Right: The New South Wales Reproductive Health Care Reform Bill passed through the State Parliament's lower House after a conscience vote was granted to MPs. Taken against a background of sometimes-bitter debate and protest, the vote was far from unanimous.
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Background information
Overview of abortion in Australia
Abortion in Australia is largely regulated by the states and territories rather than the Federal Government. The grounds on which abortion is permitted in Australia vary by jurisdiction. In every state, abortion is legal to protect the life and health of a woman, though each state has a different definition.
Nowhere in Australia is there a requirement that a woman's sexual partner be notified of a proposed abortion or to consent to the procedure. Australian courts will not grant an injunction to restrain a pregnant woman from terminating her pregnancy, even if the applicant is the putative father of the fetus. There is also no waiting period for an abortion. A minor does not need to notify a parent of a proposed abortion nor is parental consent required, except in Western Australia. In Western Australia, a proposed abortion by a minor under 16 years of age must be notified to one of the parents, except where permission has been granted by the Children's Court or the minor does not live with her parents.
Early-term surgical abortions are generally available around Australia for those women who seek them. The procedure is partially funded under Medicare, the government-funded public health scheme, or by private healthcare insurers. Prosecutions against medical practitioners for performing abortions, or against women for inducing a miscarriage are extremely rare.
In the case of 'a child capable of being born alive' (usually taken to mean after 28 weeks of pregnancy), a termination may be subject to a separate crime of child destruction in some States and Territories.
In 2019 the Australian Labor Party unveiled a national abortion policy for the 2019 Australian federal election. The party's policy included requiring public hospitals to offer abortion procedures consistently under new Commonwealth funding agreements, encouraging New South Wales to remove abortion from its criminal laws and building an abortion clinic in Tasmania. In response Liberal Party leader Scott Morrison stated the issue was controversial and sensitive and decisions should be left to the states. His Coalition colleagues were largely quiet on the matter,[19] while anti-abortion groups including the Australian Christian Lobby and Cherish Life campaigned against Labor on the issue. Labor lost the 2019 election, with representative Ed Husic claiming that the misrepresentation of the party's abortion policy was a contributing factor.
Abortion in New South Wales
Abortion is explicitly listed as a crime under sections 82-84 of the New South Wales Crimes Act 1900, but the interpretation of the law is subject to the Levine ruling, from R v Wald of 1971, which held an abortion to be legal if a doctor had an honest and reasonable belief that, due to 'any economic, social or medical ground or reason', the abortion was necessary to 'preserve the woman involved from serious danger to her life or physical or mental health which the continuance of the pregnancy would entail'.
This ruling was expanded by CES v Superclinics Australia Pty Ltd (1995), which extended the period during which health concerns might be considered from the duration of pregnancy to any period during the woman's life, even after the birth of the child. This arguably precludes any successful prosecutions for illegal abortions. Despite this, in 2006, a doctor, Suman Sood, was convicted of two counts of performing an illegal abortion where she failed to enquire as to whether a lawful reason for performing the abortion did exist.
In August 2016, Greens MP Dr Mehreen Faruqi released an exposure draft of the Abortion Law Reform (Miscellaneous Acts Amendment) Bill 2016 to "Repeal sections 82-84 of the Crimes Act, relating to abortion offences. On the eve of the introduction of the bill on 23 June 2016, it was removed from the order of business for the following day.