What do you think?
Rate this book
The Racket: How Abortion Became Legal in Australia
A generation ago in Australia, abortion was a crime. It was also the basis of one of the country's most lucrative and longest-lasting criminal rackets. The Racket describes the rise and fall of an extraordinary web of influence, which culminated in the landmark ruling that made abortion legal, and a public inquiry that humiliated a powerful government and a glamorous police force. With forensic skill and psychological subtlety, Gideon Haigh brings to life a story of corruption in high places and human suffering in low, of murder, suicide, courtroom drama, political machinations, and of the abortionists among them a multi-millionaire philanthropist, a communist bush poet, a timid aesthete and a bankrupt slaughterman. It is the story, too, of Bertram Wainer, abortion's crash-through-or-crash campaigner, and the moral issue he bequeathed which still divides Australians.
288 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2008
5 people are currently reading
47 people want to read
About the author
Gideon Haigh
101 books113 followersGideon Clifford Jeffrey Davidson Haigh (born 29 December 1965) is an English-born Australian journalist, who writes about sport (especially cricket) and business. He was born in London, raised in Geelong, and now lives in Melbourne.
Haigh began his career as a journalist, writing on business for The Age newspaper from 1984 to 1992 and for The Australian from 1993 to 1995. He has since contributed to over 70 newspapers and magazines,[2] both on business topics as well as on sport, mostly cricket. He wrote regularly for The Guardian during the 2006-07 Ashes series and has featured also in The Times and the Financial Times.
Haigh has authored 19 books and edited seven more. Of those on a cricketing theme, his historical works includes The Cricket War and Summer Game, his biographies The Big Ship (of Warwick Armstrong) and Mystery Spinner (of Jack Iverson), the latter pronounced The Cricket Society's "Book of the Year", short-listed for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year and dubbed "a classic" by The Sunday Times;[3] anthologies of his writings Ashes 2005 and Game for Anything, as well as Many a Slip, the humorous diary of a club cricket season, and The Vincibles, his story of the South Yarra Cricket Club, of which he is life member and perennate vice-president and for whose newsletter he has written about cricket the longest. He has also published several books on business-related topics, such as The Battle for BHP, Asbestos House (which dilates the James Hardie asbestos controversy) and Bad Company, an examination of the CEO phenomenon. He mostly publishes with Aurum Press.
Haigh was appointed editor of the Wisden Cricketers' Almanack Australia for 1999–2000 and 2000–01. Since March 2006, he has been a regular panellist on the ABC television sports panel show Offsiders. He was also a regular co-host on The Conversation Hour with Jon Faine on 774 ABC Melbourne until near the end of 2006.
Haigh has been known to be critical of what he regards as the deification of Sir Donald Bradman and "the cynical exploitation of his name by the mediocre and the greedy".[4] He did so in a September 1998 article in Wisden Cricket Monthly, entitled "Sir Donald Brandname". Haigh has been critical of Bradman's biographer Roland Perry, writing in The Australian that Perry's biography was guilty of "glossing over or ignoring anything to Bradman's discredit".[4]
Haigh won the John Curtin Prize for Journalism in the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards in 2006[5] for his essay "Information Idol: How Google is making us stupid",[6] which was published in The Monthly magazine. He asserted that the quality of discourse could suffer as a source of information's worth is judged by Google according to its previous degree of exposure to the status quo. He believes the pool of information available to those using Google as their sole avenue of inquiry is inevitably limited and possibly compromised due to covert commercial influences.
He blogged on the 2009 Ashes series for The Wisden Cricketer.[7]
On 24 October 2012 he addressed the tenth Bradman Oration in Melbourne.
Haigh began his career as a journalist, writing on business for The Age newspaper from 1984 to 1992 and for The Australian from 1993 to 1995. He has since contributed to over 70 newspapers and magazines,[2] both on business topics as well as on sport, mostly cricket. He wrote regularly for The Guardian during the 2006-07 Ashes series and has featured also in The Times and the Financial Times.
Haigh has authored 19 books and edited seven more. Of those on a cricketing theme, his historical works includes The Cricket War and Summer Game, his biographies The Big Ship (of Warwick Armstrong) and Mystery Spinner (of Jack Iverson), the latter pronounced The Cricket Society's "Book of the Year", short-listed for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year and dubbed "a classic" by The Sunday Times;[3] anthologies of his writings Ashes 2005 and Game for Anything, as well as Many a Slip, the humorous diary of a club cricket season, and The Vincibles, his story of the South Yarra Cricket Club, of which he is life member and perennate vice-president and for whose newsletter he has written about cricket the longest. He has also published several books on business-related topics, such as The Battle for BHP, Asbestos House (which dilates the James Hardie asbestos controversy) and Bad Company, an examination of the CEO phenomenon. He mostly publishes with Aurum Press.
Haigh was appointed editor of the Wisden Cricketers' Almanack Australia for 1999–2000 and 2000–01. Since March 2006, he has been a regular panellist on the ABC television sports panel show Offsiders. He was also a regular co-host on The Conversation Hour with Jon Faine on 774 ABC Melbourne until near the end of 2006.
