Aussie woman Madolline Gourley asked if she has had an abortion before being deported from US

An Aussie traveller has shared her story after being interrogated by US border officials over whether or not she was pregnant.

An Aussie traveller has revealed she was asked whether she had recently had an abortion before being told to leave the country.

Madolline Gourley says she was detained while passing through Los Angeles on June 30, and claims officials were suspicions about her intention to house-sit while holidaying in Canada.

She claims US immigration officials patted her down and interrogated her before asking whether she was pregnant.

“She was walking me from one room to the next, and she asked the pregnancy question again,” Ms Gourley told The Guardian.

“I don’t know if she had forgotten, or she wanted to work out if I was lying or something. “I said no, and she looked at me again and said, ‘Have you recently had an abortion?’

“I don’t know the thought process behind that … I just thought, ‘What’s the relevance of that to my situation?’”

The Brisbane resident was then informed she was being denied entry to the US and would be deported on the next flight back to Australia, barely five hours after arriving.

According to officials, she had breached the conditions of the visa waiver program.

She has since lodged complaints to the US embassy, US homeland security, has sent messages to her local MP, and been in contact with Australian foreign affairs minister Penny Wong.

“Navigating the government here is difficult, but navigating the government there is 10 times harder,” she said.

“I wouldn’t be the only traveller on an Esta visiting the States on a holiday/vacation who would be house-and pet-sitting through websites like TrustedHousesitters to cut accommodation costs.”

A spokesperson for US Customs and Border Protection said the visa waiver program prohibited applicants from engaging “in any type of employment or get compensation for services rendered”. The CBP spokesperson said it took “allegations of unprofessional behaviour seriously”.

Ms Gourley was hoping to volunteer through the house and cat sitting website TrustedHouseSitters but had her trip cut short unexpectedly.

“CBP regrets any inconvenience or unpleasantness a passenger may have experienced during his/her CBP processing,” the spokesperson said. “We take allegations of unprofessional behaviour seriously. CBP has standard procedures for handling allegations of misconduct. If we confirm employee misconduct, we will take firm and appropriate action to correct the situation.”

The peculiar situation came a month after the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade, giving independent states the right to make abortion illegal.

US President Joe Biden has been put under pressure to make a change, and will soon sign an executive order and give a speech that vowing to protect women’s sensitive health-related data and “fight digital surveillance related to reproductive health care services,” the White House said.

Advocacy groups are warning of the risks posed by women’s online data such as their geolocation and apps that monitor their menstrual cycles, which they say could be used to go after women who have had abortions.

Biden’s order also seeks to protect mobile clinics deployed to the borders of states that have banned abortion.

The administration also wants to guarantee access to contraception and abortion medication and set up a network of volunteer lawyers to help women on abortion issues, the White House said.