
MSI Canberra Clinic Nurse Unit Manager Melissa Ryan is excited about helping deliver free abortion care for people in the ACT.
“Abortion care is basic healthcare and it is wonderful that the ACT has stepped up and become the first jurisdiction in Australia to fund free access to abortion care,” Ryan said in a Facebook post. “We regularly see people who are struggling to pay for the cost of abortion care and this will make such a huge difference to the lives of countless people.”
“It means women and pregnant people in the ACT can make an informed decision without having to worry about the financial burden it will have.”
The implementation of this latest initiative comes as ACT Legislative Assembly released its Inquiry into Abortion and Reproductive Choice report which analysed the experiences of those seeking the service in the territory.
The report made 18 recommendations to the government, including subsidising access to long-acting reversible contraception, working with universities to include reproductive health care as part of core medical training courses, promote awareness of the different types of abortion care amongst the general public and trialing a policy for reproductive health and wellbeing leave in ACT Government workplaces.