Meet the keynote speakers, guest speakers and storytellers shaping the Reproductive Rights and Abortion Conference 2026. Their insights reflect the depth, diversity and lived experience of Australia’s reproductive healthcare landscape.
KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Carly Findlay OAM
Writer, speaker and appearance and disability activist
Yumi Stynes
Broadcaster, writer and author
Our 2026 speakers
Delaram Ansari
Interactive Workshop: Reproductive Rights for All (Re)Imagining Feminist Inclusive Futures Together
Delaram is the Research, Advocacy and Policy Manager at Multicultural Centre for Women’s Health. She is a mixed-methods public health researcher and human rights advocate with extensive experience in intersectional feminist research, policy, and practice. Delaram is currently leading various health equity projects relating to mental health, prevention of violence against women, and sexual and reproductive health of migrant and refugee women in Australia.
Laura Berry
Interactive Workshop: Crafting Confidence: Using Vulva Soap-Making to Build Sexual Health Literacy amongst the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander workforce
Laura Berry is an Endorsed Nurse Practitioner with over 15 years’ experience in sexual and reproductive health, mental health and remote healthcare. She is passionate about education that meets people where they are, using creativity and humour to reduce stigma, encourage conversations and improve access to healthcare.
Kellie Glab
Interactive Workshop: Post-abortion Support in a Group Setting
Kellie is a PACFA registered counsellor with over 16 years experience across mental health, youth & families & not-for-profit sectors throughout Australia. She is also has private practice & is completing a Master’s in Gestalt Psychotherapy. Kellie is passionate about supporting people who sit on the edge of society particularly those experiencing grief & loss. Out of work, she thrives on switching off her phone and heading out bush with her dog & car, finding freedom, adventure & perspective.
Dr. Anna Noonan
Poster Presentation: From Liberalised Control to Liberated Care: Reimagining Abortion Freedom in Australia
Presentation: Going the Distance: A Comparison of Abortion Provision Approaches in Rural Australia and Canada
Presentation: Travel time from every home: visualising access to surgical abortion services across Australia
Interactive Workshop: Reproductive Rights for All (Re)Imagining Feminist Inclusive Futures Together
Dr Anna Noonan is an activist-based researcher at UTS. Her research uses feminist, creative and speculative methodologies to challenge sexual and reproductive health inequities and injustices, including those promoted or sustained by systems of medico-legal control. She sees research as an act of resistance. Her disciplinary areas span sexual and reproductive health, abortion rights, mental health, and the health rights of rural and refugee background people.
Dr. Susan Saldanha
Poster Presentation: A mapping review of Australian online consumer information resources on postpartum contraception
Presentation: Reproductive coercion and abuse among female general practice patients in Australia: a cross-sectional study
Interactive Workshop: Reproductive coercion and abuse: the road ahead for research, practice, and policy in Australia
Susan is a Research Fellow at SPHERE, where her work focuses on strengthening general practice responses to reproductive coercion. She has experience researching violence against women across academic, health, and legal settings. Drawing on her experiences as a migrant, Susan is committed to interdisciplinary approaches that advance reproductive health, address gender-based violence, and promote trauma-informed, equitable models of care in primary healthcare.
Eleanor Johnson
Poster Presentation: Partnering with the community to co-design abortion care in Melbourne’s north
BIO TO COME.
Dr. Mridula Shankar
Presentation: Medication abortion self-management as health system innovation: a qualitative study of abortion service users’ perspectives
Interactive Workshop: Reproductive Rights for All (Re)Imagining Feminist Inclusive Futures Together
Mridula Shankar is a Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne’s School of Population and Global Health. Her research examines how structural factors shape reproductive health behaviours, outcomes, and people’s ability to realise their sexual and reproductive rights. She has a particular interest in collaborative research on abortion access, safety, peer support, and models of self‑managed medication abortion.
Emily Hapea
Presentation: The unique access challenges when working remotely whilst maintaining culturally inclusive care.
