By VLADIMIR POPOV

The end of a 20-year vigil is near for protesters outside Melbourne abortion clinics, with a law coming into force next year that will force them to remain more than 150m from any clinic.

The Helpers of God's Precious Infants group has protested outside the East Melbourne Fertility Control Clinic for two decades, and has vowed to continue until the Safe Access Bill comes into effect.  

• New laws to enforce exclusion zone around abortion clinics

Women approaching the clinic are regularly confronted by images of deceased foetuses and face a chorus of voices and a series of hands offering leaflets, queries and advice.

What is less well known is that the pro-life advocates also offer women significant incentives not to proceed with an abortion. Organisations such as Right to Life Australia can offer substantial financial contributions, medical aid and funded immigration advice to women approaching the clinic.

Right to Life Australia senior executive officer Dr Katrina Haller said protesters at abortion clinics would ask women whether they wanted to undergo the procedure.

“Some of the girls say, ‘no, I’m being pressured by my boyfriend or mother’ and at that stage we do … whatever it takes,” she said.

An unplanned pregnancy for an international student can often have significant and stressful consequences, disrupting their education and threatening the security of their living and residency arrangements.

“A lot of international students have to have private health insurance, but after they stay here a while they let it lapse, they don’t pay the annual fee,” Dr Haller said.

“They have limited English and are encouraged to view abortion, with an average cost of $2500 as much cheaper, less stressful and easier than the cost of delivering the baby, around $7500 average. It is immoral.”

Mothers without Medicare is an organisation that specifically seeks to provide targeted financial assistance for pregnant migrants, couples and single parents.

“They will pay for the birth of the baby in a hospital such as Sunshine Hospital where the birth of the baby costs $4000. They will cover the entire cost,” Dr Haller said.

The recent case of a 23-year-old Somali woman, known as Abyan, who fell pregnant after being raped at an immigration detention facility on Nauru and was subsequently not offered pregnancy counselling, illustrates the isolation many women face.

“We had a case where a student was getting morning sickness and didn’t go to her classes and the school must have told the Immigration Department because they were going to deport her,” Dr Haller said.

“We paid for her to have some immigration advice then they arranged a different kind of visa, I think a bridging visa – she had the baby and now has a form of residency in Australia.”

She said "more than 300 babies" had been saved. “We provide accommodation, financial help as well as immigration assistance for international students. We have a large network of friends, associates and people that know other people.”

Dr Haller said a member of that organisation had given a woman $20,000 in assistance, half of which enabled her to take 10 weeks leave to have her baby. “These people help, not harass,” Dr Haller said.

However, pro-choice advocates are worried that the assistance is being offered as inducement to carry through with a pregnancy.  With a lot of migrant women possessing poor English skills and lacking local support networks, there are concerns that they can be easily exploited.

Angela Carnovale, the Health Promotion Officer for the Women’s Centre for Health Matters in the ACT, asked if the women felt able to make their own decisions in such circumstances.

“It is extremely troubling … they may be having second thoughts later in the pregnancy but considering the level of support they are receiving, they may feel they owe these people or that their hands are tied,” she said.

Dr Haller rejected that view, saying coercion, incentivisation or the exercising of free will had ever been an issue.

“Oh no, they do not change their mind. Not one. After the baby is born, they say, 'how could I ever have thought of having an abortion?' They are all very happy with their newborns,” she said.

Dr Haller sees these changes  as an attack on free speech.

“The political climate we live in is pro-abortion, it is seen as a cheap easy solution without having regard to the effect it has on women. Women have to be imitation men in our society – we are told we cannot study, cannot have a job unless we have abortions. I do not agree with that and our network of supporters ensure we still help women do the right thing,” she said.

“If you walk around the CBD, you have other people from Amnesty International and the creationists handing out leaflets and saying something – you are allowed to do this in a democracy. It is extraordinary that we are the only ones being disallowed.”