Accessing abortion in Western Australia has been made easier after parliament passed a landmark bill on Wednesday evening, removing legal provisions from the state’s criminal code.
The amendments, which were proposed in June this year, were debated in the Upper House for nine days, before making it through parliament. It is the first change made to state abortion laws in WA in 25 years.
WA is the final state in Australia to decriminalise abortion. When the laws are enacted, women in Australia can access the medical procedure anywhere in the state without legal restrictions (up to 24 weeks in their pregnancy).
With the new changes in WA, women no longer need to be referred by a doctor or receive mandatory counselling in order to have a pregnancy terminated. Under the new reforms, legal provisions outlined in the WA Criminal Code have been removed.
While requirements for late-term abortions were previously imposed on pregnancies up to 20 weeks, the new laws have changed this to 23 weeks.
This is a momentous day for women in Western Australia.
— Roger Cook (@RogerCookMLA) September 20, 2023
Our legislation to improve access to safe, dignified abortion services has just passed WA Parliament. pic.twitter.com/OPC3AfV05h
The state’s health minister Amber-Jade Sanderson said it is a “significant day” for women in WA.
“Abortion care has been treated differently for too long when it is legal and safe mainstream healthcare for women,” she said.
“This legislation will significantly improve access to abortion care for regional women.
“With the passing of this bill today the Cook government has taken a big step forward in addressing this inequality.”
The nine-day debate in parliament over the law reforms were conducted “respectfully and calmly”, according to the leader of the Upper House Sue Ellery.
“I know for some, for different reasons, this has been a difficult debate to participate in and I think I can genuinely say that for the most part … the bill has been conducted respectfully and calmly, despite people’s very strong feelings about it,” she said.
“This is fundamentally different to the way the debate was conducted in this place 25 years ago.”
Politicians against the bill included Labor MP Kate Doust, who, last month, said she took particular issue to the changes from 20 to 23 weeks for a late-term abortion.
“My private view is that when this bill is passed, the fact that we’ve pushed out the boundary from 20 to 23 weeks for an abortion without reason in fact in my view will further erode the view that we place on the value of human life, and that is one of the reasons why I will not be supporting this bill,” she said.
Access to abortion in Australia has come a long way since it was criminalised under 1861 British legislation in the Offences Against the Person Act. The laws prohibited the medical procedure unless it would save the woman’s life.
The laws also made medical practitioners liable and criminally responsible if they conducted a procedure without a judge’s approval, forcing countless women to seek abortion in unsafe conditions, or to attempt to terminate a pregnancy themselves.
South Australia was the first state to make changes to abortion laws in Australia in 1969, closely followed by Victoria and New South Wales.
However, it wasn’t until 2008 that it was legal to have an abortion without any restrictions anywhere in the country. Victoria introduced and passed the Abortion Law Reform Act, which removed the need for a medical or psychological assessment for an abortion to legally take place.
Now, in NSW, Queensland and South Australia, abortions can take place at up to 22 weeks. After that, two doctors must approve for the procedure to take place.
It’s the same in Victoria and the Northern Territory, although the threshold is 24 weeks.
In ACT, it is legal to have an abortion at any stage of pregnancy, however, it becomes more difficult to access after 16 weeks.
The threshold in Tasmania is also 16 weeks. From week 16-20 of the pregnancy, two doctors must approve the procedure. Abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancies must only be for medical reasons, such as if the pregnancy is putting your life in danger.