NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard has urged colleagues to back a bill decriminalising abortion in order to "right a wrong" enacted in law more than a century ago.
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Mr Hazzard on Tuesday launched a NSW lower house debate on a private members bill allowing pregnancy terminations up to 22 weeks.
The Reproductive Health Care Reform Bill 2019 also permits later abortions if two doctors "consider that, in all the circumstances, the termination should be performed".
Mr Hazzard - one-of-15 cross-party sponsors of the bill - said it was an important and overdue reform of a law enacted almost 120 years ago when all legislators were men.
He said it was disturbing the framework for abortion was still found in the state's Crimes Act.
"I ask all honourable members whether it is acceptable, whether it's conscionable that in making this major life decision, women and their doctors have to do so with the threat of being charged with a criminal offence," he said.
But Liberal colleague Riverstone MP Kevin Conolly said the bill was introduced with "the minimum possible notice" and it was misleading to say it was about decriminalising abortion.
"There are a number of aspects to this bill which do not reflect the current law but rather change it," he told parliament.
"The bill is not just about the decriminalisation of abortion - it's about the expansion of practice of abortion."
Mr Conolly, who spoke "on behalf of unborn children", said the bill would allow more abortions including later abortions, and he was certain "the community is very uneasy about late-term abortions".
The MP said he believed people only had the right to take human life in self-defence and "this is no such case".
Coalition and Labor MPs are being given a conscience vote, which has the support of Premier Gladys Berejiklian, Transport Minister Andrew Constance, opposition treasury spokesman Walt Secord and others.
Treasurer Dominic Perrottet, Finance Minister Damien Tudehope and Mr Conolly oppose the draft legislation.
Mr Hazzard told parliament he respected each person's right to their own opinion but said "as legislators, our role is to govern for the whole population of NSW".
He said nothing in the bill would encourage women to have terminations.
The health minister noted concerns about late-term abortions but said the bill had a stricter provision than currently existed in NSW.
"I absolutely refute the spurious arguments being put around about abortion up until the day of birth, for no reason at all," Mr Hazzard said.
"Doctors have ethical and professional obligations that ensure they will not facilitate late-term abortions unless there is a compelling, clinical need."
Labor MPs Trish Doyle and Yasmin Catley, Nationals MP Leslie Williams and Greens MP Jenny Leong also spoke in support of the bill in parliament on Tuesday.
The debate came after anti-abortion and pro-choice groups clashed outside parliament earlier in the day.
Anti-abortion activists holding signs reading "women deserve better than abortion", "abortion is murder" and "choose life" were sandwiched between supporters of the bill.
Labor's families spokeswoman Penny Sharpe was among the MPs who addressed the pro-choice crowd, who held up signs stating "mind your own uterus" and "trust women".
"Women in NSW are not criminals for making decisions about their own bodies," she said while thanking those who'd shared stories about abortions, including via the #arrestus online campaign.
Australian Associated Press