Torres & Cape Hospital & Health Service Pregnancy Options Service team: Megan Pickford is our Midwife Unit Manager. Dr Jemma Nokes is the GP Obstetrician based in Weipa and our Senior Medical Officer. Emily Hapea has been a social worker for over 17 years, working with people from our region for most of that time. She began with us as the Senior Social Worker in October. Clevanna Messer is our Senior Aboriginal Health Worker. She is a proud Djabugay, Kokoberra, Kunjun, and Yidinji woman.
Dr. Jessica Moulton
Presentation: Strengthening the medication abortion provider workforce in Victoria: a cross-sectional analysis of 1800 My Options providers
Jessica Moulton is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow whose work focuses on improving access to sexual and reproductive healthcare. Drawing on experience in SRH policy and service delivery, her research aims to strengthen abortion access and improve service and workforce models.
Sanish Rajbhandari
Presentation: A qualitative exploration of lived experiences of reproductive coercion on Reddit
Sanish is an Honours student at within the Monash University’s Department of General Practice, supervised by Dr Susan Saldanha and Dr Jessica Botfield. Sanish is passionate and advocates for complete reproductive autonomy. Because of this, his research project focuses on analysing social media to support more accurate identification of coercion in clinical, legal and community contexts, and can guide the development for future resources and interventions.
Freya Moore
Presentation: Mapping Global Evidence on Advance Provision of Medical Abortion: A Scoping Review
Freya Moore is a PhD student in the Department of General Practice at Monash University and the SPHERE Centre of Research Excellence. Her research examines women’s attitudes toward the advance provision of medical abortion in Australia, aiming to inform evidence‑based and accessible models of reproductive healthcare.
Heather Corkhill
Presentation: Countering regression: what LGBTIQ+ and women’s rights movements have in common
Heather Corkhill is a dedicated human rights and anti-discrimination law and policy specialist. With combined qualifications and experience in law, mediation and film production, Heather is committed to promoting equity, diversity, and human rights for LGBTIQ+ Australians, addressing systemic issues through practical and innovative solutions.
Alison Lima
Poster Presentation: Beyond the clinic: establishing Australia’s first nurse and midwifery led private teleabortion service
Alison is a Registered Nurse, Lamaze Certified Childbirth Educator (LCCE), and co-founder of Aunty Jane. With postgraduate qualifications in Sexual and Reproductive Health and Maternal Critical Care, she is passionate about accessible, evidence-based reproductive healthcare. Alison founded Aunty Jane to break down geographic and systemic barriers, creating compassionate, judgement-free care grounded in autonomy, education, and advocacy.
Dr. Tania Penovic
Presentation: Challenging the importation of US anti-abortion discourses in Australia
Dr Tania Penovic is an Associate Professor at Deakin Law School & senior Co-Chair in Women & Girls’ Rights for Australian Lawyers for Human Rights. Her work on reproductive rights has been cited by parliaments, courts (including the High Court of Australia and United Kingdom Supreme Court) & UN human rights bodies & she has been awarded for its substantial & sustained impact on legislative reform, judicial decision-making & the understanding of human rights.
Dr. Erica Millar
Presentation: Systemic Failures, Individualised Blame: Law, Healthcare, and the Politics of Later Abortion in Australia
Erica Millar is a Senior Lecturer at La Trobe University, Naarm. Her research focuses on the cultural politics, history, and law of abortion in Australia. She is the author of Happy Abortions: Our Bodies in the Era of Choice (Zed Books, 2017) and is currently completing her second monograph, Institutional Abortion Stigma, drawn from a four-year research project on abortion provision in Australian public hospitals.
Lucinda Shannon
Poster Presentation: Taking on stigma: A community approach to abortion advocacy
Lucinda is a qualified social worker who has worked in Women’s and LGBTIQ+ community sector roles for almost 10 years. As deputy CEO she supports the Women’s Health Tasmania team to deliver women’s health promotion activities, with an emphasis on improving reproductive health literacy.
Desireé LaGrappe
Presentation: Development of a comprehensive, self-reported measure of reproductive coercion and abuse for global use
Desireé is a Lecturer in the School of Nursing and Midwifery and Health Network Coordinator of the La Trobe University/ Austin Health Clinical School. She is clinically accredited in sexual and reproductive health and has public health training with more than 15 years’ experience in clinical and community nursing and research. Desireé’s PhD was funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council and conducted as part of the SPHERE Centre of Research Excellence.
