Lindy Kerin reported this story on Monday, August 6, 2012 12:42:00

ELEANOR HALL: Women's health advocates in New South Wales are calling for the Government to provide more options for women with unwanted pregnancies, saying the centralised services available in other states are desperately needed.



The women's health groups say that public hospitals only provide termination services for women who are up to 10 weeks pregnant, and that the fees at private abortion clinics put them out of reach for many disadvantaged women.



Lindy Kerin has more.



LINDY KERIN: For some women in Western Sydney an unplanned pregnancy is compounded by poverty and disadvantage.



CATHERINE WHITE: The women that we're in contact with are seeking to have a termination and can't afford to pay to do it through private providers.



LINDY KERIN: That's Catherine White, the manager of a community based women's support group in Mt Druitt.



She says there’s only one public hospital in the area that provides a limited number of terminations for women who are less than 10 weeks pregnant or suffering serious medical conditions.



She says for many, private clinics are the only option but with fees between $300 and $1,500 it's not affordable.



CATHERINE WHITE: For many of the women that we work with particularly those who are either unwaged or on a Centrelink benefit, they can't come up with that money up front. Because of the timeframe of needing to have a termination quickly there really isn't an opportunity to save up for it.



LINDY KERIN: And so what are you hearing from women, what sort of situations have you heard about so far that women have been in and they simply can't afford it?



CATHERINE WHITE: We speak to some young women, who are still students and who, for whatever reason either don't have family support or don't feel like they can discuss it with their family.



But we also see a number of other women who have got a range of other complex sort of crisis issues going on including domestic violence or mental health or homelessness - all of which are contributing to their decision not to continue with the pregnancy.



You know some of the women we've seen include the woman who had five children under 10, who had had to separate from her husband due to domestic violence.



We've also had a woman come in who was homeless, both her and her two children were homeless and were sleeping on the floor of a family member’s home while they were trying to seek alternative housing.



LINDY KERIN: And it seems the problem is not isolated to Western Sydney.



Denele Crozier is the executive officer of Women's Health New South Wales, the peak body for women's health groups in the state.



DENELE CROZIER: We just know we've got more and more women that we're getting a call, I can't afford to go and we don't have anywhere to refer those women. Those women actually need access to money to attend a medical clinic to have a termination and there's less and less, there are no support groups out there that have that sort of money that can help women attend a clinic.



LINDY KERIN: Denele Crozier says New South Wales is lagging when it comes to providing pregnancy options services.



She says there needs to a government-funded centralised service like elsewhere around the country.



DENELE CROZIER: Queensland of course, is our best example, Children by Choice. They run a service for women where they can look at their options, get referrals, get some help if they need it, and the same with Victoria, the Royal Hospital there in South Australia, every major state I know has some service.



You know, everyone always saying there's not enough money for the healthcare system and so that's pretty well what most organisations are trying to get funding we are in the same circumstance, but when you've got a circumstance that actually means that there is a proportion of the community that can't access a service, then, you know that's becoming quite crucial to their lives, just to say that there's not enough money to provide what should be an essential community service.



LINDY KERIN: The New South Wales Health Minister, Jillian Skinner was unavailable for an interview with The World Today.



ELEANOR HALL: Lindy Kerin.