The shame of unwanted pregnancies for Pacific workers
Isabella Higgins: New research has uncovered shocking accounts of vulnerable workers employed on temporary visas hiding pregnancies and even attempting home abortions. The incidents involved workers employed through the Federal Government's Pacific Labor Mobility Scheme which is designed to address the skills shortage. Here's National Regional Affairs reporter Lucy Barbour and a warning her report contains disturbing content.
Lucy Barbour: Some migrant workers are going to desperate measures to end their pregnancies.
Tukini Tavui: We've come across such scenarios where they've attempted abortion. In one case it was actually in the field where they were working. There've also been cases that's done at home of ways and I couldn't even talk about.
Lucy Barbour: Takini Tavui is the President of the Pacific Island Council of South Australia. He's not surprised by the scenarios highlighted in a new report from the Australian National University's Lindy Kanan.
Lindy Kanan: I was told that people were using, drinking certain substances to try to terminate the pregnancy or using physical means.
Lucy Barbour: Lindy Kanan has spoken with dozens of migrant workers, employers and health and support workers about the Pacific Australia Labor Mobility Scheme known as PAM. Under the program, approved Australian employers engage workers from the Pacific and Timor-Leste to work on farms and in meat processors and aged care facilities.
Lindy Kanan: You know a number of employers that I spoke to saying, you know, we didn't know she was pregnant until she went into labour on the packing room floor.
Lucy Barbour: Sex and pregnancy outside of marriage remain taboo in many Pacific Island cultures. Lindy Kanan says women felt ashamed if they'd fallen pregnant out of wedlock or through an extramarital affair.
Lindy Kanan: I found at least seven cases on one field trip that I went to, to one regional town where women had basically run away after finding out that they were pregnant and were basically in a more precarious situation because of that.
Lucy Barbour: Workers often live in close quarters. Lindy Kanan says that can have consequences.
Lindy Kanan: It was very common to hear about male Palm participants using alcohol, knocking on the doors of women's accommodation at night and sexual assaults happening as a result of that situation.
Lucy Barbour: Trudi Beck is a GP obstetrician. She publicly advertises abortions at her clinic in Wagga Wagga in south-east New South Wales. She estimates a quarter of her patients seeking terminations are migrant workers.
Trudi Beck: I think it's probably a combination of many things that Australians don't really want to talk about. Things like abortion, racism and probably exploitation of Pacific neighbours.
Lucy Barbour: Dr Beck says migrant workers are choosing abortion because they don't want to risk their jobs or being sent home. And patients can end up paying thousands of dollars for reproductive care because they don't have Medicare or health insurance that covers pregnancy and birth.
Trudi Beck: This particular cohort is a group of patients that are so disadvantaged that delivering compassionate evidence-based care within the confines of the current system is virtually impossible.
Lucy Barbour: The research found some employers did provide support for pregnant workers but many were unsure of their obligations.
Isabella Higgins: Lucy Barbour and Cath McAloon with that report.
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