Anum Khan
Poster Presentation: Expanding access to Long-Acting Reversible Contraceptives in Australia: Insights from a national collaboration
Anum Khan is a Registered Nurse, Nurse Educator, with extensive experience in sexual and reproductive health. She is the AUSLARC Project Officer at Sexual and Reproductive Health Australia, leading a national initiative to deliver long-acting reversible contraception (LARC) training scholarships for health professionals across Australia. Anum holds a Master of Nursing and a Graduate Diploma in Science in Medicine in Sexual and Reproductive Health (HIV & STIs) from The University of Sydney
Dr. Shelly Makleff
Presentation: How widespread is abortion obstruction in Victoria? A one-month pilot of a tool to capture obstructive behaviours in the health system
Presentation: How does abortion Values Clarification and Attitude Transformation (VCAT) reduce stigmatising behaviours in healthcare providers? Proposing a conceptual model
Shelly Makleff (she/her) is a McKenzie Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health. Her research seeks to reduce abortion stigma in the health system to improve access and person-centredness. Shelly works in close partnership with community members and organisations to produce evidence that policy, practice, and health services globally on topics including sexual and reproductive health and gender-based violence prevention.
Catherine Bateman
Poster Presentation: Does ultrasound place an unnecessary risk on patients seeking early medical abortion?
Interactive Workshop: Building confidence without the scan: a practical selective scan EMA workshop
Cath Bateman is a Nurse Practitioner Candidate with an educational background that includes a Master of Public Health, Bachelor of Applied Science (Health Promotion) and is now completing the Master of Nursing (Nurse Practitioner) at Federation University. Of particular pride is Cath’s training and use of bedside ultrasound in her practice. Cath is also the Vice President of the Australasian Sexual Health and HIV Nurses Association.
Dr. Sara Whitburn
Poster Presentation: Improving Post‑Abortion Contraception Delivery in Primary Care: A Quality Improvement Audit of Long-acting reversible contraception (LARC) Provision and Follow-Up Outcomes
Poster Presentation: Clinical Outcomes of Telehealth Medical Abortion in a Primary Care Setting: An Audit of Effectiveness and Safety
Dr Sara Whitburn (she/her) is Medical Director of SHV, Chair of the RACGP Sexual and Reproductive Health Special Interest Group of the RACGP and Senior Lecturer in Sexual Health at the University of Melbourne. Her clinical interests include innovative reproductive health models and advancing long-acting reversible contraception (LARC) training and uptake.
Dr. Kate Toone
Presentation: Abortion politics in Australia, the influence and impact of misrepresentation within the media.
Kate Toone (she/they) is a lecturer in social work at Adelaide University, on Kaurna land. Her clinical career has involved working in reproductive healthcare including abortion counselling, the intersection of parenting and mental ill-health, youth, suicide prevention and chronic illness, all of which inspire her academic work. Kate’s research interests also include gender and sexual identity, sex work and relationships. She is also an accredited mental health social worker.
Dr Neha Ramesh
Presentation: Experiences of nurses and midwives in the provision of medical termination of pregnancy care beyond the first trimester: a scoping review.
Dr Neha Ramesh is a junior doctor based in Far North Queensland with a passionate interest in women’s health and wellbeing. Her research explores nurses’ and midwives’ experiences providing termination care beyond the first trimester, with a focus on strengthening workforce support and improving access for vulnerable and geographically isolated populations, including First Nations communities.
Prof. Laura Tarzia
Presentation: Reproductive coercion and abuse in Australia: New data to inform policy and practice
Laura Tarzia is professor and co-lead of the Sexual and Family Violence (SAFE) research program at The University of Melbourne and Director of the RESTORE Centre of Research Excellence. Her research focuses on sexual violence and reproductive coercion and abuse, drawing on the voices of lived experience experts to understand the context and dynamics of violence and harnessing these insights to strengthen trauma-and-violence informed responses via the health system.
