www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/pro-choice-activists-protest-as-cairns-couple-face-trial-for-using-abortion-drug/story-e6freoof-1225937466654Cairns woman Tegan Leach pleads not guilty in Queensland's first trial for a home abortion October 12, 2010 4:05PM
A Cairns couple charged over a home abortion chose to terminate the pregnancy because they could not provide the life they wanted for their child, a court has heard.
Tegan Simone Leach, 21, and boyfriend Sergie Brennan, 22, are facing trial in Cairns District Court for a home abortion carried out in late 2008 using drugs imported from Ukraine.
Leach pleaded not guilty to one count of procuring her own abortion at the beginning of the trial on Tuesday while Brennan pleaded not guilty to a charge of supplying a drug to procure an abortion.
Prosecutor Michael Byrne said under Queensland law procuring an abortion was illegal unless the pregnancy posed a threat to the woman's life or her physical or mental health.
"There is no evidence of a necessity that an abortion needed to be carried out to preserve the life or the physical or mental health of Tegan Leach," he said.
In a video interview with police played to the court Brennan said the young couple did not feel ready to have a baby.
"We wanted to give our kid the best and at the time we didn't feel we could do that," he told police.
Police seized the drugs during a search of the couple's Cairns home on another matter in February 2009.
They had decided to terminate the pregnancy at home, using the drugs RU486 and Misoprostol, because they didn't want Leach to go through the ordeal of a surgical termination.
"I didn't want her to go through the stress of having it sucked out or scraped out," Brennan said.
Brennan said his sister Galia sent the drugs from her home in Ukraine along with doctors' instructions.
He said he trusted his sister's advice because she had been through an abortion before and they did not consult with local doctors about the process.
The couple didn't check whether the drugs were legal in Queensland, he said.
"If it wasn't legal they would have stopped it (the drugs) entering the country," he said.
Mr Byrne said Misoprostol and RU486 were legally available, though the latter drug was heavily restricted, with only a small number of practitioners able to prescribe them.
The matter is being heard before a panel of 12 jurors, comprised of eight women and four men.
Two women initially selected as jurors were excused from the trial after telling Judge Bill Everson they did not believe they could be impartial.
The couple is believed to be the first to be charged with procuring an abortion in Queensland's history.
Pro-choice advocates have established a vigil outside the Cairns Court to support the couple and call for abortion to be decriminalised in the state.
The trial is expected to last two days.
Look, I don't necessarily agree with how they went about this but I do not understand, in this day and age, why a woman's decision to end a pregnancy causes her to be put on trial.
It is her body and in the end it is her decision.