More on the Australian 'self-abortion' case

The bizarre Australian 'self-abortion case may be over, but its impact may be long lasting.

Queensland Council of Civil Liberties president Michael Cope said the jury had correctly represented society.

"[It was a] sensible decision by the jury," he said.

"It's always difficult to know what motivates a jury but I'm sure part of it was the common feeling that [Ms Leach and Mr Brennan] had been put through more than enough.

"One of the great things about juries is the history is that they have been prepared to deliver verdicts contrary to the law and this is what they have done in this case."

Canadian readers will immediately see the similarity to the trials of Dr Henry Morgentaler.

On June 1, 1970, Morgentaler was arrested in Montreal for performing illegal abortions. In 1972 he ran in the Federal Election in the riding of Saint-Denis as an independent, finishing fourth with 1,509 votes. Later in 1973 he claimed to have performed 5,000 illegal abortions. He was acquitted by a jury in the court case, but the acquittal was overturned by five judges on the Quebec Court of Appeal in 1974. He went to prison, appealed, and was again acquitted. In total, he served 10 months, suffering a heart attack while in solitary confinement. Morgentaler first went to the Supreme Court of Canada in an attempt to overturn the country's abortion law in Morgentaler v. The Queen but was unsuccessful.

In 1982, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms was enacted as part of the Canadian Constitution. Morgentaler was charged again in 1983 in Ontario for procuring illegal miscarriages. He was acquitted by a jury, but the verdict was reversed by the Court of Appeal for Ontario. The case was then sent to the Supreme Court of Canada. He was acquitted once again, and the Canadian Supreme Court declared the law he was convicted under to be in violation of the Charter and thus unconstitutional in the case of R. v. Morgentaler 1988 (1 S.C.R. 30). This ruling by Justice Brian Dickson essentially ended all statutory restrictions on abortion in Canada.

The over-reaching cops and prosecution in Oz may well come to regret the Pandora's box they've opened.

Bizarre 'Self-Abortion' Case Is Over

Remember the bizarre case of two young Australians charged with self-abortion back in April 2009?

They faced prison time, because abortion is illegal in Queensland unless women jump through various stooopid hoops. This pair found a way around the hoops and were charged under Queensland's 1900 -- yes, 1900 -- abortion law.

Yesterday, they were acquitted of all charges. The jury took less than an hour to decide the case was totally idiotic. (More background at the top link, but basically the partner, Sergie Brennan, procured abortion drugs, Tegan Leach took them, they worked as intended, and that was it.)

Until the cops got involved. As I wondered at the time, how the hell did this private matter come to the attention of the authorities? It appears the cops interviewed them on an 'unrelated matter' -- which turned out to be a murder case. They noticed the blister pack that had contained the pills.

As John Birmingham points out in today's Sydney Morning Herald:

The thing is, those cops didn't have to do anything with that blister pack. Cops ignore stuff like that every day. Experienced, humane police officers know that not every law needs to be enforced in every instance, because they understand the consequences of putting someone into the system can be far worse than letting them off with a warning.



I guess Tegan and Sergie didn't get that someone like that.

But it doesn't end with the cops. A case like this was always going to be political. And now, after the relief of the verdict and the eruption of righteous anger set to follow, it will be even more politicised. Of course, the criminal justice system isn't supposed to be political, but we live in the real world. At any number of points before this reached court somebody, somewhere in the system, had the authority to pull the case. The state decides not to proceed with criminal cases for any number of reasons every day of the year.

Perhaps that's what Anna Bligh [Premier of Queensland] and her faux progressive and enlightened government were hoping would happen. That somebody, somewhere in the system, would just make this go away. That they wouldn't actually have to act on those brave and difficult feminist principles they've doubtlessly been yammering on about since the first formation of their political consciousness - and which we heard so much about when this proud, proud feminist was elected Premier.

Anna Bligh is an interesting, if unpopular, figure in Aussie politics. Raised Catholic, she considered becoming a nun. Now, though, she's a 'proud, proud feminist'.

She has an odd way of showing it. Just a couple of days ago, she blocked a private member's bill by one her Labour colleagues aimed at finally decriminalizing abortion in the state.

Ms Bligh told the MP that there wasn't enough support for such a bill.

Odd, that. The Australian Reproductive Health Alliance cites a survey of attitudes from 2003 that showed 81.2% of Australians, regardless of gender or religion, agree that "women should have the right to choose an abortion".'

Seems abortion politics in Australia are as nutty as anywhere else.