Dr. Anisa Assifi
Poster Presentation: Young people’s knowledge and experiences with medication abortion in primary healthcare: a scoping review
Presentation: Adolescents’ experiences accessing emergency contraception in Australian community pharmacy: a qualitative study
Presentation: Expanding community pharmacists’ scope of practice for contraceptive counselling and referral: preliminary findings from the ALLIANCE stepped-wedge cluster randomised trial
Dr Anisa Assifi is a Research Fellow with NHMRC-funded SPHERE Centre of Research Excellence, within the Department of General Practice at Monash University. She is an early-career public health researcher with research interest and experience in the areas of abortion, adolescent sexual and reproductive health and the role of community pharmacy.
Lilly Castor
Presentation: Beyond Access: How Centring Patient Preferences Has Led to New Approaches to Language and Pregnancy Tissue Management in a Rural Public Abortion Service
Presentation: Innovation in nurse-midwife led rural abortion care – The Western NSW Local Health District Pregnancy Options Care and Support Service
Lilly Castor is a clinical midwife specialist working in the Western NSW LHD Pregnancy Options Care and Support Service. Lilly works alongside a clinical nurse specialist and is supported by a social worker and administration officer. Servicing the largest LHD in NSW covering 250,000kms. The service provides affordable, timely and sensitive pregnancy counselling and access to abortion care at any gestation, via telehealth and in designated face to face clinics.
Carrie Van Rensburg
Poster Presentation: Person-centred abortion care from the perspectives of abortion seekers: findings from a scoping review and implications for Australian health services and providers
Presentation: Imagining person-centred contraceptive counselling at the time of abortion provision from the perspectives of young abortion seekers in Australia
Carrie (she/her) is a PhD candidate at the University of Melbourne exploring person-centred abortion care for the Australian context. Her work takes a reproductive justice approach to understanding the needs, preferences, and values of abortion seekers and interrogates how power can undermine its provision.
Jana Ventura
Presentation: Bridging the Gap: Strengthening Culturally Responsive Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare in Queensland
BIO TO COME
Dr Claire Fotheringham
Presentation: QVEMTOPS One year on: care provided and lessons learnt
Dr Claire Fotheringham is an Obstetrician Gynaecologist based on the Sunshine Coast. After completing her training, she worked for Médecins Sans Frontières. She subsequently became a women’s health advisor and then Head of Medical Unit Australia and Clinical Lead for Women and Children’s health and sexual violence care. In 2023, she returned to her home state and is clinical co-lead for the Queensland Virtual Early Termination of Pregnancy Service (QVEMToPS) in Queensland Virtual Hospital.
Wendy Pickup
Poster Presentation: Women’s experiences when attending an early pregnancy assessment service for a miscarriage: Integrative review.
Wendy has a Diploma of Applied science (Nursing) and Graduate Diploma in Health science (Midwifery). Currently undertaking her Bachelor Midwifery Honors degree. She has worked as a Registered Nurse/Midwife for over 30 years caring for pregnant women and improving how they and their babies are cared for, physically and emotionally.
Imogen Summers
Poster Presentation: Digital Interventions to Support Women Accessing Medical Abortion: A Scoping Review
Imogen is a PhD student at the SPHERE Centre of Research Excellence, holding a BSocSci and MPH. Her research focus aims to address diverse psychosocial support needs, combining critical feminist theory and digital health to enable meaningful support pathways. Using critical feminist theory, her PhD explores how digital interventions can improve support for women accessing medical abortion. She seeks to amplify women’s voices, experiences, and autonomy within reproductive health systems.
Louise Louise
Poster Presentation: A Nurse Led Telehealth Intake Model Supporting Early Medical Abortion (EMA), Very Early Medical Abortion (VEMA) and No Ultrasound EMA in Sexual and Reproductive Primary Care.
Louise is a Sexual and Reproductive Health Nurse, and Registered Midwife who holds a Post Graduate Certificate in Sexual Health. Louise is passionate about reducing stigma, promoting bodily autonomy and empowering people of all ages, genders, backgrounds and abilities make informed decisions regarding all aspects of their sexual health.
Lyra Hackett
Poster Presentation: Survivor perspectives and experiences of healthcare responses for reproductive coercion and abuse: a qualitative evidence synthesis
Lyra is an Honours student at Monash University’s School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine within the Department of General Practice. Aligning with her interest in enhancing the accessibility and quality of healthcare, her research explores how access to care can be strengthened for women experiencing reproductive coercion. She completed a Bachelor of Public Health at Monash University in 2025 before joining the Department to commence her Honours research.
