The Abortion Law Reform Act 2019, introduced as the Reproductive Health Care Reform Bill 2019 in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, is an Act of the

Parliament of New South Wales The Parliament of New South Wales is a bicameral legislature in the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW), consisting of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly (lower house) and the New South Wales Legislative Council (upper house). Eac ...

which removed abortion from the Crimes Act 1900, allows abortions for up to 22 weeks, and permits an abortion after 22 weeks if two medical practitioners agree. The Act received Royal assent on 2 October 2019 and commenced with immediate effect. With the commencement of the Act, New South Wales became the last state or territory in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

to decriminalise abortion.

History

Legislative passage

The Abortion Law Reform Act 2019 was first introduced as the ''Reproductive Health Care Reform Bill'' into the New South Wales Parliament's lower house, the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, by independent Member of Parliament (MP) Alex Greenwich on 1 August 2019. The

private member's Bill A private member's bill is a bill (proposed law) introduced into a legislature by a legislator who is not acting on behalf of the executive branch. The designation "private member's bill" is used in most Westminster system jurisdictions, in whi ...

had fifteen sponsors including New South Wales Health and Medical Research Minister

Brad Hazzard Bradley Ronald "Brad" Hazzard (born 30 August 1951), an Australian politician, has been the New South Wales Minister for Health since January 2017 in the Berejiklian and Perrottet ministries. Hazzard is a member of the New South Wales Legisla ...

. MPs were granted a conscience vote on the Bill. The Bill passed its third reading with amendments on 8 August 2019; with 59 in favour and 31 against. The bill attracted heated demonstrations and counter-demonstrations by both pro-choice and pro-life groups. The Reproductive Health Care Reform Bill was then introduced to the Parliament's upper house, the

New South Wales Legislative Council The New South Wales Legislative Council, often referred to as the upper house, is one of the two chambers of the parliament of the Australian state of New South Wales. The other is the Legislative Assembly. Both sit at Parliament House in th ...

, by the

NSW Labor The New South Wales Labor Party, officially known as the Australian Labor Party (New South Wales Branch) and commonly referred to simply as NSW Labor, is the New South Wales branch of the Australian Labor Party. The parliamentary leader is elect ...

upper house leader Penny Sharpe on 20 August 2019. The Bill passed its third reading with amendments on 25 September 2019. The amended bill was then returned to the Legislative Assembly as the Abortion Law Reform Bill on 26 September 2019. The Legislative Assembly accepted the amendments on the same day. These amendments included requiring that terminations after 22 weeks be performed at a public hospital; making attempts to forcibly coerce or prevent an abortion a criminal offence punished by two years imprisonment; requiring a medical practitioner to provide medical care and treatment to a child born as a result of termination; and banning sex-selection abortions. The Bill was granted royal assent on 2 October 2019 and became law.

The Act

It allows a medical practitioner to perform an abortion on a person who is not more than 22 weeks pregnant and can give informed consent. If the person lacks the capacity to give informed consent to the termination, the medical professional can obtain permission from a person lawfully authorised to give consent on the person's behalf. Abortions after the 22 weeks gestation period can be performed if the specialist medical practitioner has consulted with another specialist medical practitioner. Medical practitioners are also required to assess whether the patient will need counselling. The Act also requires conscientious objecting medical practitioners to inform the patient about their conscientious objection and to provide them with information about accessing other medical practitioners and transferring the patient to another practitioner or health service willing to conduct the termination. The Act also requires medical practitioners to provide appropriate medical care and treatment to a person born as a result of a termination. The Act removes abortion from Section 4(1) of the Crimes Act 1900. It makes it an offence for an unqualified person to carry out or to assist in a termination; punishable by seven years imprisonment. The Act also makes it an offence to intimidate someone into having an abortion performed including for the purpose of sex selection. In addition, it is also an offence to intimidate someone into not having a termination performed.

Amendments

In November 2021, "Zoe's Law" passed parliament within NSW under the Crimes Act 1900. In 2019, all abortion offences were repealed from the Crimes Act 1900 but when a foetus is lost as a result of a wide range of criminal acts (such as dangerous driving or grievous bodily harm).

References

External links