Abortions late in a pregnancy are rare – doctors say fewer than 1 per cent of terminations happen after 20 weeks.
But late terminations are propelling a renewed battle over abortion rights. They have captured the imagination of conservative campaigners, who often call them “children born alive” – a polarising term in a debate that is prone to emotion and misinformation.
An election issue in the United States, where the overturning of Roe v Wade heralded a new era of conservative abortion laws, it is now reverberating in Australia.
Demonstrators on both sides of the abortion issue outside the US Supreme Court after it struck down federal abortion rights protections.Credit: Anna Rose Layden/The New York Times
The South Australian parliament on Wednesday night narrowly defeated a bill that would force women seeking an abortion after 28 weeks of pregnancy to give birth. In Queensland, a push to wind back abortion rights has become a state election issue. And while there are no federal laws governing abortion, conservative senators have sought to debate the topic several times this term.
What are Australia’s current abortion laws?
Abortion is legal in every Australian state and territory after Western Australia decriminalised it last year.
The laws vary across jurisdictions. In Queensland, NSW and SA, pregnancies can be terminated until 22 weeks. In Victoria and the Northern Territory, the gestational limit is 24 weeks, and in WA it is 23 weeks. Tasmania is 16 weeks, while the ACT has no gestational limit.
Past that point, each state and territory has extra regulations for performing terminations, but they generally require approval from at least two doctors. Usually, approval is given only for fetal or maternal health reasons.
What are late-term abortions and what do people mean by ‘born alive’?
The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists defines late-term abortions as terminations after 20 weeks’ gestation, which comprise about 1 per cent of abortions in Australia.
It says abortions are typically only pursued late in pregnancy for serious medical reasons or personal circumstances: genetic syndromes, late-diagnosed major fetal abnormalities, severe growth restrictions, or where continuing the pregnancy would severely harm the mother’s mental or physical health.
Most often, these abortions happen by euthanising the fetus with an injection while it is in utero. Some parents may choose to forgo the injection for cultural reasons or to hold the newborn in its final moments, and palliative care is provided in those rare instances.
Coalition senators Matt Canavan and Alex Antic, with United Australia Party senator Ralph Babet, say this happens too often. They use data from Victoria and Queensland to state that “more than 700 babies have been born alive following an abortion over the past decade, or more than one a week ... The number would be much more across the country”.
But the concept of babies “born alive” is contested. Associate Professor Patricia Moore, from SPHERE Women’s Sexual and Reproductive Health Coalition, said live births were defined as when a fetus exited the mother’s body with a sign of life. That could include a limb twitch or pulsation of the umbilical cord – it did not mean the fetus could survive outside the uterus.
What was the SA bill proposing? How was the bill voted down?
SA Liberal frontbencher Ben Hood introduced a bill that would force women who sought an abortion after 28 weeks to have an induced birth, and either keep the child or adopt it out.
“It is about drawing a clear and humane line once a baby reaches viability,” Hood has said.
The Australian Christian Lobby described it as a “pro-woman, pro-child compromise”. But SA Attorney-General Kyam Maher said the bill was “Trumpian” and “dangerous in how it plays politics with the health and wellbeing of women”.
In the end, the bill was defeated by 10 votes to nine, just before 10pm on Wednesday. Liberal MP Michelle Lensink, who was on sick leave for cancer treatment, rushed to the state parliament in an Uber to ensure the vote did not succeed.
Why is this a debate right now?
University of Sydney researcher Anna Noonan said Australia’s conservative politicians had been emboldened by the debate in the US, where several states have introduced “born alive” laws and there has been a federal attempt to impose fines and prison terms for health providers.
“I think that’s come primarily from the elevated attention to anti-abortion rhetoric in the US, the return of [Donald] Trump and the fact that abortion has become a political issue in the US [after Roe v Wade was overturned],” she said.
“The views of the politicians haven’t necessarily become more conservative, but their willingness to go for these types of legislation has been emboldened.”
Queensland is in the throes of an election campaign where abortion has emerged as an unexpected issue after Katter’s Australian Party vowed to introduce bills winding back abortion laws. The party’s state leader, Robbie Katter, also recently sought to amend abortion laws to protect the rights of babies “born alive” after late-term procedures.
The federal parliament has also been drawn into the issue, despite the fact it does not set abortion laws.
Canavan and Antic introduced a “Children Born Alive” bill, which was sent to a Senate inquiry. The committee made no recommendations, given there were “diverse and strongly held views” and the issue was a matter of conscience.
Babet in August moved a motion in the Senate to “publicly recognise that babies born alive, regardless of their birth circumstances, deserve equal and humane care”.
Four senators spoke in favour of the motion, while two stood up to oppose it: the Greens’ Larissa Waters and Liberal Maria Kovacic. Kovacic faced an intense backlash, with almost 12,000 people signing an online petition to dump her from the party because of her “anti-child, anti-family ideology”.
Noonan said recent political moves seemed like strategic attempts to test people’s attitudes.
“We are in for a period of political rumbling about abortion care that I don’t think we anticipated. What that tells us, in abortion advocacy, is that you just cannot guarantee that the pendulum won’t swing at any time.”
NSW Pregnancy Choices Helpline 1800 008 463; Victoria 1800 MY OPTIONS; Sexual assault helpline 1800 RESPECT.
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