Ginninderra News - July 2003

Abortion Decriminalised in the A.C.T.

The ACT Legislative Assembly last year passed three bills which significantly affect how abortion is treated under ACT law.

The three bills the are the Crimes (Abolition of Offence of Abortion) Amendment Bill 2001, the Health Regulation (Maternal Health Information) Repeal Bill 2001 and the Medical Practitioners (Maternal Health) Amendment Bill 2002. This package of bills removed the crime of abortion in the Territory, repealed legislation which sought to restrict women’s right to choose and provides protection for women and health workers in relation to abortion.

The first two bills were introduced by ACT Legislative Assembly Speaker and long-time pro-choice campaigner Wayne Berry. Mr Berry announced before the ACT election in 2001 that he would move to decriminalise abortion in the ACT. He introduced his bills in the first sitting week of the new Assembly in December that year.

Under the ACTs Crimes Act 1900 the penalty for abortion was ten years gaol for a woman who sought or medical practitioner who provided an abortion. Mr Berry’s bills remove abortion as a crime.

Welcoming the support of the Assembly for his bills, Mr Berry said, “I am relieved that women considering an abortion will no longer have the threat of a ten year gaol sentence hanging over their head.

“This has been a long campaign but throughout I have always enjoyed community support and have worked in the knowledge that fair minded people in the community believe that it was the right thing to do. After ten years of campaigning for change it is a relief to at last succeed but another campaign of vigilance to protect these gains has just begun,” Mr Berry said.