Currently in Tasmania promoting her new book, Associate Professor Barbara Baird explains her hope that the book will be a motivating force for change, and spoke with us about her pursuit of justice, freedom and self-determination for all people. 

What is your role here at Flinders?

I’m an Associate Professor in Women’s and Gender Studies in the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences. I teach undergraduate and postgraduate students and supervise PhD students, conduct research and I’m actively involved in many aspects of the university community.

Tell us about your new book.

My new book, Abortion Care is Health Care, published by Melbourne University Press, writes a history of the provision of abortion services in Australia since 1990. The political debate between pro-choice and anti-abortion arguments in Australia was won decades ago and every jurisdiction has more or less decriminalised abortion, although services are still seriously inadequate. Those who are socio-economically disadvantaged, live outside metropolitan centres, poorly informed, non-English speaking, First Nations or without access to Medicare still experience difficulty accessing appropriate and adequate care. Activists and advocates increasingly turn to the problem of access to care.

Social science and humanities research into abortion in Australia has focused on the law, politics and women’s experience, but little attention has been paid to the systems through which abortion services are delivered. My book offers a history of service provision through which to understand the system of abortion care in order to enable change. I started research for this book 10 years ago, travelling around the country to interview doctors, nurses, social workers and managers who provide abortion care, and also spoke with the advocates and activists who lobby for law reform and improved access to services. I also drew on my own collection of news clippings and documents collected through my career-long interest in abortion, as well as tracking down existing research and online resources. The book moves into uncharted territory from a scholarly point of view and makes a contribution to advocacy for improved abortion care in Australia.

I wanted the book to be a readable account of how abortion services are provided, to highlight the voices of those who have been the ‘champions’ of developing abortion care, and to be a truly national account. I’m proud that the book is all of these things. It includes stories of frustration and success, persistence and innovation, and a good sprinkling of wry and sometimes very funny tales. I hope its historical approach is enlightening as well as a motivating force for change.

What do you love most about your work?

Talking to other people, students, colleagues and anyone who is interested, to figure out what’s really going on in our world and how we can pursue justice, freedom and self-determination for all people. I often get great feedback from students who report that new areas of critical thinking in feminism, queer studies and de-colonial studies have opened up for them.

How did you get into this field?

My academic career began in 1990 with an invitation to conduct an oral history project to talk to (older) South Australian women about their experience of abortions before 1970 – that is, before abortion was legal in this state. The project was funded at a time when abortion politics were at a crucial moment in SA and contributed to the campaign which led to the establishment of the country’s only free-standing public abortion clinic, the Pregnancy Advisory Centre. That project became my PhD and I have continued to research abortion since that time, alongside other issues relating to the history of sexuality and reproduction, queer issues in particular.

I was involved with abortion activism in Tasmania in 2001, when I was working at the University of Tasmania, during a crisis period in abortion politics in that state which lead to abortion law reform, and I was a foundation member of the SA Abortion Action Coalition (saaac) in Adelaide in 2015. saaac set out to improve access to abortion services in the state and worked to decriminalise abortion, which was achieved in 2021.

My research into abortion has proceeded alongside some key moments in abortion politics and my activism has motivated that research, while helping me understand the importance of the work I do.

Who inspires you?

My PhD supervisor, historian Professor Lyndall Ryan, continues to inspire me as she keeps researching well into her ‘retirement’, pushing new research in documenting the massacres of First Nations people in this country. I’m also inspired by my colleagues in the Unbound Collective – Associate Professor Ali Gumillya Baker, Mirning, Dr Faye Rosas Blanch, Yidinyji/Mbararam, Professor Simone Ulalka Tur, Yankunyjatjara, and Associate Professor Natalie Harkin, Narungga, for their creative work that expresses their experience as sovereign First Nations people. My partner inspires me with the wonderful garden that she creates, which provides a home for us and many other living creatures, and my dog inspires me.

How would you describe yourself in three words?

Determined. Passionate. Political.

What’s your favourite thing to do in your spare time?

I can’t decide between going to the movies and walking our dog.