Rebecca Atkinson
Presentation: When Algorithms Silence Sexual Health
Rebecca Atkinson is Strategic Engagement and Communications Lead at Sexual and Reproductive Health Australia. She leads national sexual and reproductive health campaigns, workforce initiatives and policy engagement. Her work focuses on translating complex public health strategy into measurable outcomes through media, digital innovation and cross-sector collaboration.
Georgia Breakey
Presentation: Expanding the Conversation on Reproductive Coercion: Men’s Experiences, Contraceptive Responsibility, and Reproductive Justice
I am a PhD candidate in Health Psychology at Adelaide University, supervised by Professor Anna Chur-Hansen and Associate Professor Melissa Oxlad. My research uses qualitative methods to examine contraception, reproductive decision-making, and reproductive coercion, with a focus on strengthening reproductive autonomy and informing advocacy, policy, and sexual and reproductive healthcare.
Dr Catriona Melville
Presentation: Pioneering Access: Metro South’s First Public Surgical Abortion Service
Dr Catriona Melville is a gynaecologist (FRANZCOG) and subspecialist in sexual & reproductive health (FCSRH, UK) leading reproductive health services at Logan Hospital. Dr Melville is an Associate Editor for ANZJOG, Chairs RANZCOG’s SRH Committee and serves on national and international boards. An author, researcher and advocate, she is committed to advancing equitable, person-centred reproductive healthcare.
Prof. Kristina Edvardsson
Presentation: Changes in MS2-Step (mifepristone-misoprostol) access through pharmacies following the 2023 removal of prescribing and dispensing restrictions for medication abortion in Australia
BIO TO COME.
Dr. Amanda Cohn
Presentation: Is abortion health care? The politics in Australia in 2026
Dr Amanda Cohn BA BMed MD MPH MIPH FRACGP MLC is a former GP and abortion provider on the NSW/Victorian border. She was elected to the Upper House of NSW Parliament in 2023, and is currently chair of the powerful Health committee as well as Greens spokesperson for Health in NSW. In 2025, she led the debate on expanding abortion access in NSW and successfully passed part of her bill, the Abortion Law Reform Amendment (Health Care Access) Bill.
Sarah Collette
Poster Presentation: Placement at the Pregnancy Advisory Centre Enhancing the Midwifery Student Experience.
BIO TO COME.
Daile Kelleher
Presentation: Advocacy influencing international access to abortion
Daile Kelleher CF (she/her) is a not-for-profit executive leader with expertise in sexual and reproductive health policy and advocacy. Daile is the CEO of Sexual and Reproductive Health Australia (formally Family Planning Alliance Australia). She was awarded a Churchill Fellowship in 2023 to investigate abortion advocacy models to increase access to abortion in Australia.
Ashlee Wilson
Presentation: Reproduction Beyond the Womb: Reproductive Justice and the State of Exception
Ashlee Wilson is a PhD candidate researching feminist political theory, reproductive justice and biopolitics. Her work focuses on abortion bans, medical neglect and the political regulation of reproduction, drawing on feminist and continental philosophy to explore how reproductive governance shapes women’s lives and bodily autonomy.
Dr. Rebecca Drygala
Poster Presentation: Understanding GP perspectives on abortion provision and referral in New South Wales: a mixed methods survey
Rebecca Drygala is a GP registrar with the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, currently undertaking an Academic Post at the University of Sydney. She holds a Doctor of Medicine (UWA, 2019) and a Master of Public Health (USyd, 2022), and completed hospital training in Perth and Sydney before entering GP training in 2023.
Dr. Eibhlinn Cassidy
Poster Presentation: Risk factors for rapid repeat pregnancy in an outer metropolitan abortion service
Dr Cassidy is a HMO with a particular interest in high-acuity obstetric medicine and early pregnancy care. They have taken on a leadership role within the Northern Health Early Pregnancy Assessment Service;their primary research interest is in vulnerable patients’ access to early pregnancy care, termination, and contraception.
