A Liberal MP is trying to change South Australia’s abortion laws to force people who want to terminate their pregnancy after 28 weeks to deliver their baby alive.
On Wednesday, conservative Liberal MP Ben Hood introduced a private member's bill in the SA upper house to amend the laws, and about 2000 people gathered outside Parliament House in a show of support for the proposal.
Under SA laws passed in 2021, a pregnant person can get a late-term abortion after 22 weeks and six days if medically safe and with the approval of two doctors.
The proposed amendment would add a subsection stating: "A medical practitioner may only intervene to end the pregnancy of a person who is more than 27 weeks and six days pregnant if the intention is to deliver the foetus alive."
The mother would have the choice to keep the child or have the baby adopted.
Mr Hood has said his amendments would “balance the choice of the mother with the rights of the child”.
“There is nothing more important than to look after our most vulnerable, and our most vulnerable are being terminated,” Mr Hood told supporters at the rally.
The SA Abortion Action Coalition said the “extreme” bill seeks to erase the years of evidence-informed debate that resulted in the decriminalisation of abortion in SA in 2021.
“It contains a mandatory birth component that is not reflected in any other abortion legislation in the world,” it said in a statement.
“It is a striking misreading of the South Australian public’s documented views on abortion care.”
The bill would need to secure an 11-vote majority for it to progress to the lower house.
In SA, a reason for termination is only required if the woman is more than 22 weeks and 6 days pregnant.
The South Australian Abortion Reporting Committee reported that in 2023, 47 terminations of pregnancy were performed beyond this threshold. Of these, 78.7 per cent were for the physical or mental health of the pregnant person, and 21.3 per cent were for suspected foetal anomalies.
