CHILDREN BY CHOICE ASSOCIATION INCORPORATED

CbyC History

At the time that Children by Choice was founded, the status of women’s reproductive choices in Queensland reflected the State’s conservative political environment. Queensland had in place draconian legislation dating from 1899 that criminalised abortion. In the early 1970’s, the Minister for Justice announced that it was illegal to terminate the pregnancy of a woman with rubella, and that vasectomy was illegal. Although some private doctors were prepared to do a limited number of abortions and menstrual extractions (suction curette at the time of menstruation), abortions in public hospitals were performed strictly on medical grounds. Most women had to travel interstate to obtain an abortion. Information about contraception was difficult to access.

In 1971 a branch of the Abortion Law Reform Association (ALRA) was established to press for sex education in schools, family planning services and women’s right to choose abortion. In 1972, at the ALRA Annual General Meeting, it was decided that the organisation would form an Association named “Children by Choice” and set up a family planning and abortion information service to be conducted from independent premises. A Women’s Centre was established in an old house with a shop front in Red Hill. Voluntary counsellors were trained, and the centre was opened in November 1972. In the blaze of publicity that followed and as a result of their very physical presence, “bricks were thrown through the windows and the fight for women’s right to choose was really on”. ¹

Social Worker Liz Pasmore and Dr Trevor Sauer instigated counselling and medical referral to doctors at St Anne’s Hospital in Sydney for abortion. By 1975 Children by Choice had developed a package deal with Ansett Airlines and Population Services International (PSI) to help women to travel to Sydney for abortions. Paradoxically, it was not the original intention to become an abortion referral service, but this became possibly the Association’s best known activity at that early point in its history.

Children by Choice organised meetings and made submissions to the Royal Commission on Human Relationships, the Queensland Inquiry on the Status of Women and the later inquiries into sex education in Queensland schools, the Ahern (1979) and Male (1983) inquiries. Members documented their work and provided regular reports to politicians, doctors and the public. The anti-abortion opposition responded with debates, marches and demonstrations. By 1977-78 more than 120 news items per year were being generated in the press.

By 1977 Children by Choice volunteer staff were seeing 300 clients per month and over 500 doctors regularly referred women to the Association. University students used Association resources for projects, and many women received their initial “radical” experience working with the group. Children by Choice made an impossible system work and in turn became an indispensable part of it. The group was largely ignored by politicians, and apart from the Union of Australian Women, received little support from other women’s organisations. Doctors who were happy to use the Association’s Services were less prepared to speak out than those who opposed abortion.

In 1976, clinics were established in Tweed Heads in northern New South Wales, which provided better access to abortion for some Queensland women. In 1977, Dr Peter Bayliss joined Dr Bruce Errey’s clinic in Greenslopes to provide abortions and female sterilisation services. Clinics were opened in Townsville in 1983 and in Rockhampton in 1987. A second Brisbane clinic opened in Bowen Hills in 1990 and a third opened in Spring Hill in 1994. Children by Choice monitored clinics’ standards of practice and services. Maintaining independence from clinics enabled Children by Choice to refer to those clinics, which the Association believed, offered services most appropriate to women’s needs.

A crisis developed in 1979 when an ABC program featured the Greenslopes clinic, implying ulterior motives by Children by Choice in still sending women to Sydney. In the publicity that followed and amid strong lobbying from the Right to Life movement, the Labor Organisation leader Ed Casey called for action against the Greenslopes clinic. It was rumoured that the Bjelke-Petersen Government would introduce restrictive legislation, and both sides prepared for a bitter campaign. Women’s groups formed Women’s Campaign for Abortion, a new pro-choice group. They picketed meetings and Parliament, wrote letters and presented petitions calling for repeal of abortion laws. Women of all parties lobbied their representatives.

In April 1980, a Liberal member in the Queensland Parliament, Rosemary Kyburz, after a late committee meeting to discuss the proposed Unborn Child Protection Bill, dramatically released details of the Bill on the national radio program “AM”. The Bill, as proposed, would have limited abortions to hospitals and to strictly life-saving situations. Grounds of rape or congenital abnormality would be excluded unless the woman was able to pass appallingly rigorous “tests”. There were penal clauses that applied to both doctors and patients. Children by Choice President, Beryl Holmes, and Dr Janet Irwin led the opposition of the bill. The Bill was unpopular with Queensland public, and at the same time the Australian Women’s Weekly released the results of a survey showing strong support for easier access to abortion, even among Catholic women: only 15 per cent of Catholic women were completely opposed to abortion. ² The AMA and the Council for Civil Liberties stated opposition to the Bill, and women’s organisations from other States joined the protest.

The Bill, in modified form and retitled the Pregnancy Termination Control Bill, passed the first reading at the end of April. By the time of the second reading at the end of May it was apparent that the government faced defeat. The Bill was finally submitted as a private member’s Bill and was indeed defeated by 40 votes to 35, on 27 May 1980. Even Ed Casey did not support it. No change had been made to the legislation.

A further challenge to women’s access to abortion came with the police raids on the Greenslopes Fertility Control Clinic in 1985. The Queensland Government authorised a police raid on the clinic and proceeded to press charges against Drs Peter Bayliss and Dawn Cullen.

In a landmark decision, Judge McGuire handed down a ruling that placed abortion in Queensland on the same footing as in Victoria and New South Wales. Queensland women had gained legally sanctioned access to abortion. However, abortion law remained in the Criminal Code.

Children by Choice began to experience financial difficulties in 1987: closure of the counselling service appeared imminent. The Association had been unable to gain government support. A Pledge Campaign gained community response: financial aid came from anonymous donors, previously unsupportive women’s groups, in all states of Australia.

