00:00What we discovered as part of this investigation was that some months ago, earlier this year,
00:07the hospital executive ordered the obstetrics and gynaecology team, ordered verbally, that
00:14they stop providing terminations for non-medical reasons and where patients presented without
00:20early pregnancy complications or where there wasn't a fetal anomaly or a malformation in
00:26the pregnancy.
00:27Now, we have spoken to multiple sources within and outside the hospital who say they had
00:34been providing both surgical and medical terminations in Orange Hospital, but that verbal directive
00:42was issued earlier this year.
00:44Then last week, we reported a story about women having great troubles getting access
00:50to abortions across regional New South Wales.
00:53We referenced Orange in that story, and the story we put out this morning contained a
00:59leaked document which was emailed out to many hospital staff on Monday, and that was the
01:06first time that there'd been a widely distributed written directive which had become formal
01:15policy as of Monday, and it showed itself in a flowchart, and that flowchart demonstrated
01:22that anyone who was presenting to the hospital wanting an abortion for non-medical reasons
01:28or where they didn't have pregnancy complications, any doctor, midwife or nurse treating them
01:33would have to refer them onto a GP or send them to Family Planning New South Wales.
01:38Now, the nearest Family Planning New South Wales clinic is in Dubbo, almost two hours
01:43away.
01:44It doesn't open on weekends.
01:45It doesn't offer surgical terminations.
01:47So what that document that we obtained showed was that the hospital had effectively put
01:52an explicit ban in writing on terminations for non-medical reasons.
01:58So we published our story this morning, and this afternoon, the New South Wales Health
02:04Minister, Ryan Park, posted to social media that all abortion services previously offered
02:12at Orange Hospital would be restored.
02:15So effectively saying that this so-called ban had been lifted.
02:21The Western New South Wales Health District, or the LHD as they're known, also sent us
02:28a statement around the same time that that note from Ryan Park came out saying the same
02:36sort of thing.
02:37And they also noted that they are now conducting a review of access to abortion care across
02:45the local health district's public facilities.
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