Lubeck MarjaMARJA LUBECK (Labour): Thank you Mr Speaker for an opportunity to have a call in this Abortion Legislation Bill. We received many many pieces of feedback information and emails from members of the public and I would like to thank the thousands of members that have written to us with very very strong views obviously on abortion. Now from what we're receiving it is very clear that it will require a fundamental shift in thinking to see abortion as a healthcare rather than a criminal matter. It is perhaps in a twist of irony that due to the overwhelming amount of emails emails with regards to abortion are going straight into my folder under health".In the previous debate a member opposing this bill mentioned they were a bit passionate about the issue and I think it's probably fair to say that we are all very passionate about this issue but I guess what the member was asking us is that he was being forgiven—him and others—for the use of very patronising language when speaking about women and the choices about their bodies describing abortion as "someone's inconvenience" or "whipping a person off to an abortion clinic"—these are degrading phrases—and talking about abortion as "lifestyle choices" and I even heard it compared to having merely an appendectomy; all those are very condescending and demeaning.We heard those opposing this bill tell stories about the hurt of a woman who was taken to an abortion clinic forced into it to have an abortion and later on regretted it. What we didn't hear from that person was the hurt of thousands of women who have suffered in silence from years of stigma and shame. Yes those words are important. I know they were being made fun of by one of the members before because he obviously is not an expert when it comes to abortion. Those people have feared judgment from family from friends from colleagues from their communities and have kept quiet for that reason about having had an abortion—they kept it a secret. That is why the overwhelming amount of feedback you will see on conscience issues like this is about the people that don't feel they have to share something they feel is a shameful secret.So the stats are skewed but let me tell you about those women because the amount of women that have contacted me after my first reading speech was overwhelming when I spoke about the fact that I was given the dignity and freedom to choose for myself whether to continue my unplanned and unwanted pregnancy or get an abortion.There have been many many women who wrote to me or even came up to me at events and meetings and told me about their story and they still do. Many speak of the years and sometimes even a lifetime of carrying a burden of secrecy and shame. Many have approached me expressing a sense of relief and feeling empowered to share their own experience for the very first time and I've found it extremely humbling and sometimes quite overwhelming. It is not a good reason to stick with offensive archaic anti-choice legislation just because there are people out there with a loud voice saying "Oh well no women ever got convicted." Well actually they may not have been convicted of a crime but they have carried their abortion as a crime—they felt it was a life sentence for them. So it makes it all the more clear that the choice should be for women. I had the privilege to sit on some of the Abortion Legislation Committee hearings and I would like to commend the Hon Ruth Dyson and the Hon Amy Adams for the amazing leadership they have shown in that particular piece of work. They carried on the work as Ruth Dyson mentioned of many of the advocates that have fought so hard for decades to get women choice. I would also like to commend Andrew Little for as Ruth Dyson mentioned taking it out of the "too hard box" and getting women choices.We need to get away from the terrible situations where women had to go through with pregnancies that they didn't want and those situations where unplanned pregnancies resulted in lost jobs exclusion from work and from education being trapped in abusive relationships and judgment. Those sacrifices—to carry a pregnancy to term to take on more duties as a parent—fall primarily on the woman and that's why it should be her choice. Now you can't put broken hopes and dreams in a box with a korowai on it but that is very much a reality for so many women out there. We need law reform that gives women a choice because anything less is not freedom for a human being. So don't stand in the way of choice for women. The decision is never taken lightly but sometimes it is not always a difficult decision to make."