Laws banning late-term abortion baby deaths to be put to South Australian parliament

Internal Liberal warfare has erupted over the private member bill proposed by a conservative frontbencher.

Internal Liberal warfare has erupted over a frontbencher’s bid to force mothers terminating pregnancies to deliver babies alive after 27 weeks.

Conservative Liberal upper house member Ben Hood will introduce a private member’s bill on Wednesday, arguing 45 healthy babies have been needlessly killed because of “unintended consequences” of 2021 abortion law reform.

Mr Hood told The Advertiser his bill would prevent babies being killed during terminations after 27 weeks and six days, when he argued data showed they had a 96 per cent chance of survival. Instead, mothers wanting to end their pregnancy would be induced at that time and the baby delivered alive.

Opposition Leader Vincent Tarzia bluntly declared changing laws governing late-term abortion was “not Liberal Party policy” and the matter would be a conscience vote.

But leading Liberal Moderate Trish Worth, a former Adelaide federal MP and federal party vice-president, demanded Mr Hood quit his frontbench role or be sacked by Mr Tarzia if he was determined to press ahead with his private member’s bill.

A Liberal joint party room meeting on Monday night resolved that Mr Hood’s bill would go to a conscience vote in the upper house.

Mr Hood said under his proposed law change, mothers ending pregnancies with live births would either choose to keep the baby or, under existing laws, put the child up for adoption.

“The bill does not impinge on a woman’s right to choose a termination. After 27 weeks and six days, the baby must be delivered alive but the pregnancy is still terminated, the baby is just put up for adoption should the mother not choose to keep it,” Mr Hood said.

He said a rally in support of the bill would be staged outside Parliament House on Wednesday afternoon, spearheaded by University of Adelaide law Professor Joanna Howe, a campaigner against abortion.

A pro-choice Liberal, who asked not to be named, cited research showing only one abortion had been conducted at 27 weeks in South Australia before the 2021 reform, and none after 27 weeks and six days.

But the Liberal conceded a very small number of abortions after this time frame might have been conducted since the mid-2022, when the new laws came into force. The Advertiser has sought this data from SA Health.

The Termination of Pregnancy Bill has passes the lower house in February, 2021. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Naomi Jellicoe

Ms Worth blamed factional power plays by a Liberal state council dominated by “the extreme right”, saying moderate and traditional conservative groups were being sidelined with preselections opening on Monday in incumbent lower house seats.

“I think it’s the wrong issue to be politicised. I think it’s not good for the women of South Australia. It’s not good for families and it’s not good for the medical profession,” she said.

The 2021 abortion reform allows for terminations after 22 weeks and six days with approval from two medical practitioners if: “necessary to save the life of the pregnant person or save another foetus”; or “the continuance of the pregnancy would involve significant risk of injury to the physical or mental health of the pregnant person”; or “there is a case, or significant risk, of serious foetal anomalies associated with the pregnancy”.

Mr Hood’s figure for 45 needlessly killed babies comprises 37 pregnancies terminated after 22 weeks and six days gestation in 2023 because of the mother’s “physical or mental health” and another eight in 2022.

Liberal state deputy leader John Gardner, a Moderate, said: “These matters are always a conscience vote for the Liberal Party and will be a matter for each member to determine only if it first passes the Upper House.”

Premier Peter Malinauskas said he had not seen an argument for change since he voted in favour of the Termination of Pregnancy Bill, which passed 29 votes to 15 in February, 2021.

He accused the Liberals of being “only interested in finding ways to perpetuate the culture wars” and wanting to “revisit their own obsessions”.

“We’re six weeks into Vincent Tarzia’s leadership and the only policy we’re seeing is a policy to revisit their internal problems over an abortion debate,” he said.

Originally published as Laws banning late-term abortion baby deaths to be put to South Australian parliament