A BRISBANE doctor’s launch of an online do-it-yourself home abortion guide has been labelled “an extreme version of a false ideology that women alone should have a say on the life of children in their wombs”.
Queensland Bioethics Centre director Ray Campbell said such a decision “trivialised the termination of a pregnancy which is a very serious decision and not just something to be done casually at home”.
Cherish Life Queensland state president Teresa Martin agreed, asking “how many abortions is enough for these people when there are already more than 15,000 abortions a year carried out in this state alone?”
Medical Guild of St Luke’s Catholic Doctors of Queensland president Dr Terry Kent described the abortion guide as “medically irresponsible, a hazard to women’s health and akin to handing out suicide kits”.
The comments came after prominent obstetrician Dr Adrienne Freeman announced the launching of her website on “safe home abortions” featuring “how to” videos and a range of information and research papers highlighting the benefits of abortion drug misoprostol.
Mr Campbell said Dr Freeman’s decision to launch the website was likely to have serious consequences.
“For a start there is no control on who can access the site …,” he said.
“It also trivialises a very serious decision – even some pro-abortionists agree it’s not an easy decision for women to make.
“This casual approach disregards the psychological as well as physical implications of the act of abortion.”
Ms Martin said making abortion easier, “whether by legislation or by home do-it-yourself kits” was never going to fix the problem.
“It’s a type of misplaced compassion,” she said.
“Why is it people are demanding an engineered solution from government to sanction this act of violence?
“There have always been people around wanting to kill someone or other but that doesn’t mean we should demand killing becomes legal.
“It’s no different with abortion where the child is being killed.”
Ms Martin also expressed concern at the use of misoprostol which she said was “not a simple, safe procedure as might be thought from advice encouraging its use at home”.
“The drug certainly has the potential to cause fatalities,” she said.
“My understanding is it can lead to an abortion at any time – maybe when a mother is taking her youngsters to school, is stuck in a car at lights or wherever.
“What we really need is true and honest websites that point women in the direction of honest and true counselling to help them find out what they want to do and to give them options.”
Dr Kent said “apart from it being wrong to promote abortion”, the website was concerning because of “instructing someone how to terminate their own pregnancy” .
He queried the safety of “telling someone how to use this medication without even seeing the patient”.
“There are numerous medical situations where it would be very dangerous for a woman to take misoprostol, especially if a woman had an ectopic pregnancy or had an intrauterine contraceptive device.
“Also it may be dangerous if a woman had a uterine infection, severe anaemia, cardiovascular or cerebrovascular disease, had a disease concerning coagulation, was on anticoagulants or had high blood pressure.
“It could also be highly dangerous if a woman was in the advanced stages of pregnancy and took higher doses usually taken by women in early pregnancy.
“This could lead to uterine rupture and death of the mother.”
Dr Freeman, a GP since 1972 and specialist since 1982, was reported as saying she was inspired to launch the website because of Cairns woman Tegan Simone Leach.
Ms Leach, 20, is to face court on October 12 for allegedly attempting to procure her own miscarriage using imported misoprostol pills from Ukraine in December 2008.
She faces a maximum penalty of seven years’ jail under the state’s Criminal Code Act.
The case – believed to be the first time such a charge has been laid since the law was introduced more than 110 years ago – sparked heated debate in State Parliament last year.
Dr Freeman is still fighting a ruling by the Health Practitioners Tribunal last year that found her guilty of unprofessional conduct after she helped a sex worker abort a 19-week-old fetus at home in 2003.
