Australian teen to stand trial for home abortion

[Penny Lane]

Tegan Simone Leach charged with aborting fetus herself

A CAIRNS teenager who allegedly self-aborted at two months with an abortion pill smuggled in from overseas has gained support from the pro-choice lobby.

Tegan Simone Leach, 19, is believed to be the first woman charged in Queensland in nearly 50 years for organising her own miscarriage and is facing up to 14 years in jail.

Pro-abortion lobbyists are rallying in Brisbane today against the landmark test case saying it "sets an ugly precedent for the rights of women".

Ms Leach's partner Sergie Brennan, 21, who lives with his girlfriend at their Mt Sheridan home, also has been charged with attempting to procure and supply drugs to procure an abortion.

The two are due to face Cairns Magistrate's Court again on June 11 after they allegedly decided to terminate the pregnancy because they were too young to have a child.

Police allege a family member obtained the abortion pill misoprostol from a doctor in the Ukraine and smuggled it into Australia on a flight to Cairns on December 25.

The pill was then allegedly successfully used by Ms Leach to terminate her pregnancy and induce a miscarriage at 60 days.

In their first court appearance on Thursday, it was alleged the pair did not ask about the lawful process to have an abortion.

Medical abortions are legal in Queensland but are often expensive with 90 per cent or more terminations performed in private clinics for a minimum out-of-pocket cost of about $370. But it remains an offence under the 100-year-old criminal code to access or procure an abortion.

Pro-abortion campaigner Kate Marsh, of Children By Choice, yesterday said the case was believed to be a Queensland first.

"She is our cause celebre," Ms Marsh said. "It comes as such a shock that someone can be charged with this offence in this day and age.

"We'd like to see abortion removed from the criminal code and be regulated like any other health procedure."

Pro-choice lobbyists will rally outside Parliament House today calling for the decriminalisation of abortion.

"It is an emotional issue and people have strong opinions about it," Ms Marsh said.

"But this unprecedented case highlights the urgency to change the laws."

Cairns gynaecologist Caroline de Costa, the first Australian doctor to legally dispense the controversial abortion drug RU486, backed the calls for decriminalisation, saying Queensland should follow the lead of Victoria.

She said the legislation harkened to the 1960s when women died after undergoing illegal backyard abortions.

Tegan Simone Leach charged with aborting fetus herself | News.com.au Top stories | News.com.au

Tegan Simone Leach to stand trial over abortion

A QUEENSLAND woman charged with organising her own home abortion has been committed to stand trial.

Cairns magistrate Sandra Pearson today ordered Tegan Simone Leach, 19, face trial on a charge of procuring an abortion in Cairns District Court on a date to be fixed.

Her boyfriend, Sergie Brennan, 21, was also committed to stand trial on a charge of supplying drugs to procure an abortion.

The charge of procuring an abortion carries a maximum penalty of seven years in jail.

The court last week heard police found empty pharmaceutical blister packets alleged to have contained the contraband drugs along with doctor's instructions written in Ukrainian during a search of the couple's Cairns home in relation to another matter in February.

Defence barrister Kevin McCreanor called for the charge against Ms Leach to be dropped, saying there was no evidence to prove the chemical composition of the drugs that were originally contained in the blister packets.

He also argued to the court that the section of the criminal code under which Ms Leach was charged only made it an offence to take something "noxious".

He said the drugs could not be considered noxious as they were not harmful to Ms Leach.

However, prosecutor Sergeant Peter Austin argued Ms Leach's admissions to having used the drugs to induce an abortion were sufficient for the matter to be put to trial.

The case has caused controversy in Queensland where the state Government last week rushed through Parliament changes to the law to clarify the legality of medical abortions.

Hospitals temporarily suspended drug-induced abortions pending further legal advice.

The couple were this afternoon granted bail on their own undertaking.

Tegan Simone Leach to stand trial over abortion | National News | News.com.au

Apparently this is the first abortion case in Queensland in 25 years.

[Grimmlok]

wait, abortion is illegal in australia? Wtf?

[MohandasKGanja]

Originally Posted by Grimmlok

wait, abortion is illegal in australia? Wtf?

Seriously. I had no idea either. I wonder what the status is on condoms, birth-control pills, etc.

[Penny Lane]

From my understanding, it's state-by-state.. I'm not very clear on it, though. I think in Queensland it's only legal if the mother's life is in imminent danger.

[Beeyotch]

Medical abortions are legal in Queensland but are often expensive with 90 per cent or more terminations performed in private clinics for a minimum out-of-pocket cost of about $370. But it remains an offence under the 100-year-old criminal code to access or procure an abortion.

So they still have it as illegal on the books...but they are legally available? Australia has a legal contradiction on their hands...embarrassing.

[Heidi Ho]

no a abortion is not illegal in australia.

''Medical abortions are legal in Queensland but are often expensive with 90 per cent or more terminations performed in private clinics for a minimum out-of-pocket cost of about $370''

[Grimmlok]

then why is she on trial..

[Nevan]

Medical ... medicinal ... it was an abortion, which was legal, IMO.

[Heidi Ho]

Originally Posted by Grimmlok

then why is she on trial..

because she did it herself i guess and not by a doctor

[MohandasKGanja]

Originally Posted by Heidi Ho

no a abortion is not illegal in australia.

