Tayla-Jane Jackson was in a suburban Adelaide shopping centre when she found out she was pregnant.
The 31-year-old self-described feminist, Lana Del Rey fan, and single mum was browsing shops when, acting on a niggling feeling, she ducked into a chemist.
She bought a pregnancy test and went into a toilet cubical.
Two lines confirmed her fears.
It was July 2023, and Ms Jackson was technically homeless.
While most people her age were studying, partying, or forging a career, she was struggling to make ends meet.
Tayla-Jane Jackson needed a late-term termination while she was experiencing homelessness. (ABC News: Che Chorley)
She was staying at a friend’s house and raising a six-year-old dinosaur-obsessed son, who lives with what his mum describes as “a list of diagnoses that eventually just turn into a bunch of letter acronyms”.
It was tough raising a child with complex disabilities, and even tougher while battling poor mental health and unstable employment.
But Ms Jackson was getting by — just.
She was never meant to fall pregnant a second time, or, at least, she had taken steps to avoid becoming so.
For Ms Jackson, her pregnancy came down to “a really unfortunate set of circumstances”.
“I knew that bringing in a newborn was going to be very rough,” she says.
“I knew pretty much straight away that I would want to terminate.”
One of ‘fewer than five’
Six months prior, Ms Jackson was diagnosed with endometriosis — a disease in which cells similar to the lining of the uterus grow outside the uterus.
She was anaemic and had to have a blood transfusion.
Doctors told her to take the contraceptive pill and skip her periods for six months, fearing she could not cope with the blood loss.
But when she skipped her next period after coming off the pill, Ms Jackson sensed there was something wrong.
“The pill had sort of masked the pregnancy symptoms,” she says.
“I just had no idea.”
Ms Jackson was at 24 weeks — or six months — when she found out she was pregnant, but she had to wait several weeks before she was booked in for a surgical abortion at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital.
Tayla-Jane Jackson was struggling to make ends meet when she found out she was pregnant. (Flickr: Johannes Jander)
Under South Australian legislation passed in 2021, women can get late-term abortions after 22 weeks and six days gestation if two doctors deem it to be medically appropriate.
According to SA Health, in the first 18 months after the legislation was implemented, “fewer than five” people had their pregnancies terminated after 27 weeks.
Ms Jackson believes she is one of those people.
She was assessed by two doctors, who agreed that she would be at risk of mental harm if she delivered a baby.
At 27 weeks and six days gestation, and after 30 hours in induced labour, she delivered a stillborn.
Tayla-Jane Jackson said it was really hard to think about if she was forced to go to full-term. (ABC News: Che Chorley)
“I try to do the best I can for me and my son and give us the best lives we can, but babies are very hard, and I know that with two little ones, I would not be able to cope,” she says.
“I don’t think I’d still be here today if I had that baby.”
‘At what point do we value a life?’
Three years after passing state parliament, South Australia’s abortion laws are once again under the microscope.
On Wednesday evening, the upper house is expected to vote on a bill to amend the state’s abortion laws.
The proposed changes have been introduced by Liberal MLC Ben Hood with the backing of anti-abortion campaigners.
Ben Hood is introducing a bill to ban abortions after 28 weeks. (ABC News: Stephen Opie)
If the private member’s bill passes parliament, a woman seeking a pregnancy termination past 27 weeks and six days gestation would be induced to give birth to a live baby, rather than terminating the pregnancy in utero.
She would then have the option of putting the baby up for adoption.
Mr Hood believes his bill, which is being treated as a conscience matter for both Labor and the Liberals, would balance the rights of women with the rights of children.
He says women could still choose to terminate a pregnancy, but after the 27-week and six-day mark, they would be required to deliver a baby alive.
Ben Hood believes his bill would balance the rights of women with the rights of children. (ABC News: Che Chorley)
At an event organised by Mr Hood and anti-abortion campaigner Joanna Howe on Monday night, the politician spruiked his bill to a crowd of about 50 people mostly in favour of his proposed changes.
“At what point do we value life?” he asked those in attendance.
“At what point does the life of the child stand in balance with the choice of a mother, should she terminate pregnancy?
“That is where we are putting a line in this bill — at 28 weeks, at the start of the third trimester — not removing a mother’s choice, but giving a baby every chance to survive.”
Mr Hood introduced his bill last month, amid smouldering internal Liberal tensions.
Ben Hood at a rally outside SA Parliament House about his bill to amend the state’s abortion laws. (ABC News: Daniel Litjens)
The south-east MP is from the conservative Liberal faction, which includes politicians like Senator Alex Antic, federal MP Tony Pasin and former member for Boothby and now candidate for the seat, Nicolle Flint.
In recent years, the faction has gained increased control of the South Australian Liberal division from moderates, from sub-branch level through to the state executive.
Labor Premier Peter Malinauskas has not said if he supports Mr Hood’s bill, but has been critical of its timing.
“I am concerned that the principal motives that underpin this particular piece of legislation are more about the internal politics of the Liberal Party than it is about any other considerations,” he said on Monday.
Peter Malinauskas has not said if he supports Ben Hood’s bill. (ABC News: Carl Saville)
“I haven’t familiarised myself with the detail of it because it’s not the priority of this state government, it’s the priority of Ben Hood and the Liberal Party’s internal machinations for preselection.”
But Mr Hood has denied any political motive.
“For me, this is not a political thing. It is about doing what is right and doing what is just,” he said on Monday.
“There are people who don’t want this to go to the lower house, there are people who don’t want this to pass for purely political reasons.”
‘Creating a problem’
Ms Jackson doesn’t want Mr Hood’s bill to pass, but not for political reasons.
She is sad and frustrated by the debate now underway, believing she is one of only a handful of women in South Australia with first-hand experience of late-term pregnancy terminations.
“I don’t think that this bill is a solution to a real problem, I think it’s creating a problem,” she says.
“I don’t think that the rights of a 24 or 27-week foetus are more important than my right to live, my son’s right to have a mother.”
Tayla-Jane Jackson said she would have felt like she had to choose between her children, if she was forced to deliver a baby alive.
Ms Jackson pauses when asked what difference it would have made if she was required to deliver a baby alive rather than stillborn.
She eventually says: “I would have felt like I was having to choose between my children.
“I made the decision I did to do the best thing I can for my son — my little boy who I have, who I love more than anything in the world — and I couldn’t be the best mother I could for him if I didn’t have the abortion,” she says.
“It’s really hard to think about if I was forced to go to full term and put a baby up for adoption because I did not want that.
“I didn’t want to bring another life into the world and give up on it and give it away and send it off into the unknown.
“I feel like the decision I made caused the least amount of suffering.”
