Response to Emeritus Professor Jones

PHPA's response to Emeritus Professor Warren Jones, who misunderstands the purpose of the Bill and inaccurately describes how it will impact mothers and in-utero infants.

Resources:

Termination of Pregnancy (Terminations and Live Births) Amendment Bill 2024

Emeritus Professor Warren Jones wrote to The Advertiser:

It is clear that some have no knowledge of the emotional or physical trauma experienced by women with unplanned and unwanted pregnancies… In Sydney in the early 1960s, I worked in a 24-bed hospital ward dedicated to the acute care of women who were recovering or dying from infection and haemorrhage after illegal abortions. I then had similar experiences in England and campaigned for abortion law reform leading up to the passage of the enlightened UK Abortion Act in 1967. Legalised and safe termination of pregnancy is now well established in SA. It is not in the purvey of community bias. It is solely a matter of a woman's rights and her choice. The currently proposed, and politically motivated, private member's Bill is dangerous to women. Severe mental illness and critical medical disorders usually do not manifest until pregnancy is well advanced when a late but life-saving decision for termination must be taken by the woman and two doctors. To make this decision conditional on the baby being adopted out is unethical and medically reprehensible.

September 2024

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