Queensland women are self-harming and searching for pills on the black market to induce abortions as they face chronic delays, financial pressures and a lack of support from healthcare providers, a new study has found.
The University of Queensland study published in the CSIRO’s Sexual Health journal analysed almost 2,000 anonymous client records from the pregnancy counselling service Children by Choice between December 2018 and June 2020.
“Cost, stigma, and intimate partner violence continue to impede access to safe, compassionate, and timely abortion care,” the report found.
The research revealed that 43% of clients had been exposed to family or intimate partner violence, including reproductive coercion and abuse.
A counsellor reported one woman was called a “murderer” by the man involved with her pregnancy who stole the money she had saved for an abortion.
Clients frequently expressed anxiety about how they would afford abortions, with more than 42% seeking financial assistance to access a termination.
Out-of-pocket costs for abortion can range from hundreds to thousands of dollars, depending on the complexity and gestation period.
A 24-year-old woman told a counsellor she considered self-abortion and suicide when quoted the price of a termination.
Another client, the mother of a 16-year-old, said her daughter had attempted to induce self-abortion through self-harm.
Researcher Maryanne Cleetus, from UQ’s School of Public Health, said she was extremely concerned that Queenslanders were self-harming as a result of a lack of access to affordable termination services, nearly four years after abortion was decriminalised in the state.
“We’re still facing inequitable barriers to access,” Cleetus said. “That includes socioeconomic factors like affordability, the ability to get information, the ability not to experience domestic violence and to … be able to experience full reproductive autonomy.”
Study co-author, Dr Judith Dean, said women “spoke of isolation and the difficulty of making decisions with a lack of personal and healthcare support”.
“Our findings demonstrate the complexity of ensuring equitable access to termination of pregnancy care,” she said.
The study found women faced unsupportive behaviour and attitudes from healthcare practitioners who gave incorrect or misleading advice.
Women reported health professionals telling them that they “don’t do social abortions”, with six different doctors refusing to refer one client to the public health system.
Children by Choice CEO, Daile Kelleher, said confusing publicly funded pathways to abortion can also result in poor health.
“Any models of care must consider these barriers and ensure appropriate and compassionate options for women and pregnant people,” Kelleher said.
It comes after the closure of clinics operated by private non-for-profit healthcare service Marie Stopes in Southport, Townsville and Rockhampton has created increased demand in south-east Queensland, blowing out wait times by up to six weeks in some cases.
Kelleher said in May that some regional Queenslanders were having to travel hundreds of kilometres to Brisbane to access a publicly funded termination.
“What we’re also finding is that … not a lot of hospitals are actually embedding termination of pregnancy care within their hospitals,” Kelleher said.
“Pregnancy is a time-sensitive diagnosis … The more delays that people face … that actually has sort of real implications to the healthcare that they receive.”
In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is at 800-273-8255 or chat for support. You can also text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis text line counsellor. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org
