Never, Ever, Again

The tragic stories that are the history of abortion in Queensland have long been hidden in the police gazettes and inquest records of the state government archives. In Never Ever Again, Caroline de Costa unearths many of these records to show exactly what abortion meant for Australian women before the landmark Menhennitt judgment in Victoria and other legal cases opened the way for law reformers and enlightened doctors to provide safe accessible abortion. Although abortion law has been reformed or decriminalised in many Australian states and territories, it remains a crime in Queensland, New South Wales and other states with ongoing detrimental effects for women. Not the least of these effects is the charging of a young Cairns woman with procuring her own abortion, almost certainly the only time such a charge has ever been brought in Australia. Caroline de Costa argues strongly for the need for abortion law reform right across the country so that the tragedies of the past and the tragedy of the present can never occur again. Never, ever, again.