THE vast majority of GPs — including some doctors who are anti-abortion — believe all women should have access to abortion services, according to one of the most comprehensive surveys of Australian GPs’ attitudes to the issue.
The survey also revealed more than one-third of the 2500 doctors questioned did not fully understand the abortion laws in their state or territory. And only one-quarter were aware of the laws regarding the provision of abortion services to minors.
Commissioned by the sexual health and abortion provider Marie Stopes International, the research revealed 74% of GPs considered themselves broadly pro-choice, while 20% identified themselves as “anti-abortion”.
But 84% of GPs believed all women should have access to termination services, according to the report, suggesting “that some of those who personally do not agree with the practice do not necessarily let this view restrict access for some women”.
The findings have again raise the issue of how doctors deal with the tensions between their professional responsibilities and their personal ethical beliefs.
Dr Christine Healy, GP and past president of the Abortion Providers’ Federation of Australasia, said that some anti-abortion GPs did try to discourage women from having abortions, but others still referred women to abortion providers.
“On occasion, the [referral’ letter from the GP states that this is something they would prefer the person didn’t do, but they refer them on at least for counselling,” she said.
Doctors who conscientiously objected to abortion should be required to declare their position to women seeking access to termination, according to 75% of GPs surveyed.
Professor Paul Komesaroff, director of the Monash Centre for the Study of Ethics in Medicine and Society in Melbourne, said: “I think [the survey] shows that there is no community support at all for the restriction of abortion services and there is wide acceptance and approbation of the status quo.”
With laws on abortion differing in each state and territory, 37% of GPs admitted they did not fully understand the legalities of abortion in their jurisdiction.
While only 40% believed a patient had to a consult a GP before seeking termination, the report stated that statutory and/or case law suggested consultation by two medical practitioners was necessary in every state and territory except the ACT.
Ad while two-thirds of GPs believed an abortion could be legally performed if there was a risk the child would be seriously handicapped, that law only applied in SA, NT, and after 20 weeks in WA.
TOOWOOMBA GP Dr David van Gend does not give his patients information about abortion, to which he is opposed, except in cases of rape, incest, pregnancy in minors or where it is necessary to save a mother’s life.
“Abortion on demand is the deepest shame of humanity. If a patient expresses a desire to terminate a pregnancy, at first you don't give them advice, you give them space to let their feelings out, and time to make sense of their conflicting emotions.
“On two occasions in the last month my patients’ initial assumption of abortion vanished as soon as they were allowed to consider other options — with one now preferring adoption and one dealing with her social crisis rather than aborting the baby.
“I would not give [patients] information on abortion access. They can readily obtain an abortion without my assistance.
“I would not refer the patient to another GP. What sort of referral letter [would I write]? ‘Dear colleague, I would like you to perform an elective procedure that has no medical indication and which violates our Oath of Geneva. Please kill this entirely healthy unborn baby without any medical necessity, play lotto with the future physical and emotional health of this entirely healthy woman, and play god with profound moral and spiritual issues way beyond our competence’.”
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