In November 2024, ABC News revealed that staff at Orange hospital in Central West New South Wales (NSW) had been directed to stop providing abortions to patients who did not have medical reasons for a termination of pregnancy. That verbal directive was made official later through a formal policy document that instructed staff to refer such patients to their GP or Family Planning.
Hours after the ABC exposed the ban, the NSW Health Minister intervened to reinstate all abortion services previously provided at Orange hospital.
The ABC also obtained and verified a scathing letter sent by doctors from across the country to the chair of the Western New South Wales Local Health District (LHD) board, which oversees the hospital, also known as Orange Health Service. They described the ban as a “slap in the face to rural women” and called for any executives involved in the decision to be sacked and referred to the national health regulator (the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency) or the Public Service Commissioner. The ABC has chosen to redact the doctors’ names in order to protect their privacy.
Their letter said: “Access to abortion care is a legal right for all NSW women and must be fully accessible to all women in NSW. The allegations that health executives at Orange Health Service individually implicated themselves in restricting abortion services are shocking and unacceptable.
“The fight to decriminalise abortion has been a long and painful journey for many women in NSW, and generations of women have fought to make abortion what it should be in NSW; legal, safe and accessible by all women in the state.
“Intervention to restrict legal health care at this level is a clear violation of the employee code of conduct. As of yet no formal inquiry has been announced into the identity of these senior officials, or the source of the verbal orders to healthcare staff, or the document that directed clinicians to cease providing full and timely access to abortion and family planning procedures at Orange Health Service. This is an egregious overreach of state health ‘executive powers and demonstrates a deliberate lack of respect and care for the local community as well as staff.”
The following is the letter the doctors sent:
18th November 2024
Mr Matthew Irvine
Chairperson
Western NSW Local Health District Health Board,
Dear Mr Irvine,
We the undersigned are medical practitioners who work for the Virtual Rural Generalist Service (VRGS). Doctors work at the front line of providing health services to rural members of our Local Health District. We write this letter in response to the ABC News article detailing the deliberate restriction of access to surgical abortions and abortion care at Orange Health Service in the Western New South Wales Local Health District.
“Access to abortion care is a legal right for all NSW women and must be fully accessible to all women in NSW. The allegations that health executives at Orange Health Service individually implicated themselves in restricting abortion services are shocking and unacceptable.
“As healthcare providers working the WNSWLHD we are both heartbroken and incensed by these reports. We expect and demand action from the WNSWLHD Board to ensure those at Orange Health Service who have sought to impair access to health for rural women in this district are held accountable for their actions. We have submitted this letter to the Independent Commission Against Corruption as well as the HCCC.
“We ask that any health executives found to have participated in decisions that restricted access to abortion services be removed from their executive position and referred to AHPRA or the Public Service Commissioner.
“We await your response on this matter so we as front line medical staff can be reassured that the WNSWLHD is a safe space for women seeking abortion care and will continue to advocate for the women of the WNSWLHD…”
SOURCE: Australian Broadcasting News, by Lucy Barbour, 19 January 2025