Less than a year after a move to restrict abortion access was narrowly defeated in South Australia, a similar bill is set to be introduced to parliament.
For the second time in 12 months, South Australia’s GP community has come out against proposed restrictions on abortion in the state.
In October last year, SA’s upper house voted down a bill from Liberal MP Ben Hood which would have forced women seeking a termination of pregnancy after 28 weeks to undergo an induced birth and deliver their baby alive.
The final count was nine votes in favour of the bill passing and 10 votes against.
On Friday last week, independent upper house MP Sarah Game – formerly of One Nation – announced she would be introducing a new bill seeking to ban abortions after 23 weeks’ gestation.
Abortions in South Australia are only permitted after 23 weeks if two doctors agree that the continuation of the pregnancy would involve significant risk to the physical or mental health of the pregnant person or if there is a risk of foetal anomalies.
“It’s not up to politicians to decide who can and cannot access abortion care,” RACGP SA deputy chair Dr Clare Keogh told The Medical Republic.
“Abortion care is healthcare.
“The decision needs to be made between patient and doctor in what is normally a very complex personal consultation.”
Dr Keogh, who is also the medical lead at SA’s sexual and reproductive health service SHINE, said the act of putting restrictions in place led to unsafe care.
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“People will continue to seek abortion care regardless of the legal parameters around it,” she said.
“By minimising restrictions, you really are just helping people access safe care.”
In announcing her intention to introduce the bill, Ms Game claimed that 75% of late-term abortions involve healthy babies where the mother’s life is not at risk.
She did not cite a source for this.
According to the 2024 annual report from the South Australian Abortion Reporting Committee, around 90% of terminations were performed before 14 weeks’ gestation.
Just 1%, which represented 48 terminations, were performed after 22 weeks and six days’ gestation.
Of this 48, 70% of terminations were due to the physical or mental health of the pregnant person and 30% were due to a foetal anomaly.
There was one recorded case where a termination after 22 weeks and six days’ gestation was performed to save the life of a pregnant person or another foetus.
Ms Game publicly credited Professor Joanna Howe as having contributed to the bill.
Professor Howe is a legal researcher at the University of Adelaide law school. Her profile does not indicate that she has received medical training.
Professor Howe was also heavily involved in the defeated 2024 bill which sought to force live births for women seeking a termination after 28 weeks’ gestation.
