By Frances Howe
Despite being legalised six years ago, abortion is once again being debated in the NSW parliament.
Greens health spokesperson Dr Amanda Cohn has introduced a bill in the upper house that would amend several aspects of the state’s abortion law. Here’s what you need to know.
NSW Greens MLC and spokesperson for health Dr Amanda Cohn introduced the private member’s bill on abortion.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer
What are the changes being proposed?
The Abortion Law Reform Amendment (Health Care Access) Bill 2025 was introduced mid-February following a NSW Health review of abortion law, published in September.
That review found places with limited access to abortion services in NSW, coined “abortion deserts”, undermined the functionality of the 2019 legislation. The report recommended expanding which practitioners can prescribe medical abortions to include nurses and midwives for terminations up to nine weeks.
In addition to this change, the bill seeks to guarantee abortion services for patients within a “reasonable distance” from where they live, granting the health minister power to compel public health services to offer abortion services to ensure this.
If passed, it would also require practitioners who conscientiously or otherwise object to abortion to refer patients to someone they “reasonably believe” will provide the service.
The existing legislation allows practitioners with a conscientious objection to direct patients to NSW government services that provide information about a “range of health services and resources” as opposed to directly referring to other practitioners or service providers.
Who supports the bill?
Leader of the Government in the Legislative Council Penny Sharpe, who was heavily involved in the debates on the Abortion Law Reform Act from 2019, opened debate of the bill on March 26.
She said she “strongly” supported expanding the types of practitioners allowed to perform medical abortions but did not support requiring practitioners who opposed abortion to refer patients to practitioners they reasonably believed would perform one, saying the existing legislation struck the right balance.
She also did not support an amendment that would require public health organisations to provide abortions.
Minister for Youth and Mental Health Rose Jackson also spoke in support of the bill in an impassioned speech.
“We do not need to make laws in parliament about whether or where our community can and should access cancer treatment or knee replacements,” she said. “In an ideal world, we would not need special laws in parliament affirming women’s access to abortion. But we do not live in an ideal world.”
Who is against the bill?
Liberal MP Rachel Merton spoke against the bill, saying it was “one of the most concerning and egregious pieces of legislation I have had before me since my election to this place two years ago”.
She said requiring medical practitioners to refer patients to those who would offer the service meant practitioners would be “directly involved” in terminations even when they opposed them.
Crossbenchers Rod Roberts and John Ruddick also opposed the bill.
What happens next?
Debate will continue when parliament resumes in May.
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