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Salient. Victoria University Student Newspaper. Vol. 37, No. 7. April, 17 1974

Submission to Parliament

Submission to Parliament

The Women's National Abortion Action Campaign (WONAAC) presented its submission to the Parliamentary Select Committee on Woman's Rights on April 9. Organisers had previously been given the impression that the Select Committee would be unwilling to dwell on this controversial issue (the hearing in fact took no more than 25 minutes), so a picket was organised to draw attention to it. The picket was also to point out that a Committee of Inquiry into Abortion set up in 1936 had sold women out by recommending no change in the laws, and the present Committee was urged to rectify this by recognising women's right to choose abortion. Police claimed it was illegal to picket inside parliament grounds (since when?), but because of pouring ram it was called off anyway.

As had been predicted, the views of those presenting the submission were not eagerly sought by the policitians, with the exception of Mary Bacheolor and Dorothy Jelicich, who were more sympathetic than the others on the Committee.