Aborting in Cairns: The Leach-Brennan Case

It’s the sort of thing that encourages a bad press for North Queensland, but the first abortion case to be tried in over 20 years has sparked something of a furore. The case involved Tegan Leach and Sergie Brennan (21 and 22 respectively), who have been just tried in the District Court in Cairns for procuring a miscarriage between November 2008 and January 2009. It is alleged that the abortion drugs RU486 and Misoprostol, obtained by Brennan through is sister based in the Ukraine, were used. The prosecutor Michael Byrne told the court that there had been ‘no evidence that abortion needed to be carried out to preserve the life or the physical or mental health of Tegan Leach’ (ABC News, Oct 13).

Leach’s ignorance about the facts of the matter – that the 111-year-old legislation criminalising abortion was still on the Queensland statute books – might well have been a costly one. Inevitably, it was left to the defence to mount an offensive against an archaic regulation that has stubbornly remained in place.

The barrister defending the couple, Kevin McCreanor has had to muster all his powers of conviction in the direction of the jury. ‘I ask you, on behalf of this young couple, to put an end to the nightmare they have had to go through and return a verdict of not guilty’. While the law has been painted as a Dickensian ass, the Premier Anna Bligh has not fared much better. Queensland Greens Senator Larissa Waters has been less than impressed by her seemingly absent sense of femnism. ‘What a shame we have a female leader in this state who isn’t standing up for female issues’ (Cairns Post, Oct 11). In the words of Carole Ford, founding member of Pro Choice Cairns, the law within the Queensland criminal code was ‘a 19th century law for 21st century women’ (Green Left Weekly, Oct 2). As with much else with Premier Bligh, she was eager to retain a ‘default position’ for conviction while publicly proclaiming her stance in favour of abortion.

Figures on Queensland opinion on the subject vary, but researchers have hit upon a number as high as 85 percent who favour a woman’s right to choose, centring it on a matter of a woman’s health rather than a matter of judicial direction. But reform on the subject has stagnated in a city touted in government sloganeering as ‘the smart state’. The recommendations of a taskforce established by the Beattie government in 1999 examining the impact of the criminal code on the human rights of women, notably that of decriminalising abortion, have died a quiet death.

The case has sparked nationwide rallies and petitions favouring the couple, though the noise has been more significant than the numbers. Medical abortion services prescribing such medications as Mifepristone and the older Methotrexate, the inspiration of the Cairns-based Dr. Caroline de Costa – were thrown into a state of alarmed confusion. The College of Gynaecologists advised the Cairns Base Hospital to cease all abortions as the case was taking place.

The pro-life rally has inevitably chipped in with a gatecrashing cameo. ‘Thank your mother that you weren’t aborted,’ featured prominently on posters in a Brisbane protest. The imagery has been particularly colourful in response to news items on the subject. ‘What century are we living in?’ is complemented by symbols of burning at the stake and ‘cold barbaric’ mentalities. Others qualify the statement that abortion is illegal. Follow the rules, goes that argument, and see that lawful termination is permitted. This young couple didn’t.

The end result was something that gave the pro-abortion side a lift. The couple were found not guilty by the District court jury. Tears followed. Effusive thanks were given to the legal team. The couple could walk free, leaving the embers of the pro-abortion debate alive and well in Queensland.

Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He lectures at RMIT University, Melbourne. Email: bkampmark@gmail.com

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