The nation’s leading sexual and reproductive health provider MSI Australia will be operating services on the ground and via telehealth on 26 January.
For the first time in the organisation’s history, abortion and contraception lists will run and the call centre will be open to support women and pregnant people seeking information or to make an appointment.
Managing Director Jamal Hakim said he was proud that the organisation would run abortion lists on Invasion Day for the first time in the not-for-profit’s history.
“It is deeply disrespectful to so many in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community that Australia Day continues to be a formal public holiday, and fails to recognise the hurt and violence that the day represents,” he said.
“Sovereignty has never been ceded and the land we live and work on always was and always will be Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.
“I recognise the day as Invasion Day and will be attending a Day of Mourning Dawn Service* on January 26.
“Last year, MSI Australia changed our policy to allow staff to choose whether to work on January or pick another day of leave.
“I am very proud that as an organisation, this year we are open and running abortion lists on January 26.
“This includes surgical abortion lists in Brisbane and medical and teleabortion lists on the Gold Coast and in Melbourne.
“Our call centre will also be open to take calls from people seeking information or appointments for abortion, contraception and vasectomy.
“At MSI Australia, we support the Uluru Statement of the Heart and the need to formalise a Voice for First Nations People within the constitution and within the Federal Parliament.
“We applaud the steps the South Australian Government is making to formalise a voice to parliament at the state level and the Victorian Treaty work being undertaken.”
Teresa Haskins, Virtual Health and Gold Coast Clinic Nurse Unit Manager, said it was important that women and pregnant people had access to services.
“Our virtual health team is passionate about providing compassionate and accessible sexual and reproductive health services,” she said.
“On January 26, we will be running medical abortion lists via telehealth, or as we call them teleabortions.
“This means, we will be speaking and talking to women and pregnant people all over the country who need a medical abortion, including in regional and remote communities, where access to abortion remains a big issue.
“Our Virtual Health team is based between both Melbourne and the Gold Coast.”
Read more about the Uluru Statement from the Heart here.
* A Day of Mourning Dawn Service will be held at 5am at Kings Domain Resting Place, Linlithgow Avenue, Melbourne
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For further information contact Anna Jabour on 0428 396 391.
MSI Australia is the only national not for profit provider of sexual and reproductive health services including permanent and long-acting reversible contraception and abortion care. For more information on our clinic network visit msiaustralia.org.au