What it does
This Act (Abortion Law Reform Act 2019) removes criminal offences for abortions and sets out who may lawfully perform terminations, under what conditions, and which administrative and regulatory mechanisms govern practice. The purposes are stated in s 3: to reform the law relating to terminations of pregnancies and to regulate the conduct of registered health practitioners in relation to terminations. The Act commences on assent (s 2) and defines terms in Schedule 1 (s 4; Sch 1).
Mechanically, the Act does these main things:
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Legalises and regulates terminations up to 22 weeks where performed by a “prescribed health practitioner” (s 5). A prescribed health practitioner is defined in s 5(4) and includes medical practitioners, endorsed midwives and nurse practitioners (Sch 1 definitions linked in s 5(4)). For terminations up to 22 weeks the practitioner must obtain informed consent from the person or a lawful substitute decision-maker, except where consent cannot be practicably obtained in an emergency (s 5(2)-(3)). The statutory provisions preserve scope-of-practice and other legal controls on practitioners (s 5(5)).
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Allows terminations after 22 weeks only when performed by a specialist medical practitioner and only if specific clinical and procedural safeguards are met (s 6). Those safeguards include: the treating specialist must consider matters in s 6(3) and any multi-disciplinary advice under s 6(4); consultation with another specialist who also considers the grounds exist (s 6(1)(b)); informed consent (s 6(1)(c)); and performance at a statutory health organisation hospital or an “approved health facility” (s 6(1)(d)). Emergency exception in s 6(5) permits any medical practitioner to act to save the person’s life or another foetus.