A gal finds herself pregnant, looking for some advice. She finds a pregnancy counseling center, thinking they will give her accurate, nonjudgmental advice about her options. She has a tough decision to make and she wants some facts and medical referrals. Imagine her surprise when the "counselor" calls her a murderer for considering abortion and gives her inaccurate information intended to intimidate and scare her into continuing her pregnancy.

Sounds familiar, doesn't it? Sounds an awful lot like what Congressman Waxman discovered about crisis pregnancy centers in the United States – that they accept federal funds and then give biased, inaccurate advice. Only, this scenario and others like it are happening in Australia.

A report released by the South Australia Government's Pregnancy Advisory Centre says that "various bodies and agencies, both private and public, have given women false information on the physical and mental health risks of abortions." But that's no big deal, right? I mean, it's not like pregnancy is a decision that can completely change a woman's whole life. No, wait… it is. In fact, it's such a serious decision that young women are traveling over 100 kilometers (62+ miles) to access abortion services in Melbourne. Those teenagers cited concern for privacy and lack of services in their hometowns as the reasons for going the distance.

Soon that privacy could be even more difficult to protect, if the Australian government moves forward with a new Medicare rebate that would specify a code for pregnancy counseling. This means that any unplanned pregnancy – even if a woman ultimately decided to keep her child, but had some questions for the doctor and explored her options first – would have the pregnancy counseling designation in her medical records. This code in her chart could be seen not just by staff in the doctor's office, but also anyone handling payment or the Medicare process. (Oh, except for doctors who perform abortions – they're seen as biased and will not be allowed to use this code… though church-affiliated doctors can use it. Can you say double-standard?) This could send many more women traveling long distances just to take care of their reproductive health.

Fortunately, there are some Waxman-esque Australian legislators trying to address these problems. Senator Natasha Stott Despoja sponsored a bill to cut funding from and regulate transparency of the pregnancy "counselors" who use deceptive advertising. Unfortunately, the Minister of Health is unsupportive of the bill and it looks like it's stalled in committee because accurate info could increase referrals for abortions. Huh… guess it does sound like this country after all.