''Medical abortions are legal in Queensland but are often expensive with 90 per cent or more terminations performed in private clinics for a minimum out-of-pocket cost of about $370''

Is a "medical abortion" one that is deemed medically necessary, though? Like puts the mother at risk? If that's the case, then an abortion for other reasons could still be illegal.

[Heidi Ho]

Originally Posted by MohandasKGanja

Is a "medical abortion" one that is deemed medically necessary, though? Like puts the mother at risk? If that's the case, then an abortion for other reasons could still be illegal.

well it's not illegal i know quite a few friends of mine who have had abortions and their health was not at risk.

[Penny Lane]

In Queensland, abortion is a crime under the Queensland Act, although generally regarded as lawful if performed to prevent serious danger to the woman’s physical or mental health.

Abortion is defined as unlawful in the Queensland Criminal Code (1899) under Sections 224, 225 & 226. Women can be criminally prosecuted for accessing abortion.

Section 224. Any person who, with intent to procure the miscarriage of a woman, whether she is or is not with child, unlawfully administers to her or causes her to take any poison or other noxious thing, or uses any force of any kind, or uses any other means whatever, is guilty of a crime, and is liable to imprisonment for 14 years.

Section 225. Any woman who, with intent to procure her own miscarriage, whether she is or is not with child, unlawfully administers to herself any poison or other noxious thing, or uses any force of any kind, or uses any other means whatever, or permits any such thing or means to be administered or used to her, is guilty of a crime, and is liable to imprisonment for 7 years.

Section 226. Any person who unlawfully supplies to or procures for any person anything whatever, knowing that it is intended to be unlawfully used to procure the miscarriage of a woman, whether she is or is not with child, is guilty of a misdemeanour, and is liable to imprisonment for 3 years.

However, Section 282 of the Criminal Code attempts to define a lawful abortion and is used as a defence to unlawful abortion:

A person is not criminally responsible for performing in good faith and with reasonable care and skill a surgical operation upon any person for the patient’s benefit, or upon an unborn child for the preservation of the mother’s life, if the performance of the operation is reasonable, having regard to the patient’s state at the time and to all circumstances of the case.

Due to the R v Bayliss and Cullen court case (see below) in 1986 and the resulting judgement, an abortion is lawful in Queensland if carried out if there is serious danger to the woman’s physical and mental health from the continuance of the pregnancy.

R v Bayliss and Cullen

In May 1985 the Queensland police under the Bjelke-Petersen government raided the Greenslopes Fertility Control Clinic which had opened in 1976 and had undergone political pressure since that time. Police interrogated women and took away 20,000 confidential patient files to be copied and studied. In June 1985, the Full Court ruled that the search warrants used by the police in the raid on the clinic were invalid, and ordered the files to be returned.
The then Director of Prosecutions, Mr Des Sturgess, made a public plea for any person dissatisfied with the Greenslopes clinic to come forward. A 21-year-old mother of three children made a complaint about a termination of pregnancy performed in January 1985. As a result, Doctors Bayliss and Cullen were charged with procuring an illegal abortion contrary to Section 224 of the Criminal Code, and inflicting grievous bodily harm.


The presiding judge at that trial R v Bayliss and Cullen (1986) was Judge McGuire. He based his ruling on the celebrated English case R v Bourne (1939) and a Victorian ruling by Justice Menhennit in R v Davidson (1969). Judge McGuire expressed the firm opinion that the R v Davidson represents the law in Queensland with respect to Sections 224 and 282. The Criminal Code s 282 provides the accepted defence to a charge of unlawful abortion under s224.
It would appear from the stance taken by Judge McGuire that a prosecution under s224 will fail unless the Crown can prove the abortion was not performed upon the unborn child “for the preservation of the mother’s life” and was not “reasonable having regard to the patient’s state at the time and to all the circumstances of the case”.

In the court proceedings, Judge McGuire stated:

It would be wrong indeed to conclude that Bourne equates to carte blanch. It does not. On the contrary, it is only in exceptional cases that the doctrine can lawfully apply. This must be clearly understood. The law in this State has not abdicated its responsibility as a guardian of the silent innocence of the unborn. It should rightly use its authority to see that abortion on whim or caprice does not insidiously filter into our society. There is no legal justification for abortion on demand.

Judge McGuire indicated that the present abortion law in Queensland was uncertain, an that more imperative authority, either the Court of Appeal or Parliament, would be required to effect changes to clarify the law. At the conclusion of the trial, Doctors Bayliss and Cullen were found not guilty on both counts. The basis for lawful abortion in Queensland currently rests on Judge McGuire’s decision. Since 1986, the law on abortion has not been tested as basically the prosecuting authorities have ‘turned a blind eye’. The Queensland Parliament has not acted to address Judge Maguire’s concern around the uncertainty of the law.

CbyC::Fact sheets::Abortion::Australian law and practice

[MohandasKGanja]

So, with those sections of the criminal code still in effect, on-demand abortion is illegal, but not enforced.

So, you are still at the whim of a prosecutor, such as in this case.

[McJag]

Horror show. Let her go!

[A*O]

Of course abortion isn't illegal here, but home abortions you carry out yourself using illegal drugs your boyfriend imported from the Ukraine are.

Technically speaking abortions in many countries can only be done legally if the physical or mental welfare of the mother are at risk, but of course that requirement isn't enforced so it's effectively abortion on demand.