Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1694818665743.pdf (Australia)
Department of General Practice School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences To whom it may concern, Thank you for the opportunity to make a submission to the parliamentary inquiry concerning the Religious Discrimination Bill 2021.
As Professor and Head of the Department of General Practice and Director of the National Health and Medical Research Council’s Sphere Centre of Research Excellence in Women’s Sexual and Reproductive Health Care and Professor at the Melbourne Law School our submission is concerned with the effect of the proposed law on vulnerable women seeking advice and services from healthcare professionals in relation to contraception and abortion.

We believe that the proposed Religious Discrimination law is unnecessary.
We already have discrimination and human rights legislation in many jurisdictions.

However, were it to proceed it is important that this parliamentary committee understand the potential consequences for Australian women, one in four of whom will have an abortion in their lifetime.
While abortion has now been decriminalised in all Australian states and territories, women continue to face many barriers to accessing what the Royal Australian College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology has declared an essential service1.

While some provision of abortion occurs in hospital settings, the majority occurs in primary care (general practice).
However, not all GPs deliver abortion care with many having yet to integrate this form of women’s health care into their practice and some holding a conscientious objection to it on religious grounds (more so in rural areas)2.

Recent figures3 suggest that only about 10% of Australian GPs are currently registered to prescribe medical abortion and that 30% of Australian women live in areas where no GP has prescribed nor pharmacist dispensed a prescription for medical abortion over the past year.
This increases to 50% for women living in remote areas of Australia.

Women often present to their local GP needing assistance in navigating to abortion providers.

Many of these women are very vulnerable: victims of family violence, young 1 RANZCOG.COVID-19 Access to Reproductive Health Services.

Updated 8 April 2020 https://ranzcog.edu.au/news/covid-19-access-to-reproductive-health-services.
Accessed 18/11/20 2 Keogh L, Croy S, Newton D, Hendron M, Hill S. General practitioner knowledge and practice in relation to unintended pregnancy in the Grampians region of Victoria, Australia.

Rural Remote Health.

2019 Nov;19(4):5156. doi: 10.22605/RRH5156.

Epub 2019 Nov 2.

PMID: 31675244.

3 Subasinghe AK, McGeechan K, Moulton JE, Grzeskowiak LE, Mazza D. Early medical abortion services provided in Australian primary care.

Med J Aust.

2021 Oct 18;215(8):366-370. doi: 10.5694/mja2.51275.
Epub 2021 Sep 22.

PMID: 34553385.

Building 1, 270 Ferntree Gully Road, Notting Hill, VIC 3168 Australia Telephone +61 3 9902 4512 Facsimile +61 3 9902 4300 www.monash.edu/medicine/sphpm/general-practice CRICOS Provider No.

0008C ABN 12 377 614 012 PJCHR Religious Discrimination Bill 2021 and related billsSubmission 75 women or women from disadvantaged backgrounds.

They already report feeling stigmatised and stressed4.
In this context, our major concern with the draft legislation relates to the proposed protections for individuals who make “statements of belief”.

It is our experience that many young women already hear such “statements of belief” when seeking abortion or contraception care or advice from health professionals who hold conscientious objections to abortion and contraception.
One instance in our recent experience was of a young 17-year-old girl who sought advice from a GP who told her “she was sinning and would be damned evermore if she had an abortion”.

Such statements further stigmatise, intimidate and distress already vulnerable patients seeking essential health care.

It is unclear why religious speech should be dealt with separately to other forms of speech in a secular nation.
We are concerned that the proposed protections to ‘statements of belief’ will only embolden health care providers to issue ‘statements of belief’ that are detrimental to the health and wellbeing of patients.

We therefore urge the committee to make a recommendation not to proceed with this unnecessary legislation.

Professor Danielle Mazza Professor Heather Douglas 4 Doran FM, Hornibrook J.

Barriers around access to abortion experienced by rural women in New South Wales, Australia.

Rural Remote Health.


2016 Jan-Mar;16(1):3538.

Epub 2016 Mar 18.

PMID: 26987999.

Building 1, 270 Ferntree Gully Road, Notting Hill, VIC 3168 Australia Telephone +61 3 9902 4512 Facsimile +61 3 9902 4300 www.monash.edu/medicine/sphpm/general-practice CRICOS Provider No.

0008C ABN 12 377 614 012 PJCHR Religious Discrimination Bill 2021 and related billsSubmission 75