Carroll government pledges free abortions and review of medication access

Abortion care will be free for Victorian women under a re-elected Labor government and those needing to travel to get access to it will have their expenses reimbursed.

The Carroll government will on Thursday promise to invest $30 million over four years to remove the out-of-pocket cost of abortion care, which can be up to $1000 even after Medicare rebates.

The move is designed to make abortion accessible to all Victorian women and resolve a so-called “postcode lottery”, in which many women live in areas with very limited access to medical (medication-based) or surgical abortion. This is legal on request in Victoria until 24 weeks.

Private providers will be paid to deliver medical and surgical abortion up to 16 weeks, closing logistical gaps in public services and removing GP or specialist consultation fees, imaging, testing and medication costs.

The move will make access to abortion within the approved range of up to 24 weeks more uniform across the state.

A 2024 Women’s Health Victoria report revealed that for many Victorian women, securing access to abortion can mean navigating a service maze in which two-thirds of local government areas have no surgical abortion providers. There are no pharmacists dispensing abortion medication in 40 LGAs.

The government says it is not fair or acceptable that some women must travel roundtrips of 700 kilometres to get abortion care. Delays for regional women in finding abortion services mean they can miss the current nine-week window for medical abortion, but the government has promised to extend the window to 10 weeks.

It would also instruct the Department of Health’s Safer Care Victoria to do a clinical review to examine extending access to medical abortion to 12 weeks, giving women more time for less intrusive pregnancy terminations.

Currently, medical abortion is subsidised through the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme for use up to nine weeks, so this extension would mean prescribing it off-label.

However, this timeframe is within the World Health Organisation’s guidance for safe medical abortion and the review will also investigate how this works where it is already available, including in Ireland and Scotland.

“Only Labor will protect a woman’s right to choose,” said Health Minister Ingrid Stitt. “Abortion care is healthcare and Labor will make it free.”

Stitt’s statement said that polling showed the Liberals and One Nation could only form government together and One Nation sought to make abortion “a criminal offence”. Party leader Pauline Hanson has insisted she is not against abortion in the first trimester (12-13 weeks) but described later-term abortion as abhorrent and disgusting.

Abortion statistics are not uniformly collected in Australia, but number about 88,000 a year, according to the Medical Journal of Australia, with some data suggesting it is declining.

Victorian Opposition Leader Jess Wilson has vowed not to change Victorian abortion laws under a Coalition government, in what was viewed as an attempt to head off a Queensland-style scare campaign about what a change of government could mean for women’s reproductive rights.

“Abortion is a personal decision that should be made by women in consultation with their healthcare professionals,” she told this masthead.

Women’s Health Victoria chief executive Sally Hasler said 90 per cent of more than 9000 calls a year to the organisations 1800 My Options help line were from women seeking access to abortions and “cost is their biggest barrier”.

“More than one-third of them tell us they can’t pay for an abortion; this [announcement] will be hugely significant to increase access,” Hasler said. “We’re also very supportive of the expansion of medical abortion to 10 weeks and the clinical review by Safer Care of extending this to 12 weeks, as medical abortion has high success rates and is very safe.

“This will mean there is more time for people to make these decisions because after the current nine-week cut off, women have to try to find access to surgical abortion and costs increase.”

Adurty Rao, chief executive of non-profit reproductive healthcare provider MSI Australia, said cost remained one of the biggest barriers to Victorians seeking abortions.

“Every week, women ring us and ask if they can book in after their next pay,” Rao said. “While they wait, the weeks go by, and care that could have been simple gets harder. This commitment means no woman in Victoria should have to wait to get the urgent care she needs.”

Rao said for women experiencing family violence or reproductive coercion, delay can also put them at risk.

“For a woman leaving a violent and controlling relationship, time matters more than anything,” Rao said.

“Sometimes she has days, not weeks, before the perpetrator finds out. When she has to find the money first, cost and delay become barriers at the worst possible time. Free care means she can act quickly and safely on her own terms.”

Women’s health advocate Professor Danielle Mazza, head of Monash University’s Department of General Practice, called the move “fantastic news”, but stressed that any plan to eliminate out-of-pocket costs must support primary care clinics where many women first seek treatment.

Mazza also warned that shifting funding exclusively toward private providers risked eroding essential training for future doctors and nurses at public hospitals, which is critical to sustaining the healthcare workforce.

“Public hospitals must also be supported in this scheme as this is where training takes place for our future gynaecologists, GPs and nurses,” she said.

The Carroll government also committed to maintain all current funding for family violence services on Wednesday, responding to a pre-election call by peak family and sexual violence bodies, No to Violence, Sexual Assault Services Victoria and Safe+Equal.

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