The Albury clinic’s closure was confirmed last week, just months after the NSW government passed laws to create safe access zones.

Gateway Health Wodonga medical director Catherine Orr said the closure was not linked to anti-abortion protests but more to do with her team expanding to offer the same service as the Englehardt Street earlier this year.

“When it first temporarily shut down due to the doctor working there having a medical emergency, we could see there was going to be a lack of access, and got involved in co-ordinating surgical abortions at an alternative venue in Albury-Wodonga,” she said.

“The Englehardt Street clinic didn’t close because of protestors; it closed because of our service running five days a week, bulk-billing, and being co-ordinated through a single venue at Gateway.

“It’s great the Albury clinic has been there but it’s always been a private service, so it has a cost attached to it.

“Access to abortion has continued uninterrupted and will continue.”

When medical abortion medication was approved on the PBS in 2014, Gateway Health began prescribing it for women up to nine weeks pregnant, and the surgical procedure they began offering this year is an option up to 12 weeks.

“Beyond that, and if it’s the woman’s preference, we will send them to Melbourne or Canberra,” Dr Orr said.

“We at Gateway chatted quite a bit to the staff at Englehardt Street and they had noticed numbers dropping off because of the medical termination offered (from 2014) – as it’s a tablet, and it happens in the privacy of your home.

“There’s a perception that women presenting with unplanned pregnancy are somehow unorganised or not taking responsibly for their behaviour and I think those criticisms are really unfounded.

“Across our Wangaratta and Wodonga sites we’ve performed more than 1000 medical abortions and the women come from all walks of life, and close to half of them were on contraception.

“We’re big promoters of contraception, and long-acting reversible contraception.”

Dr Orr said the creation of safe access zones was a great step froward and said most of the demand for abortion services at Gateway continued to come from NSW due to the state’s laws being behind Victoria’s.

“We see women from a long way away – some who have travelled a 1200 kilometre round trip – particularly in NSW as the laws around abortion still aren’t clear,” she said.

“We were really pleased to see the NSW laws pass and I’m hoping there will be a national platform at some point so we have national exclusion zone legislation.

“Access to abortion both medical and surgical locally in Albury-Wodonga currently is the best it has ever been.”

Safe Access Zones were legislated in Victoria in 2015.