Ask any new age woman in Sydney about abortion and they will assure you it is available " on demand " ! They are right about that,but it is also illegal ! We still have a hundred year old law on the books and both New South Wales and Queensland are the only states that have not taken the trouble to have that law rescinded.
It looks like it may stay that way. A bill to rectify that omission proposed by the Greens was considered so unimportant that it was moved down the order of precedence and will probably still be waiting to be heard when this session of parliament ends.
It seems a typical case of amending custom by inertia. A few decades ago the cops were actively pursuing backyard abortion clinics but ignoring well heeled society doctors who were providing this service under various medical labels. That had feminists kicking up a fuss because women with money had no problems accessing abortion but poorer women were denied service.
The Fred Nile group have repeatedly tried to move obstacles to make access to abortion more difficult, and there are moves to restrict anti-abortion demonstrators from harassing women seeking abortion by moving them 150 metres away from clinic entrances,
That old shibboleth of " letting sleeping dogs lay " comes to mind. Once a bill to legalise abortion comes to debate in the parliament it will rouse both the churches and the anti-abortion lobby to a frenzy. The things politicians fear is being forced to openly record their vote for all to see. It will be a long time to the next state election - but some voters have very good memories.
Another clash with the law happened in Sydney this week. A farmer chose the peak morning commute to ride his horse across the Sydney Harbour bridge. It was his way of protesting global warming and it certainly got the attention of motorists, the police and the media. It slowed the lane he used to a crawl and others slowed to view and photograph the spectacle.
Surprisingly, the police will take no action. Crossing the bridge on a horse was normal procedure many moons ago and the charge was threepence when a toll was collected at the bridge toll booths. Today the tolls are collected by " E " tags and that threepence has increased to four dollars. Of course the horse was lacking an " E " tag and it is considered unlikely that tag company will pursue the matter.
The farmer says he was a little apprehensive that his horse may have panicked when confronted with a wall of surrounding noisy traffic, plus the roar of trains crossing the bridge, but it took all that in its stride. Once again, the absence of horses from the Sydney traffic scene seems to have escaped the attention of the lawmakers. It is probably a very long time since the last crossing was made on a horse - and it remains perfectly legal.
Some legal people have proposed that all legislation should be enacted with what they call a " sunset clause ". A specific length of time - after which legality ceases, unless the parliament chooses to renew it for a further fixed period. The idea is that all legislation would be the better for periodic review to see if it is still necessary - or still desireable.
Of course that does nothing to correct past precedent where Australian law was inherited from the canons of old England and some clever lawyers still unearth ancient decisions that can be used to influence modern day cases.
It will be interesting to see how long it takes for that old abortion law to finally creak its way into twenty-first century legality !
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