Australian government aid organisations have, for a decade, been unable to fund groups that give abortion advice – it was a trade-off for the conservative government to win the vote of a rightwing religious nutter in the Senate. (And yes, there was more than a little American influence there.)

Finally, however, a cross-party group of MPs has recommended the policy be dropped.

“It’s repugnant, it’s an insult to women. I think that is just absolutely an insult,” a Liberal [conservative in Australia’s odd political vocab]MP and doctor, Mal Washer, told the ABC.
“What is even more ridiculous or more repugnant is that we’re saying in these guidelines that if you go and have an illegal abortion where there is a 13 per cent chance of death on average and you happen to survive, we’re happy to give you counselling.
“Well, that’s good for those who didn’t die but for the 13 per cent, I think counselling dead people is pretty difficult.”

Of course this is only advice, and it is the Howard government… although hopefully not for long.

A message that I just sent to my MP:

I understand that on June 5, Ann Winterton will table a Ten Minute Rule Bill to impose mandatory counselling on women seeking an abortion.
This is a condescending, cynical attempt to chip away at women’s abortion rights that will lead to further delays in service provision: and some women already have to wait up to five week! for an NHS
abortion.
This is the third anti-choice Bill in less than a year, and reflects a contempt for parliamentary procedures in a refusal to accept the democratic decision.
Please make the effort to actively oppose this bill, by voting against it.

If you are in the UK, please do likewise.

(As a result of an alert from Abortion Rights.)