Nuadha Trev

Bertram Wainer Nuadha Trev

Publisher Marketing: Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Bertram Wainer (30 December 1928 - 16 January 1987) was a Melbourne doctor who successfully campaigned for legal access to abortion for women in Victoria. In the process he received multiple death threats from the police and survived at least three attempts on his life, including shootings and arson. He was also to uncover political and police corruption. Born in Edinburgh, he left school at thirteen and migrated to Australia eight years later with 2s 6d in his pocket. He did many odd jobs while attending night school and later Melbourne University where he obtained his medical degree in 1958. He became an army doctor in 1960 but resigned in 1966 as commander of a military hospital to go into private practice in St Kilda, Melbourne. In 1967 a young woman came to Wainer's Melbourne surgery seeking emergency treatment after a back-yard abortion. For Wainer it marked the beginning of a long struggle to overturn laws that made abortion an offense punishable by up to fifteen years in jail. In mid 1969 Wainer raised allegations of police corruption in protecting back-yard abortion rackets.