Right: Detail from a poster distributed by aid workers in Somalia, in the local language. This is one of many such posters produced by the International Planned Parenthood Foundation.
Arguments in favour of Australia supplying foreign aid to fund abortion services
1. No other western nation now prohibits such aidAustralia and the United States were the only nations that banned the use of foreign aid for abortion services or family planning. When President Obama removed the United States ban in Januar 2009, Australia became the only country in the world to have such a provision in its aid policy. Critics of the Australian policy stressed how out of step it was with practices adopted elsewhere.
The decision to overturn the ban on abortion funding was welcomed by Sarah Hanson-Young, a senator in the Australian parliament for the Australian Greens. Senator Hanson-Young stated, 'Australia, until this morning, was the last country who had these ridiculous, archaic, inhumane restrictions placed on our aid funding and support. What we now see is Australia has stepped up in line with Barack Obama, who in his very first week as president moved to ensure that these restrictions would be lifted,'
2. Abortions will occur in underdeveloped countries even if illegal and whether aid is supplied or not
The following information was supplied by the Guttmacher Institute, which produces a wide range of resources on topics pertaining to sexual and reproductive health.
In developing nations more than half of all abortions performed are unsafe and illegal. The estimated number of induced abortions in Africa has increased since 1995; however, the region's abortion rate has declined because of an increase in the number of reproductive-age women.
Legal restrictions on abortion do not affect its incidence. For example, the abortion rate is 29 in Africa, where abortion is illegal in many circumstances in most countries, and it is 28 in Europe, where abortion is generally permitted on broad grounds. The lowest rates in the world are in Western and Northern Europe, where abortion is accessible with few restrictions.
Where abortion is legal and permitted on broad grounds, it is generally safe, and where it is illegal in many circumstances, it is often unsafe. For example, in South Africa, the incidence of infection resulting from abortion decreased by 52% after the abortion law was liberalized in 1996.
Worldwide, 48% of all induced abortions are unsafe. However, in developed regions, nearly all abortions (92%) are safe, whereas in developing countries, more than half (55%) are unsafe.
More than 95% of abortions in Africa and Latin America are performed under unsafe circumstances, as are about 60% of abortions in Asia (excluding Eastern Asia).
Jane Singleton the Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Reproductive Health Alliance has stated the changes are long overdue and a big step to helping save women's lives.
Ms Singleton recalled, 'I was up on the border of Myanmar, of Burma at the end of last year. There was a case there when a woman who already had four children and was pregnant had walked for four days to get over the border to the hospital in Thailand. She had tried to abort herself with a stick. She had tried so hard the stick had perforated her buttocks, she nearly died.
Had she died, the fate of her children and her family would have been so very much worse.'
3. Inexpertly performed abortions kill many women in underdeveloped countries
It has been noted that by not funding abortions in undeveloped nations Australia is failing to prevent the deaths of thousands of women a year. The World Health Organisation estimates that approximately 19 million unsafe abortions are carried out each year in developing nations, with an estimated 68,000 women dying as a result and millions more suffering complications. It is estimated that as a result of deaths caused by unsafe abortions some 220 thousand children lose their mothers.
Almost all abortion-related deaths occur in developing countries. They are highest in Africa, where there were an estimated 650 deaths per 100,000 unsafe abortions in 2003, compared with 10 per 100,000 in developed regions.
Federal Liberal backbencher, Mal Washer, has indicated that he supports the Government's decision to overturn the ban on aiding abortion in developing nations. Mr Washer has stated that there is a 13 per cent death rate for women who have unsafe or illegal abortions in developing nations.
Mr Washer added, 'We would not accept that in Australia. We insist that in Australia women get good abortion advice, and a lot of that would perhaps stop women having unnecessary abortions.
If they feel it's necessary for whatever reason, at least they get safe abortions so the chances of dying are pretty remote.
Let's treat women overseas with the same dignity and decency as we would our own women in Australia.'
Jane Singleton, chief executive officer of the Australian Reproductive Health Alliance, has stated, 'It will have huge impacts on hundreds of thousands of women and their families who want to make choices about the numbers of children they have and the spacing.'
Australia's parliamentary secretary for development assistance, Bob McMullan, 'The cumulative effect of other things we are doing about maternal health, this initiative and the change of the guidelines will mean that we will start to make an impact on the millenium development goal about reducing maternal mortality.
A woman is 300 times more likely to die in childbirth in a developing country than in Australia. It is the greatest gap in health services between the developed and developing world and we need to do everything we can to give women in the developing countries a chance of having their children safely and living a decent life.'
4. Australia will supply aid in accord with the wishes and values of the countries being assisted
Foreign Affairs Minister, Stephen Smith, has indicated that Australia will not be indiscriminately promoting abortion. Australia's policy will be subject to the national laws of overseas nations.
Mr Smith has stated, ' Avoiding terminations through family planning services and advice will continue to be the focus of Australian funded activities. Australian and international non-government organisations [NGOs] will continue to be able to choose what services they deliver in line with their own philosophies and policies.'
The government will also spend up to $15 million over four years through UN agencies and non-government organisations on family planning to help reduce maternal deaths. Mr Smith noted that the United Nations estimates that universal family planning could save the lives of as many as 175,000 women each year.
5. The former prohibition was contrary to Australia's international treaty obligations
Charles Darwin University researcher Suzanne Belton has noted, 'Australia in 1983 became a signatory to the International Convention on Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women, which affirms women's reproductive rights.
In 2006, in a written submission to the Parliamentary Group on Population and Development Dr Belton stated, 'In order to reduce maternal mortality, Australian aid money should focus on the prevention of unwanted and mistimed pregnancies and access to high quality post-abortion care and safe abortion. We cannot continue to cordon off abortion as though it does not happen.'
The International Convention on Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women, which 184 countries, including Australia, have signed, states that its signatories must ensure access to health care services, including those related to family planning.
Member countries must also take measures to ensure women have the right to decide 'freely and responsibly on the number and spacing of their children and to have access to the information, education and means to enable them to exercise these rights'.
Dr Belton further stated, 'The Honourable MPs will understand that by signing these international treaties, governments are then required to implement them with actions. Governments should also not promote laws which conflict with international obligations and laws should be reformed if they directly conflict with international treaties.'
In addition to funding abortion services, the Rudd Government will now also provide additional funding of up to $15 million over four years through United Nations agencies and non-government organisations to help reduce maternal deaths.
The United Nations estimates that universal family planning could save the lives of as many as 175,000 women each year, while about 68,000 women die annually as a result of unsafe abortions.
Supporters of the Rudd Government's change to Australia AusAID policy in this area argue we are
now meeting out treaty obligations.