By Alexandra Smith
Abortion is set to be decriminalised in NSW on Thursday after the contentious bill passed the upper house following a marathon debate over amendments to appease conservative MPs.
After more than 40 hours of debate, the upper house supported a final amendment relating to late-term abortion on Wednesday night.
Mulgoa MP Tanya Davies said an "agreement" had been reached over the wording of a critical amendment.Credit: AAP
The abortion debate is the third longest in the history of the Legislative Council.
The amended bill is expected to satisfy rebel Liberal MP Tanya Davies, who said an "agreement" was reached over the issue of late-term abortions.
Mrs Davies had threatened to abandon the government if "sensible amendments" were not made to the bill, which was introduced to Parliament by Sydney MP Alex Greenwich last month.
Mrs Davies, the government's most vocal opponent of the abortion bill, said the amendment to codify existing practice around abortions after 22 weeks was critical to her remaining in the Liberal Party.
"I understand that there has been an agreement on the wording of the amendment dealing with late-term abortions but this is still not final," Mrs Davies said on Wednesday.
Mrs Davies identified four amendments that she wanted, including dealing with sex-selection abortions, a baby born after a termination and conscientious objection for doctors.
Three of those four have passed and the fourth related to late-term abortions.
Liberals MLC Matthew Mason-Cox, also an opponent of the bill, was planning to move the amendment critical to keeping Mrs Davies and Riverstone MP Kevin Conolly on the government benches.
But instead Finance Minister Damien Tudehope proposed a revised version, which was negotiated with one of the bill's co-sponsors, Nationals MLC Trevor Khan.
Mrs Davies said she would not decide her political future until after the bill passes the lower house, which will happen on Thursday morning.
But the Mulgoa MP has ruled out moving any more amendments in the lower house and further delaying the bill.
"I have no reason or desire to open this up again," Mrs Davies said.
Nationals MLC Niall Blair, who has been a key figure in the upper house negotiations, said he was prepared to support Mr Tudehope's amendment.
"My test has always been to allay concerns while not restricting access to terminations," he said.
"I think we are getting close to a point where we can provide safe access under a regulated system for terminations if a woman so desires and provide a framework and further clarification around some of the concerns that have been raised by the community and some members during the debate."
Last week, Mrs Davies, Mr Mason-Cox and Liberal MLC Lou Amato were so concerned about the way the bill was proceeding that they threatened to call a leadership spill against the Premier.
But they abandoned those plans within 12 hours and then received several concessions on amendments to allay their concerns.