Haigh has been known to be critical of what he regards as the deification of Sir Donald Bradman and "the cynical exploitation of his name by the mediocre and the greedy".[4] He did so in a September 1998 article in Wisden Cricket Monthly, entitled "Sir Donald Brandname". Haigh has been critical of Bradman's biographer Roland Perry, writing in The Australian that Perry's biography was guilty of "glossing over or ignoring anything to Bradman's discredit".[4]
Haigh won the John Curtin Prize for Journalism in the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards in 2006[5] for his essay "Information Idol: How Google is making us stupid",[6] which was published in The Monthly magazine. He asserted that the quality of discourse could suffer as a source of information's worth is judged by Google according to its previous degree of exposure to the status quo. He believes the pool of information available to those using Google as their sole avenue of inquiry is inevitably limited and possibly compromised due to covert commercial influences.
He blogged on the 2009 Ashes series for The Wisden Cricketer.[7]
On 24 October 2012 he addressed the tenth Bradman Oration in Melbourne.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
June 4, 2014
A thorough coverage of both the intrigues of the abortion racket, and the emotional and psychological issues for women facing their own power personally and publically, Gideon Haigh’s The Racket has a broad scope. It balances the historical journalistic journey locally in Melbourne Australia, but pans out to national and international perspectives both by travel of the people involved and by reference to other movements and political or legal decisions and actions throughout the same period.
With so much movement in a few short years, it is surprising to then find that abortion remains in the Crimes Act in at least three states. The description of political change and expediency, rather than a principled conclusion to an evolving issue, is also a surprising element that keeps this story “live”.
Summing up the political picture he states: “The abortion debate was no longer merely about ideas; it involved preventing the spread of ideas of others.” (p.218)
I would add that ideas are power.
Yet he also concedes that much of the movement in the legal situation was not about abortion as such anyway. It was not an issue faced and determined by direct debate so much as a shifting of the possibilities of different interest groups in economic and political terms more than a philosophical and social adhesion to principles of agreement.
This failure to raise the issue to a full sense of responsibility is repeated in the recognition on page 222 that “It is staggering that laws with such widespread application – two in three Australian pregnancies are unplanned; one in three Australian women will have an abortion in their lifetime – have consumed so little legislative energy.”
Whatever the reason for the reticence in this debate, it is the collective irresponsibility of Australia as a society that continues much of the heartache for individuals continuing to face these questions in an unstable atmosphere. The memory of fear keeps the fear alive. The potential for undue influence must therefore also remain.
In an increasingly complex society, of migrants from many more backgrounds than previously, this has to be considered a time bomb awaiting another explosion of action to finally clarify and support the decisions women still have to make over their own bodies and lives.
With so much movement in a few short years, it is surprising to then find that abortion remains in the Crimes Act in at least three states. The description of political change and expediency, rather than a principled conclusion to an evolving issue, is also a surprising element that keeps this story “live”.
Summing up the political picture he states: “The abortion debate was no longer merely about ideas; it involved preventing the spread of ideas of others.” (p.218)
I would add that ideas are power.
Yet he also concedes that much of the movement in the legal situation was not about abortion as such anyway. It was not an issue faced and determined by direct debate so much as a shifting of the possibilities of different interest groups in economic and political terms more than a philosophical and social adhesion to principles of agreement.
This failure to raise the issue to a full sense of responsibility is repeated in the recognition on page 222 that “It is staggering that laws with such widespread application – two in three Australian pregnancies are unplanned; one in three Australian women will have an abortion in their lifetime – have consumed so little legislative energy.”
Whatever the reason for the reticence in this debate, it is the collective irresponsibility of Australia as a society that continues much of the heartache for individuals continuing to face these questions in an unstable atmosphere. The memory of fear keeps the fear alive. The potential for undue influence must therefore also remain.
In an increasingly complex society, of migrants from many more backgrounds than previously, this has to be considered a time bomb awaiting another explosion of action to finally clarify and support the decisions women still have to make over their own bodies and lives.
October 3, 2021
"Police knew abortion in Sydney to be corrupt and brutal because they kept it that way"
A horrific yet interesting look into pre-legal abortion in Australia. The amount of money that was made, the women having abortions at different points in history and the level of corruption by mainly male doctors and police
"They saw themselves as saving women. They weren't so keen in women saving themselves "
A horrific yet interesting look into pre-legal abortion in Australia. The amount of money that was made, the women having abortions at different points in history and the level of corruption by mainly male doctors and police
"They saw themselves as saving women. They weren't so keen in women saving themselves "
June 22, 2017
I had the pleasure of meeting Gideon Haigh at the ALIA conference and got to chat to him about this book, he was stoked to meet someone who had read it because, in his words, "only about a thousand people have read it". He started writing this when someone mentioned one story to him and when he began researching more, a few bits of information close to his life came to light and he felt he had to write this book. My only criticism is sometimes the book made me feel queasy because of the graphic language to do with the horrible procedures women endured. But was an illuminating read.
July 26, 2016
Rather journalistic in tone, with an exhaustive and exhausting list of informants and characters, this book traces through the abortion 'racket' that saw doctors, police, and lawyers on the take in 1950s and 60's Melbourne. See my full review here:
https://residentjudge.wordpress.com/2...
https://residentjudge.wordpress.com/2...
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews