Self-Abortion Case Update

The young couple whose arrest for self-abortion that sparked the current furore in Australia have made their first -- and hopefully, last -- court appearance.

One of the charges against the young man has been dropped. And the couple's lawyers are arguing that the rest of the charges should be dropped too. The judge has reserved her decision on whether they will go to trial.

Abortion in Australia is under state, not federal, jurisdiction. Abortion in the state in this case, Queensland, is illegal under a law written in 1900. Yes, you read that right, 1900.

But there are regulations that allow doctors to perform abortion under certain circumstances and they do. However, the case of this young couple called into question whether those regulations allow medical (i.e. drug-induced) abortion or just surgical abortion.

Many worried doctors and hospitals announced that they would no longer offer such abortions.

Queensland pols were in pickle. Some were calling for decriminalization of abortion. Some warned against opening the 'debate', fearing that fetus fetishists would snarl things up forfuckingever.

In a rush, legislators amended the code to extend the existing legal defence for surgical abortion to medical abortion.

One of the results was that the Premier, a woman, received threats against her children.

Well, we already knew that Australian fetus fetishists are just as capable of violence as the ones we are more familiar with. The young couple's house was firebombed when their arrest was made public.

But what none of these stories mentions is WTF led to the police search and subsequent charges in the first place.

I'm keeping an eye on it.