But at least the insane ordeal is over for Tegan and Sergie.

Couple of Updates

I've been remiss. There have been developments in two stories I was following here at DJ!

First, the bizarre case of self-abortion in Australia. Some charges were dropped and I was hoping the rest would be too. But, sadly, no. The young couple will face trial at some unspecified date. They are out on bail.

Next, the very sad case of Harlan Drake, who shot and killed two men in Michigan, one of them -- to the delight of the pro-liars -- an anti-abortion zealot, is back in the news. A month ago, he had been found not competent to stand trial, and was sent to a psychiatric institution for treatment. Apparently, he has responded well. He has now been deemed competent.

The prosecutor says that a notice of insanity defense has been filed.

I want to hear his reasons, such as they might be given his disturbed state of mind, for shooting a gravel-pit owner and an anti-abortion nut.

The fetus fetishists are having parties in their pants anticipating any suggestion that the accused holds 'pro-abort' views. Because, you know, that would totally and absolutely even things up on the 'who's more violent than who?' debate.

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.

No-choice Vulture Culture: let women die or go to prison

The vituperative backlash of no-choicers, following the announcement that Dr Henry Morgentaler would be awarded the Order of Canada, was informative. Like maggots suddenly exposed to the light, the no-choicers scurried about, firing off letters to the editor, freeping online opinion polls, shoving the usual suspects - Margaret Somerville et al - into public view to spout the fetus fetishizing party line. CanWest obliged them, in great numbers.

It was thus no surprise that middle-of-the road Canadians, that ’silent majority’ that abortion criminalizers claim as supporters, recoiled from the hateful propaganda and deliberate lies and declared themselves to favour the decision to honour Morgentaler.

There is history behind all of this brouhaha, and a Montreal Gazette reporter writes about it:

When Sharon Hager finally got a abortion in 1964, she feared it would kill her. “It was hell, terrible. I thought I was going to die,” recalled Hager, then 20 and living in Vancouver.“It was illegal to have an abortion and it almost impossible to find someone to do it. A man who called himself a doctor - and you didn’t know for sure he was - came to my home and on the kitchen table put gauze in my womb and broke my water. … That’s what it was like before Dr. Morgentaler,” said Hager, later a member of the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada. “People forget how terrible it was for women.”

Many of us remember. The Royal Victoria Hospital, mentioned in the Gazette article, is where my friend O trained.
There is also a compelling background to the booklet that was produced by a group of students at McGill University in the 1960’s. In her 2006 essay, Christabelle Sethna traces the evolution and the context of the Birth Control Handbook. This list (quoted in The Gazette article) from the 1971 BCH - as it was known - details the fatal dangers of illegal abortion techniques, self-induced or assisted.

… These methods involve extreme pain and can lead to permanent disability, infection or death.

Oral means: Nothing that is swallowed can cause abortion without also causing death or severe disability to the mother.
• Ergot compounds- overdose is poison.
• Quinine sulphate - can cause deformities in fetus or death to mother.

Solids inserted into uterus: Common danger of perforation of womb and
bladder - death from infection or hemorrhage.
• Knitting needles
• Coat hangers
• Slippery Elm bark
• Ballpoint pen
• Pastes
• Catheters
• Gauze (packing)
• Curtain rods
• Telephone wire

Fluids inserted into the uterus: Severe burning of tissues, hemorrhage,
shock and possible death.
• Soap suds
• Alcohol
• Potassium permanganate
• Lye
• Lysol
• Pine oil

Air pumped into uterus: gas emboli in the blood stream. Immediately
fatal.

Injections into uterine wall: Overdose is toxic.
• Ergot
• Pytocin
• Sodium pentothal

Vacuum cleaner: Connected to uterus - not to be confused with vacuum
aspiration - is fatal almost immediately. Rips uterus from pelvic area.

Even though they claim to be ‘the culture of life’, no-choicers have declared their intent to criminalize abortion and, in effect, to return to the days of illegal abortions. As Antonia Zerbasias notes and quotes in this article, no-choicers propose that women who attempt to terminate an abortion be charged and prosecuted.

Mary Ellen Douglas, National Organizer, Campaign Life Coalition: Our society has denied justice for unborn children who are killed daily in their mothers’ wombs at the request of the mother. We need
to correct this and return that protection to the unborn. It then follows that jail time for those who commit the crime of abortion is not only just, but absolutely necessary.

This is the future that women dealing with unintended pregnancies will face, if the no-choice Vulture Culture re-criminalizes abortion.

First posted at Birth Pangs.