Prof. Wendy V. Norman
Poster Presentation: Understanding factors for safe medication abortion when far from emergency services
Professor Wendy V. Norman is a family physician-researcher at the University of British Columbia, and holds the Canada Research Chair in Family Planning Innovation. Her research has led to more than a dozen federal and provincial policy improvements, including on abortion pill deregulation, implementing a national Sexual Health Survey, and with the BC, MB, ON and Canadian Governments to introduce universal free contraception.
Dr. Paavi Davidson
Poster Presentation: What will I see: a visual tool for early medical abortion consults
Paavi is a general practitioner working in Maleny (Sunshine Coast) and at True Relationships & Reproductive Health in Brisbane. She has been providing early medical abortion since 2015.
Prof. Danielle Mazza
Poster Presentation: Abortion Prevalence and Associated Factors Among Australian Women: A Cross-Sectional National Women’s Health Survey
Presentation: Effectiveness of a nurse-led model of care in increasing access to long-acting reversible contraception and medical abortion in rural and regional Australian general practice
Presentation: General practitioners’ perspectives on providing medical abortion in rural and remote Australia: Findings from the How Far is Too Far study
Presentation: Expanding community pharmacists’ scope of practice for contraceptive counselling and referral: preliminary findings from the ALLIANCE stepped-wedge cluster randomised trial
Professor Danielle Mazza AM is an internationally recognised leader in general practice and women’s health. As the Head of the Department of General Practice at Monash University, she directs the SPHERE NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence. Her research focuses on improving access to medical abortion, contraception, and endometriosis care.
Carolyn Mogharbel
Poster Presentation: Navigating access to abortion in Victoria: insights into regional barriers and service provision 2018-2025
Presentation: The use of an Artificial Intelligence driven Digital Front Door to increase abortion equity in Victoria
Interactive Workshop: Reproductive Rights for All (Re)Imagining Feminist Inclusive Futures Together
Carolyn joined Women’s Health Victoria in 2018 during the establishment of the 1800 My Options service and brings more than 15 years of health promotion and service delivery experience, with a focus on sexual and reproductive health. Carolyn is committed to access and equity in health services and reducing stigma in the health system, and to centring the experiences of all women in health system development, delivery and evaluation.
Tahlee Stevenson
Poster Presentation: Preparing the Workforce: Nursing, Midwifery, and Medical Students’ Perspectives on Abortion Education in South Australia
Poster Presentation: Abortion care in South Australia: a retrospective review of service provision and trends from 2003 to 2023.
Panel: Second Trimester Surgical Abortion Care at the SA Health Pregnancy Advisory Centre
Tahlee is a Registered Nurse and researcher who works between the SA Health Pregnancy Advisory Centre, and the Adelaide University School of Public Health.
Dr. Bronwen Merner
Presentation: How are healthcare providers conscientiously objecting to abortion care in Australia? A qualitative study
Presentation: Centring Abortion Seekers’ Experiences: Developing a Consumer Reporting Tool for Poor Abortion Care
Dr Bronwen Merner is a Senior Research Fellow and Academic Convenor of the Reproductive Justice Hallmark Research Initiative at the University of Melbourne. She specialises in qualitative research and co-design methods. Dr Merner’s research focuses on exploring how to optimise the regulation of conscientious objection to abortion and co-designing a consumer reporting tool for abortion obstruction.
Dr. Keersten Fitzgerald
Poster Presentation: Abortion care and medical abortion prescribing by general practice registrars: a cross-sectional analysis
Poster Presentation: Medical abortion education and supervision in GP training: a scoping review
Dr Keersten Fitzgerald works as a GP and a lecturer in the General Practice Clinical School at The University of Sydney. She is currently completing a PhD which focuses on the education and training of GP registrars in medical abortion, with the aim of building the capacity of the general practice workforce in abortion care.
Dr. Lydia Mainey
Presentation: Embedding Nurse-Led Termination of Pregnancy Care in Regional Queensland: A Duoethnographic Examination of Organisational Culture Change
Presentation: Improving Access to Early Medical Abortion Through a Selective Scan Pathway: A Quality Assurance Evaluation from Far North Queensland
Lydia is a Clinical Nurse Consultant at Cairns Sexual Health Service and Co-Chair of the Termination of Pregnancy Working Group (under QHSHCN).
