Before Kingston foreshore was built, it was a special spot for high-tide conversations. It was so private, sometimes you could hang out there all day and not see another soul. That was where my best friend told me that she was going to have an abortion.

We were barely 20 years old, both people of colour from migrant communities. She was with her first-time boyfriend and on the oral contraceptive pill. She fell pregnant. She went to the MSI Canberra clinic for the abortion. She chose to have a long-acting reversible contraceptive inserted afterwards.

We spoke about the time she needed off. I listened to her. She spoke about her feelings, thoughts and challenges. I don't know how she got the money. I didn't think about it at the time. I thought an abortion would be free. It wasn't.

Today I work for Australia's only national non-profit abortion and contraception provider. There's a reason why there's only one. Abortion and contraception are areas of healthcare that remain vastly under-funded. An abortion in Canberra can be free, or it can be thousands of dollars.

Every week clients ask the MSI Canberra Clinic to cover health funding gaps. They are people who are single mothers, they are on temporary visas, they are people with disabilities, they are low-income families working numerous casual jobs.

We use the MSI Australian Choice Fund to fill the gaps.

The Choice Fund is essentially an Australian version of a safe abortion fund. People donate anywhere between $2 and tens of thousands of dollars. Every dollar goes directly to fund abortion and/or contraception for people experiencing financial hardship.

Yes, the territory government should already be funding essential healthcare. Instead, it has been everyday Australians who fill those gaps. The ACT government has announced funds for abortion and contraceptive care, starting in mid-2023. I'm thrilled. This is personal, and it's political. And it's happening in my home town.

I was 10 when we moved to Canberra. Mum was a single parent, and there were three of us kids to feed.

After a few years in the city, I helped my mum set up a restaurant at Green Square. I ran front of house. She ran back of house kitchen. We baked pides fresh to order.

I used to stand out the front and say good morning to every person who walked by and said good evening as they walked home. We built a community. As a single mother who had migrated from the Middle East, my mum, and in turn our restaurant, became a central point for migrant and refugee women in Canberra to meet.

This big community of women come and go, sharing stories, unpacking challenges and finding solutions. The kids would play outside, running around and laughing. Equity can be a facade.

After a few years of running the restaurant, Mum got sick. We had to close it.

We had a good GP who cared a lot about Mum, but it was hard to get an appointment because they were so busy. She needed examinations and surgeries. The waiting lists for public hospitals were ridiculous. Mum ended up paying for private care instead. She used her savings.

Canberra didn't have the facilities, so we'd have to go to a clinic in Cooma. She'd drive herself, or one of us would drive her there and back. People still have to leave Canberra to access health care elsewhere.

Today, behind the scenes of MSI Australia, I see how hard it still is to provide abortion care. There is a quagmire of abortion legislation, regulation, workforce shortages and associated costs.

We fly doctors in and out, and in our small clinic, lists are often at capacity. People at pregnancy gestations beyond 16 weeks travel to NSW and Brisbane to access abortion care.

For migrant and refugee communities, barriers to abortion and contraception are even more complex. In the ACT it's somewhere between difficult and impossible to find an interpreter, particularly for emerging or minority languages.

If someone without access to Medicare can access the Australian Choice Fund, an abortion can be free. If not, it can be up to $8000. This will all soon be a thing of the past.

The ACT government has announced a game changer for reproductive rights.

Not only will they release funds for abortion and contraception, they will be exploring all of these complex access barriers. Including people on temporary visas.

Free abortion and contraception care are on the horizon.

I think back to our afternoons at the lake, and at Green Square, and pay my respects to the thousands of women and pregnant people in the ACT who have struggled to access care.

With more women in parliament, and ministers for women leading national conversations, they are reshaping the future of abortion access in Australia. And this is just the beginning.