
In New South Wales in 2005, Emily Mayo technically committed a crime.
Hundreds of other women have also committed that same crime, at various life stages, with various reasons. Some did it decades ago, and some very recently.
Their crime, according to NSW law, was making a choice about their reproductive health. Their crime was to get an abortion.
What are the abortion laws in each of Australia’s states and territories? Post continues below video.
Today, NSW parliament will debate a bill to finally remove abortion from the Crimes Act. To say it’s long overdue is a massive understatement: This law has stood for 119 years.
Mayo underwent a termination in 2005 and after reading about 80 women who took out an advertisement in a national newspaper to campaign for legalisation in the 1970s, started the #ArrestUs campaign on social media.
“Today, like in the 1970s, and while ever abortion is criminalised, some women face hurdles to access abortions and of course, for many it is difficult to speak out,” Mayo wrote in her Facebook post.
“The women who took out the advert in the 1970s did it because they could. They had the privilege to be able to speak up and they believed they had a responsibility to do so. And so it is time again, for those of us who can stand up and speak out to do so. One last time.”