A successful approach for funding was made to Family Planning International Assistance (FPIA) in the United States. This international arm of Planned Parenthood Federation of America normally funded Third World countries, such as those in South America, Asia and Africa, but in 1987 agreed to support two new groups: the Irish Family Planning Association and Children by Choice. That this large international body regarded Queensland women in the same light as their Third World sisters, served to highlight the need for an organisation such as Children by Choice in Queensland and to vindicate the Association’s purpose.

Funding gave the Association the means to organise and plan ahead: the establishment of educational services, country visits, an advertising campaign and a 008 telephone service were made possible. Fundraising to simply maintain services gave way to concerted political activity. Formerly staffed by volunteers, Children by Choice, was able to offer paid employment. This period heralded great change of for the status of abortion in Queensland and women’s access to abortion information, with the establishment of counselling agencies in Townsville, Nambour and Maroochydore.

Children by Choice lost funding from the FPIA in 1991 when the Planned Parenthood Federation of America suffered cuts to their funding by the United States Government. At the same time, the National Party in Queensland was defeated in the State election by the ALP. Children by Choice made submissions to the new Labor Goss government for funding, which was finally granted in 1991. The state department of health (Queensland Health) provided Children by Choice with funding to provide a counselling, information, education and library service on matters relating to unplanned pregnancy and abortion. Further outreach counselling services were established in Logan, Ipswich and the Sunshine Coast region.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, anti-choice forces began to introduce new elements of violence into the “abortion debate”. The recent history of horrendous attacks on abortion clinics and providers in the United States was mirrored in a minor way in Australia, with picketing of clinics and harassment of clinic clients and staff by anti-choice protestors. University campus politics swung from ultra-conservative anti-choice to pro-choice stances. An abortion provider in Brisbane was attacked in the media and in Parliament over the provision of late terminations. Internationally, the Cairo conference on population and development in 1994 saw the exaggerated influence of anti-woman, anti-abortion groups such as Islamic fundamentalists and the Vatican, on international decisions related to access for women to safe abortion.

In the early to mid 1990s, Children by Choice continued to forcefully lobby for change in abortion law. Submissions were made to government instrumentalities, such as the Electoral and Administrative Review Commission, direct lobbying of politicians, as well marching and picketing, postcard campaigns, and well-staffed stalls were held at campus open days, health festivals, Labor Day etc by Children by Choice. However, in 1995, The Goss Government introduced “revised” criminal legislation that retained abortion as a criminal offence. This was despite the Premier’s verbal support in Parliament for women’s access to abortion. Children by Choice then instigated the formation of the Coalition of Women for a Realistic Criminal Code, comprising over thirty women’s community and legal groups throughout Queensland. Its aim was to up-date the Criminal Code to provide justice to all women and men, including the repeal of abortion laws. However, a change in political climate in the following year thwarted this campaign.

In 1996, the Goss Government was defeated and the National-Liberal Party led by Premier Rob Borbidge gained power. The Health Minister in the Borbidge Government was Mike Horan, who held strong anti-choice views. As a result, Queensland Health ceased funding of Children by Choice. This was despite concerted campaign and public support for the continued funding of the organisation.

Children by Choice continued to provide counselling, information and referral services, albeit in reduced opening hours, through the dedicated work of volunteers. Pledge and fundraising campaigns were run to raise money to enable the organisation to maintain its Queensland wide 1800 telephone counselling line. 1996-98 was a difficult time for the organisation, as it struggled to maintain it services and continue to advocate for progressive change in the status of abortion laws and services in a hostile political climate. During this period, members and supporters of Children by Choice reflected on the role and goals of the organisation in the changing social, economic and political environment of Australia.

In 1998, the Beattie Labor Government was elected in Queensland with a promise to re-fund Children by Choice. In 1999, Children by Choice entered into a funding agreement with Queensland Health to provide counselling, information and education service (including a state-wide telephone counselling service) on matters relating to unplanned pregnancy. In 2001, following the re-election of the Beattie Government Children by Choice signed a 3-year funding agreement with Queensland Health for the continuation of the service.

In addition to employing counselling and education professionals, Children by Choice also developed volunteer programmes across the different areas of the organisation.

In 1999, the Beattie Government instigated the Taskforce on Women and the Criminal Code, which was charged with reviewing how the state's criminal legislation impacts on women and to make recommendations to the Attorney General and Minister for Women’s Policy. Children by Choice made a submission to the Taskforce, outlining the impact of the abortion laws remaining in the criminal code and its effect on women’s reproductive choices and lives and making a number of recommendations. In March 2000, the Taskforce’s report was released and included a recommendation for the repeal of abortion laws. However, the Attorney General stated that the government would not implement this recommendation, as, according to the government, abortion was a matter for the consciences of members of parliament and not public policy.

This failure to act on the recommendation outraged many organisations concerned about women and health. Children by Choice and Women’s Electoral Lobby-Brisbane embarked on a rolling campaign of lobbying politicians and community awareness raising on the issue of abortion. This campaign has garnered significant support and continues today.

The survival of Children by Choice has been a story of struggle and sacrifice:

“Although Children by Choice grew out of the Humanist Society and the women’s liberation movement, the membership was diverse. All were feminists, generally not radical ones, but feminists just the same. As a women’s group, Children by Choice provided friendship and fellowship, but most of all support; support and growth for the women who came for help and for the women who worked there”.

Footnotes

References

Excerpts reproduced with kind permission of the publisher Allen & Unwin from: Populate and perish: Australian women’s fight for birth control, Stefania Siedlecky and Diana Wyndham, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 1990.

More Information

For more information on the history of abortion and related matters contact Children by Choice.