Abortion in Australia

[1] In response, all jurisdictions have enacted laws prohibiting protesters from harassing visitors and staff within a certain radius of abortion clinics, starting with Tasmania in 2013 and lastly with Western Australia in 2021.

A woman's sexual partner is not required to be notified of an abortion, and Australian courts will not grant injunctions to prevent the procedure, even if the applicant is the putative father of the foetus.

While abortions are regulated by the states and territories, the procedure is partially funded under the federal government public health scheme, Medicare, or by private healthcare insurers.

[3] Before the end of the 19th century, each colony had adopted the Imperial Offences Against the Person Act 1861, which, in turn, was derived from English laws from 1837, 1828, and 1803, which made abortion illegal under any circumstance.

Over time, this has come to be broadly defined so as to include the mental health of the woman, to which unwanted pregnancy is interpreted as clinically injurious.

Howard brokered a deal with Harradine to ensure his support for proposed bills, including the privatisation of national telecommunications provider Telecom.

[8] As a result, unlike other medications, abortifacient drugs were made to require approval from the Minister for Health before they could be assessed by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA).

[10] The continued refusal by Tony Abbott, then Minister for Health, to allow abortifacients into Australia led to a private member's bill being introduced in late 2005 to transfer the approval back to the TGA.

[14] In 2006, after losing his veto power over abortifacients, Tony Abbott lobbied for funding of alternative counseling to pregnant women through church-affiliated groups to lower the national abortion rate,[15] without success.

His Coalition colleagues were largely quiet on the matter,[23] while anti-abortion groups including the Australian Christian Lobby and Cherish Life campaigned against Labor on the issue.

[25] Labor MP Ed Husic, who retained his seat at the election, said the misrepresentation of the party's abortion policy was a factor in his decrease in votes.

Knight, described by the prosecution as a "hermit obsessed with killing abortion doctors", was convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Police believed graffiti saying "baby killers" on the building was related to the attack; however, the medical clinic did not actually offer abortion services.

[1] In response, states and territories began creating "safe access zones", which prevent protesting about abortion within a proscribed area surrounding a clinic.

As of 2015, Medicare effectively halved the cost of surgical abortion,[3] and those provided by private healthcare insurers, which are also regulated by the federal government.

Abortion care is now regulated under the framework of health law, standards, policies, and professional ethics that apply to all healthcare.

[62][63] In June 2016, Greens upper house MP Mehreen Faruqi was to introduce a bill decriminalising abortion in NSW.

[64][65] In August 2016, 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; Provide for a 150 metre safe access zone around abortion clinics and service providers to ensure a patient's right to medical privacy; and Require doctors to disclose conscientious objection at the start of the consultation and refer patients to another doctor who does not have such an objection or to the local Women's Health NSW centre".

[74] In December 2021, the Northern Territory eased restrictions on abortions, allowing access between 14 and 24 weeks with the approval of one doctor instead of the previous two required.

[52][78] Legislation in 1969 legalised abortion when necessary to protect the life or physical or mental health of the woman — taking into account the current and reasonably foreseeable future — or in cases when the child was likely to be born with serious handicaps.

Abortions in South Australia are available for free or low cost at some of the public health facilities, including The Pregnancy Advisory Centre.

The law also prohibits filming, the holding of protests, harassment, or intimidation of patients or staff within 150 metres of abortion clinics.

In late 2001, the Criminal Code was clarified to state that an abortion must be carried out under a set of criteria resembling those of the South Australian requirements.

The state's public health system provides abortion services in only extraordinary circumstances (e. g., in cases of foetal abnormality); so, most women access pregnancy terminations through the private sector.

After 20 weeks of pregnancy, abortions were only able to be performed if the foetus was likely to be born with severe medical problems, which needed to be confirmed by two independently appointed doctors.

A bill to create safe zones within 150 metres of abortion clinics was formally passed in August 2021, and went into legal effect from 1 September on assent.

This approach allows women in remote, rural, and urban areas to access safe and legal abortion services, without the need for physical attendance in a healthcare facility.

The offence is called "killing unborn child", and can be committed only around the time of childbirth[97] in Queensland,[98] Western Australia,[99] and the Northern Territory.

[106] There is a lack of consistent data collection standards across states due to differences in definitions, making it difficult or impossible to accurately quantify the number of abortions performed in Australia each year.

For example, unpublished data from Western Australia estimates a rate of 19.4 terminations per 1000 women in the same age bracket, which would indicate about 82,700 abortions projected nationally.