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Control Abortion Referral Service

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The Control Abortion Referral Service was established by Australian feminist activists and operated out of Women’s Liberation House and other premises in Sydney in the 1970s and 1980s.

Origins

Control grew out of increased activism in 1972 by members of the rapidly growing Sydney Women’s Liberation Movement around the felt need for a reliable clearing house for information on fertility planning and safe abortion services in New South Wales.

Among the first organizers around the issue of access to safe and legal abortions were veteran Communist party organizers Joyce Stevens[1] and Mavis Robertson. Following a successful “Women’s Speak-Out for Abortion” event at Women’s Liberation House in October 1972,[2] Stevens, Robertson, Nola Cooper and other feminists launched a “Women’s Commission”[3][4] congress, bringing together some 600 women of different backgrounds and political persuasions, across two days of discussion on a variety of issues,[5] including abortion access.[6][7]

The organizers then convened a June 30 march through Sydney streets by several hundred men and women demanding repeal of abortion restrictions followed by a rally at Hyde Park, after which a group of feminist activists returned to Women’s House and laid the groundwork for the launch of the Control Abortion Referral Service.[8][9]

First years

Launched in July 1973, Control operated as a collective from Women’s House on a part-time basis as a referral service for women seeking pregnancy testing and safe and affordable options for pregnancy termination.[10] Part-time volunteer counsellors responded to inquiries by phone and in person, evenings only from 6pm to 9pm, Monday through Friday.[11][12]

In August 1973, in an effort to leverage federal government efforts to revamp Australia's health services and set up local community health centres, Stevens[1] and other Control members drafted a request to Health Minister Doug Everingham for financial backing to establish a women’s community health center. The request was granted, with Control members submitting an annual budget of $55,000, which was approved by the ministry. Following a search by Control activists for premises and interviews of staff, in January 1974 the Leichardt Women's Health Centre opened as the first women’s health centre in Sydney.[9]

Through the efforts of Stevens[1] and others in the Control collective,[13] additional federal funding was secured[14] for a second women's heath centre, which opened on 21 April 1975 at 273 George Street, Liverpool.[15][16] In the changed political climate following the November 1975 dismissal from office of the prime minister, Gough Whitlam of the Australian Labor Party (ALP), in the midst of a public health crisis caused by a NSW doctor's strike[17] the police raided the Liverpool Women's Health Centre,[18] arrested a woman doctor at the clinic on the charge of conducting an illegal abortion and a counsellor on the charge of aiding and abetting a crime.[19][20]

After months of confrontation between staff and management over medical and counselling practicesat Sydney-based Population Services International (Australasia) Ltd,[21] then Australia's largest abortion services provider, representatives from Control, the Leichhardt and Liverpool women's health centres, Family Planning and Women's Liberation Movement healthworkers met in May 1976 and decided to mobilize against PSI practices, scaling back and then ultimately halting referrals of women to PSI for termination of pregnancies.[22]

New momentum

Control relocated in July 1976 along with Women's House to new premises in Chippendale,[23][22] purchased with funds provided by the Women's Liberation Movement.[24]

By 1977, the Collective began to feel the impact of the growth of women's health centres across Sydney as demand for its part-time abortion referral service began to wane.[22] The referral service was reinvigorated, however, following the December 1976 resignation of six feminist staff members from two abortion clinics run by PSI in the Arncliffe and Potts Point areas of Sydney.[25][26]

Former PSI staff members Margaret Hooks, Rosemary Elliot, Kris Melmouth and Dr. Margaret Taylor were joined by feminist abortion-rights advocate Lynne Hutton-Williams in approaching the Control collective to help it vet abortion doctors in the greater Sydney area based on their willingness to incorporate counselling as an essential part of their services.[22] They also provided additional staff so that Control's referral service could become full-time operating five days and three nights per week, providing information and counselling services for women on abortion, pregnancy, single parent families and contraception.[12][22]

In April, the former PSI healthworkers conducted a counsellor training course hosted by Control to help bring on board additional counselling staff. [22] boosting Control's staff grew to to seven, with some of counsellors being placed directly in the private surgeries of select abortion practitioners.[12] Margaret Taylor, meanwhile, joined the medical staff of the Control-backed Liverpool Women's Health Centre.[27]

At end-1977, Control saw a spike in demand for its services with enactment of anti-abortion legislation in New Zealand and the referral to Control by Sisters Overseas Service (SOS) of women seeking to travel from New Zealand to Sydney to terminate their pregnancies.[12] Such was the increase in referrals, that Control felt compelled to spin off from Women's House and relocated to new premises at 424 George Street in Sydney.[12][28]

Expansion

Over the next year, the Control collective expanded to include 17 staff, between part- and full-time employees, and by January 1979 it had opened its own feminist clinic in Darling Street, Balmain, the second clinic to exist in Sydney that was run for women and by women.[12]

The new clinic was able to perform abortions up to 15 weeks, using local or general anaesthetic, at competitive pricing. It operated five days per week including night sessions, with five collective members usually on duty -- one in the surgery, another at reception and 3-4 counsellors, who both provided pre-procedural counselling and post-procedural recovery services. By March, the Control clinic was completing about 50 abortions each week.[12]

Meanwhile, the Control abortion referral service had also expanded beyond Sydney, opening affiliates in Adelaide and Brisbane. After feminist activists in Townsville, North Queensland, began organizing for the repeal of restrictive abortion laws and women's access to safe, legal abortions,[29] two feminists who had previously worked as counsellors with Control Sydney and Control Brisbane spearheaded the opening in September 1979 of an abortion referral service modeled on Control and based in the Women's Information Center on the city's main street.[30]