Natasha Milner
Presentation: Changing Attitudes: Relationships, Sexuality and Reproductive Health for People with Disability
Natasha Milner Education Coordinator, Disability at (True) True Relationships & Reproductive Health. She has provided information and facilitated education to schools and communities about relationships, reproductive health and sexuality since 2011. Natasha has also facilitated training to staff and parents/carers. Natasha advocates for all people being able to access information on how bodies work, healthy relationships, and sexuality.
Kayla Chrisp
Poster Presentation: Medical Abortion Access in Rural Australia: How Can We Do Better?
Kayla is a final year medical student at Charles Sturt University who hopes to become a GP. She has a keen interest in sexual health and reproductive rights.
Erin McBride
Presentation: Pregnancy Options and Culture- the next chapter for Queensland’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Safe People, their allies and the people they support.
BIO TO COME.
Hannah Bambra
Presentation: The power of storytelling: Peer support and co-design in practice
Presentation: The role of abortion peer support in resisting reproductive injustice: a Theory of Change
Hannah Bambra is a writer, peer support worker and reproductive health advocate. She works in support roles for women and gender diverse people and is the Lead Facilitator for The Abortion Project. Hannah regularly writes about fertility and reproductive justice for publications such as The Guardian, The Saturday Paper, Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, The Monthly and more. She believes in the restorative power of storytelling.
Dr. Rhea Schulte
Poster Presentation: Improving Access to Public Abortion Care: Patient Experience from a New Service
Dr Rhea Schulte is a GP registrar with the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, currently training in Melbourne. She previously worked in Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Western Health, where she contributed to research on patient experience in a public abortion service. Her clinical interests include women’s health, reproductive and sexual health, and improving equitable access to care.
Dr. Nicola Sheeran
Presentation: Reproductive Coercion in Sexual and Gender Diverse Populations
Nicola Sheeran is a Clinical Psychologist and Senior Lecturer at La Trobe University. Her research focuses on factors that influence adjustment during the transition to parenthood, including reproductive coercion and abuse. She is interested in translating research into policy and practice to improve identification of violence and support for victim/survivors.
Sarah Lambert
Presentation: Improving abortion access in New South Wales
Sarah is the Manager Sector Capacity Building and Communications at Women’s Health NSW the peak for women’s health centres and specialist services where she also leads the Safe Abortion Access Project. This project works in partnership with women’s health services, abortion care providers and NGOs to establish a referral network that assists women in NSW experiencing barriers to access timely care. An occupational therapist by background she has 25 years’ experience in the health and community sectors working clinically before moving into health promotion, community development, workforce management and consultancy. The past 15 years she has worked with LGBTIQ+ communities and women’s organisations where she held senior roles and engaged in research, innovative program development, strategy, policy, and advocacy across a range of health areas including mental health, sexual health, alcohol and other drugs, safety and inclusion.
Emma Turner
Presentation: QVEMTOPS One year on: care provided and lessons learnt
Emma Turner is a Clinical Midwife Consultant and Endorsed Midwife based on the Sunshine Coast. Her background is in Sexual and Reproductive Health and Midwifery and she was recognised as Midwife of the Year by Sunshine Coast Health in 2026. She is the clinical co-lead for the for the Queensland Virtual Early Termination of Pregnancy Service (QVEMToPS) as part of Queensland Virtual Hospital. Emma is passionate about women’s health, reproductive rights, and autonomy.
Mariyah Shahrin
Interactive Workshop: Post-abortion Support in a Group Setting
ACA-registered counsellor Mariyah is an experienced pregnancy pathways navigator and therapist, with a Master of Counselling and Bachelor of Arts in Criminology and Psychology. A highly skilled practitioner, Mariyah is dedicated to supporting women, neurodivergent, culturally diverse and queer communities, and is passionate about the destigmatisation of grief and loss in abortion, identity exploration, and fostering empowerment. Outside of her client work, you can find Mariyah photographing a live music gig, at a protest or rummaging through an op shop.
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3 - 5 September 2026, Brisbane QLD
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