ABSTRACT
In contemporary Australia, abortion is a common medical procedure which affects a least a third of all women and the majority of families. Nevertheless, throughout Australia, abortion is still regulated by criminal statutes. The incongruence between abortion laws on the ‘statute books’ and practice, plus concerns about the health interests of women, led to the former Women’s Health Committee of the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) commissioning an Expert Panel (the Panel) to prepare a report on abortion services throughout Australia in 1992. In keeping with the NHMRC’s mandate, the terms of reference specifically focused on the health care aspects of abortion. However, in November 1996, the NHMRC considered the draft report prepared by the Panel and refused to endorse the report or its recommendations because of the controversy surrounding abortion and pressure from various quarters to suppress publication. It directed that the findings of the expert panel were to be published merely as an Information Paper rather than an NHMRC report. Hence, ‘An Information Paper on Termination of Pregnancy in Australia’ quietly appeared in government bookshops in June 1997. The Preface contains a disclaimer statement by the NHMRC and the Introduction refers to the ‘great silence on the part of millions of Australian women who have experienced abortion’, expressing the hope that ‘this Report will break that silence, and will assist all concerned to improve the care available to women’.