References

  1. ^ a b c Waldram, Jennifer (6 June 2014). "Joyce Stevens: tireless activist for women's and workers' rights". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 18 December 2023.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  2. ^ Stevens, Joyce (17 October 1972). "ABORTION: Women Speak Out". Tribune (Sydney, NSW). p. 6. Retrieved 16 December 2023.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  3. ^ "Women's Commission plans". Tribune (Sydney, NSW). 30 January 1972. p. 12. Retrieved 17 December 2023.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  4. ^ "Women's Commission". Tharunka (Kensington, NSW). 6 March 1973. p. 4. Retrieved 17 December 2023.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  5. ^ "Women's Commission March 17-18". Tribune (Sydney, NSW). 27 February 1973. p. 7. Retrieved 17 December 2023.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  6. ^ Lenga, Pauline (17 April 1973). "WOMEN'S COMMISSION 1973". Tharunka (Kensington, NSW). p. 2. Retrieved 17 December 2023.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  7. ^ "WOMEN SPEAK ON WOMEN". Tribune (Sydney, NSW). 27 March 1973. p. 11. Retrieved 18 December 2018.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  8. ^ "ABORTION LAW PROTESTS". Trribune (Sydney, NSW). 3 July 1973. p. 12. Retrieved 18 December 2023.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  9. ^ a b "Womens Health Centre - Leichhardt". Tharunka (Kensington, NSW). 6 March 1974. p. 5. Retrieved 18 December 2023.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  10. ^ "Contraception and abortion advice". Tharunka (Kensington, NSW). 20 July 1975. p. 20. Retrieved 18 December 2023.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  11. ^ Alysen, Barbara (6 November 1973). "ABORTION: 'LEGAL' OR ILLEGAL?". Tribune (Sydney, NSW). p. 6. Retrieved 18 December 2023.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  12. ^ a b c d e f g Garton, Gloria (7 March 1979). "SYDNEY'S SECOND FEMINIST ABORTION CLINIC". Tribune (Sydney, NSW). p. 6. Retrieved 18 December 2023.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  13. ^ "THE CAULDRON". Tribune (Sydney, NSW). 15 April 1975. p. 10. Retrieved 18 December 2023.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  14. ^ Roberts, Anne (29 April 1975). "WOMEN'S HEALTH CENTRES". Tribune (Sydney, NSW). p. 6. Retrieved 18 December 2023.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  15. ^ "Party to celebrate the opening of Liverpool Women's Health Centre". Tribune (Sydney, NSW). 22 April 1975. p. 4. Retrieved 18 December 2023.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  16. ^ "Tribune negatives including opening of Liverpool Womens Health Centre, 1975", ON 160/Item 0004, 1975, Manuscripts, oral history and pictures catalogue, State Library, New South Wales. Consulted 18 December 2023.
  17. ^ "DOCTOR'S STRIKE: holding community to ransom". Tribune (Sydney, NSW). 12 November 1975. p. 2. Retrieved 18 December 2023.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  18. ^ "Right attacks on women". Tribune (Sydney, NSW). 3 December 1975. p. 2. Retrieved 18 December 2023.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  19. ^ "DEFEND LIVERPOOL WOMEN". Tribune (Sydney, NSW). 24 November 1975. p. 2. Retrieved 16 December 2023.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  20. ^ "THE CAULDRON". Tribune (Sydney, NSW). 26 November 1975. p. 10. Retrieved 18 December 2023.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  21. ^ ABORTION: OUR BODIES, THEIR POWER (PDF), 1977, pp. 2–4, retrieved 17 December 2023
  22. ^ a b c d e f ABORTION: OUR BODIES, THEIR POWER (PDF), 1977, p. 12, retrieved 17 December 2023
  23. ^ "Directory". Tribune (Sydney, NSW). 26 September 1977. Retrieved 18 December 2023.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  24. ^ Cooper, Nola (18 December 2023). "The Sydney Women's Liberation Movement 1970 - 1975: Journey through some of the highlights of the Sydney Women's Liberation Movement as recalled by Nola Cooper" (PDF). Women's Health NSW. Retrieved 18 December 2023.
  25. ^ ABORTION: OUR BODIES, THEIR POWER (PDF), 1977, pp. 1–12, retrieved 18 December 2023
  26. ^ Hooks, Margaret; et al. (6 June 1977), SUBMISSION TO ROYAL COMMISSION ON HUMAN RELATIONS ON QUALITY OF ABORTION SERVICES. Canberra, Australia, June 1977 (PDF), retrieved 18 December 2023
  27. ^ Stevens, Joyce (5 October 1977). "MEDIBANK ABORTIONS THREATENED". Tribune (Sydney, NSW). p. 5.
  28. ^ "ABORTION: A WOMAN'S RIGHT TO CHOOSE". Tharunka (Kensington, NSW). 14 August 1978. p. 1. Retrieved 18 December 2023.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  29. ^ "North Queensland women get together". Tribune (Sydney, NSW). 7 March 1979. p. 3. Retrieved 18 December 2023.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  30. ^ McCormack, Anna (26 September 1979). "TOWNSVILLE'S ABORTION REFERRAL SERVICE". Tribune (Sydney, NSW). p. 16. Retrieved 18 December 2023.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)

Category:Abortion in Australia Category:Feminism in Australia

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