While hymns echoed from inside St Mary’s Cathedral, where rows of parishioners marked the Day of the Unborn Child with quiet reverence, a very different sound rose from the footpath across the street. Rhythmic chants and passionate speeches carried through the city air, led by a coalition of students, activists, and community advocates calling for reproductive justice and demanding that bodily autonomy no longer be up for debate.
“Not the church, not the state, only we decide our fate!” they shouted, arms raised, placards lifted high.
At the heart of this pro-choice demonstration were Martha Barlow and Ellie Robertson, the 2025 USyd Women’s Officers, who brought more than slogans — they brought history data, lived experience, and rage sharpened into clarity.
Martha opened the rally not just with a welcome, but with a grounding reminder: this protest was taking place on unceded Gadigal land. “Sovereignty was never ceded,” she said, “and this land was taken by violence and force.” That violence, she argued, continues — particularly for First Nations women navigating a healthcare system that remains riddled with systemic racism.
She spoke plainly of the ways abortion access is not equal, especially outside of urban centres. “If doctors are allowed to conscientiously object, what happens when there’s only one or two available in rural areas?” she asked. “That’s not access. That’s abandonment.”
Behind Martha’s words was a deeper message: the fight for reproductive rights is not new, and it’s never been neutral. “White feminists have been able to demand abortions and contraceptives,” she said, “while the same system was used to forcibly sterilise First Nations women and steal their children.”
Across the street, Catholic leaders were preaching the sanctity of life — declaring that life begins at conception and should be protected at all costs. But as Martha reminded the crowd, these declarations often ignore the lives already here. “Reproductive justice means access,” she said. “It means safety. It means choice.”
Ellie stepped up next with a sharp critique of how law and policy still fail to guarantee actual autonomy. “Though abortion is legal,” she said, “we continue to see the Church and State intertwine-not just in politics, but in hospitals.” She pointed to a recent ABC report from Orange Hospital, where even women with no medical complications were being denied terminations, and told to go elsewhere. “This is about more than access,” she said. “It’s about who controls our bodies — and why.”
She didn’t shy away from calling out hypocrisy. “If old white men in politics still think they get to decide what we do with our own bodies, we have a problem. And we are not going to solve it with silence.”
In between speeches, the crowd rallied behind chants like “Get your rosaries off our ovaries!” and “You say no choice, we say pro-choice.” The atmosphere was one of defiance — but also of care, solidarity, and sharp focus.
Ellie also read a prepared statement from the Sex Workers Outreach Project (SWOP) NSW, which drew a powerful connection between abortion access and broader issues of bodily autonomy. The statement criticised how moral panic — especially from religious groups — has historically been used to deny healthcare, rights, and protections to sex workers and other marginalized groups. “There should be no exceptions for religious institutions when it comes to discrimination,” it read.
Although the pro-choice rally did not centre itself around rebutting the Catholic-led demonstration, a few points were addressed. The idea that “abortion causes mental harm” was met with quiet frustration. “What causes harm,” Ellie said, “is being forced to travel hundreds of kilometres to get the healthcare you’re legally entitled to. What causes harm is being told to just go somewhere else.”
Where the Church spoke of unborn children as sacred, the protestors spoke of living people — mothers, students, sex workers, trans folks, rural patients — trying to access healthcare without shame, stigma, or delay.
In the end, it wasn’t a debate. It was two stories unfolding side by side — one framed by theology, the other by lived experience.
And as the rally drew to a close, Martha’s words lingered: “This isn’t about a good or evil. It’s about power — who has it, and who is constantly fighting to reclaim it.”
The chant started up again as if on cue.
“My body, my choice!”
And this time, it echoed a little louder.
