An Australian Perspective on AbortionThe closest example of a counterfactual to Roe v. Wade is Australia, where there is a federal system with no unifying law or ruling concerning abortion.
Dara Macdonald
08 Jul 2022
In the aftermath of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, it would be beneficial for all Americans, regardless of whether they are cracking the champagne or drowning their sorrows in gin, to consider what will come next.
The closest example of a counterfactual to Roe v. Wade is Australia, where there is a federal system with no unifying law or ruling concerning abortion.
In Australia, abortion has always been a matter for state parliaments—the legislative arm of government. Thus, each state has had different laws regarding abortion, and this is not such a terrible thing. Leaving morally complex questions, such as abortion, to each state has been a blessing.
Regardless of one's views on abortion, the Roe v. Wade decision was always understood to be in a precarious position and vulnerable to overturning if judges with more fealty to the text of the US Constitution (as written) than to precedent (how it has been interpreted) were appointed to the Supreme Court.
This has created the toxic division in America that preceded today's complaints about hyper-polarisation. The Roe decision had the opposite effect to the one intended. It didn’t put the abortion question to bed but made it an issue that has motivated the extremes and politicised the Supreme Court. I would even argue that it created the false binary of “pro-choice” and “pro-life.”
That these slogans are framed as being for something is an indication that both sides want to protect something. Both slogans are half-truths. Abortion is a serious moral issue and anyone who wants to pretend otherwise has not thought deeply about it. The overturning of Roe is an opportunity to simmer down a bit and actually engage with the question of abortion in a far more reasonable way than the fever pitch at which the US debate currently rages.
One can only hope.
Slow and steady changeOne of the statements that shocked Joe Rogan in his recent debate with Australian radio host Josh Szeps was that New South Wales (the state in Australia where both Szeps and I live) only removed abortion from the criminal code in 2019.
* * *
New South Wales now allows abortion on demand for up to 22 weeks. This is fairly standard across Australia, where the most restrictive states limit on-demand abortions to before 14 weeks and the most liberal limit it to 24 weeks. Even Victoria, the state with the most left-wing government and most relaxed laws around abortion (the “California” of Australia, if you will) restricts late-term abortions to medical emergencies only.
* * *
Removing abortion from the criminal law and implementing on-demand abortion is a phenomenon that began in the 2000s. It was mostly driven by women unwittingly falling foul of the laws that limit legal abortions to those performed by a doctor, for example, by ordering abortion pills online.
For the most part, however, the story of abortion in Australia is one of slow change on a state-by-state basis as both attitudes and technology progress.
But slow change is no bad thing. It is far more stable and sensible than changing the legal landscape from one day to the next, which is what a top-down decision does. Those reeling from the Dobbs decision are probably experiencing what those who opposed unrestricted abortion felt in 1973 when the Roe decision was handed down.
* * *
Source:
https://quillette.com/2022/07/08/an-australian-perspective-on-abortion/
