Dr. Philip Goldstone, medical director for Marie Stopes International, Australia's largest provider of pregnancy termination services, said the majority of women who seek an abortion are using some form of contraception at the time of conception, and yet the idea that a woman was "either too lazy or ignorant to access contraception" persists.

"Over half of all abortions are performed on patients who were actively trying not to get pregnant," Goldstone told BuzzFeed News.



"No contraceptive method is 100% effective and the risk of contraceptive failure increases further if they are not used correctly or consistently."

Goldstone said these comments also ignore the fact it takes two people to create a pregnancy.

"We have a habit of solely blaming women for the act of falling pregnant," he said.

"In many cases encouraging young people to practice abstinence as a form of pregnancy prevention is actually what leads to teen pregnancy rates, since it fails to provide education around safe sexual practices and relies solely on the willpower to overcome the body’s natural hormonal urges."

Kate Marsh of pro-choice counselling service Children by Choice in Queensland said the belief that sexual intercourse between men and women is solely for the purpose of procreation wasn't "widely held" anymore.

"The vast majority of Australian women use at least one form of contraception, 70% according to most research," Marsh said.

"There’s not a single method that’s 100% effective and that’s before you even get into the possibly very large numbers of women for whom contraceptive use is compromised or non-existent due to domestic or sexual violence, or reproductive coercion."

Marsh referred to World Health Organisation estimates that suggest even if every heterosexual couple in the world used contraception, and used it perfectly every time they had sex, there would still be six million unplanned pregnancies each year.

"They also estimate that around 33 million women experience an unplanned pregnancy while using contraception, worldwide, each year."

There should be compulsory ultrasounds for anyone terminating a pregnancy.