More than a dozen MPs including the health minister Brad Hazzard will co-sponsor a bill to decriminalise abortion in New South Wales, which already has the support of premier Gladys Berejiklian.
In an unprecedented show of support, the reproductive healthcare reform bill 2019 will feature the names of 15 MPs from five different parties when it is tabled in the state parliament by the independent MP Alex Greenwich this week.
The historic bill would remove abortion from the state’s criminal code and create a standalone healthcare act to regulate the procedure. Berejiklian said on Monday that she will support the bill.
“If the legislation contains what I think it does I’ll be supporting it,” Berejiklian said on Monday.
Coalition MPs will be given a conscience vote, but a number of key members of cabinet support the bill including Hazzard, Andrew Constance, Bronwyn Taylor, Gareth Ward, Shelley Hancock and Sarah Mitchell.
Another Liberal Party MP, Felicity Wilson, is one of the bill’s 15 co-sponsors.
“NSW is the last state to decriminalise abortion and all members of the Liberals and Nationals will be given a conscience vote on this issue,” Berejiklian told reporters on Monday.
“I’d encourage all members of the parliament to look at the legislation, as I will be doing, to make sure they’re comfortable with it and decide either way how they feel about it.”
The premier said she didn’t begrudge MPs holding strong personal views on the issue. “It’s important for that [abortion] to be a decision for the woman and for the state not to cast judgment on the morality of that decision,” Berejiklian said.
The private member’s bill is based on laws in Queensland and Victoria and has the backing of the NSW branch of the Australian Medical Association NSW and Pro-Choice Alliance.
Under the proposed legislation a woman would not commit an offence if she procures a termination within the bill’s framework. It would also repeal provisions of the Crimes Act relating to abortions and common law offences.
The bill would allow for terminations up to 22 weeks, and later – if two doctors believe it should be performed given the medical, physical, social and psychological circumstances.
It would also create a new criminal offence under the Crimes Act for anyone who assists in terminations without authorisation.
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The bill was developed by a cross-party working group including the Nationals MP Trevor Khan and Labor’s Penny Sharpe and Jo Haylen. There was oversight from the health minister, Brad Hazzard.
In a joint statement the members of working group said the bill would “ensure women in NSW can get access to safe and legal abortions, and that doctors have the legal certainty they have long asked for”.
“To mark the significance of the Reproductive Health Care Reform Bill 2019, this bill will be the first co-sponsored legislation ever introduced into the NSW Legislative Assembly, and has more co-sponsors than any other piece of legislation in the history of the NSW parliament,” the working group members said.
Hazzard on Monday said the issue of abortion should be between a woman, her partner and her doctor and not involve “possible criminal proceedings against them – it’s a medical issue”.
“We feel confident there will be a respectful debate,” he told reporters, adding he was “hopeful” the bill would pass.
The bill would ensure women in NSW have the same rights as those elsewhere in Australia, Hazzard said. “To my mind, in the 21st century, it’s inappropriate for a woman who lives in Tweed not to have exactly the same right as a woman in Coolangatta or the Gold Coast.”
A senior minister, Stuart Ayres, said abortion in NSW should be “safe, legal and rare” while the education minister, Sarah Mitchell, said she was pro-choice and supported the bill in principle.
Labor’s Treasury spokesman, Walt Secord, has also committed to voting in favour of the bill.
