CHERYL DAVENPORT

Cheryl Davenport was a founding member of EMILY's List Australia in 1996, and a key driving force in ensuring abortion law reform occurred in Western Australia in 1998. Davenport joined the Australian Labor Party in 1968 and was elected to the Western Australian Legislative Council in 1989.

In 1998, while in opposition as the Labor member for South Metropolitan, Davenport introduced a private member's bill to the Western Australian Parliament, seeking to remove abortion from the Criminal Code of WA. She brought about this bill as charges were laid against two doctors for carrying out an abortion. Davenport asserted that she introduced the bill to avert the crisis of women with limited access to abortion.

She is a firm believer in the legal provision of abortion services.

Davenport's commitment to overturning the criminalisation of abortion was a constant throughout her political career. In the early 1990s, she was a key member of the Association for the Legal Right to Abortion. In her inaugural speech on the 6th of September 1989, she appealed to the Legislative Council, stating that 'Abortion should be removed from the Western Australian Criminal Code, and placed within the province of health regulation, in order to protect women's health'.

In 2016, due to her work in abortion law reform, Davenport was inducted into the Western Australian Women's Hall of Fame. She has continued to be an EMILY's List Australia member for more than 25 years, and in 2022 is involved specifically as a mentor to EMILY's List Australia and other women's organisations.