Only hours ago, sixty Sydney women have made #ArrestUs a trending topic on Twitter and Facebook, daring the New South Wales police to arrest them for undergoing “illegal” abortions. This motion is occurring just on the eve of a bill, set for debate, which will decriminalise abortion across NSW.
As part of the #ArrestUs movement, a group of sixty vastly diverse women have taken to the Facebook page titled #ArrestUs, on which they have stated their full name, and the year in which they had undergone an “illegal” abortion in the state of NSW. Many of these women give three dates, with journalist Wendy Bacon, listing four.
The powerful message on the page states:
We are diverse women. Our abortion experiences are varied. We have had abortions decades ago and very recently.
We have all had abortions under NSW laws which defines abortion as a crime. We want to be the last.
We say: arrest us.
Abortion is still a crime in NSW. Now is the time for it to change
The mass-outing and act of protest is directly influenced by a 1970’s act of the same nature, in which 80 women signed a full page of a newspaper ad, declaring that they had committed a “criminal” act of abortion in the state. This pro-choice action, which occurred 50 years ago now, was run by now chair of the NSW Pro-Choice Alliance, Wendy McCarthy, who joined Health Minister Brad Hazzard and Independent MP Alex Green to announce the Reproductive Health Reform Bill 2019.
“In the early 1970s eighty women declared themselves to be criminals in a national newspaper, taking out an advertisement as a provocation in the campaign to decriminalise abortion,” starts the Facebook post.
“Fifty years on and abortion is still technically a crime in NSW. A bill to be debated in NSW Parliament this week seeks to finally change that. Should it pass women in NSW will finally have the freedom to make our reproductive health choices without facing the challenges presented because abortion is criminalised.”
The Reproductive Health Reform Bill is set to go before NSW Parliament next week, and is co-sponsored by 15 cross-party politicians.
In solidarity with the movement, women are adding their names to the list under the hashtag #ArrestUs on Twitter.
