The Western Australian government has introduced into parliament the Abortion Reform Bill 2023 (WA). It is an extreme bill which removes any of the safeguards for women considering abortion and for their children in-utero.
There are five key amendments that the WA parliament MUST make before passing this Bill. Each of these amendments are based on existing law and practice in South Australia, which is the most recent Australian state to have introduced an abortion decriminalisation bill.
Amendment One
WA abortion law must give legal rights to babies born alive after a failed abortion.
In WA thirty-one babies have been born alive and left to die after a failed abortion between 1999 and 2021.
In other states such as Queensland and Victoria, which have introduced abortion laws similar to those proposed in the WA Bill, a baby is born alive and left to die every week after a failed abortion.
Amendment Two
WA abortion law must ban sex-selective abortion.
There are an estimated 126 million girls missing worldwide, with China and India the main contributors to this phenomenon. The cause is sex-selective abortion because of a son-preference in certain countries.
There is some evidence that sex-selection abortion is occurring in Australia with a study by researchers from the University of La Trobe finding that ‘there was a systematic excess of male births to mothers born in India, China and the South-East Asian region’. The study found that for some ethnic groups there were 125 boys born per 100 girls.
Amendment Three
WA abortion law must make it a mandatory requirement for women to receive information on counselling services and other pregnancy support services prior to having an abortion.
Many women undergo abortions because of coercion or dire socioeconomic circumstances. There is an established connection between abortion and domestic violence. Research has shown that at least half of the women accessing abortion do so because they believe they do not have the resources to cope with a baby.
The WA Bill should be amended to provide for women to be given information about counselling services and other pregnancy support services prior to having an abortion.
Amendment Four
WA abortion law should stipulate the mandatory considerations which must be taken into account prior to late term abortions of gestationally viable babies.
The WA Bill permits abortion after 23 weeks and up to birth with the approval of two doctors. Although this is in line with the practice in other Australian states, it is concerning that the human rights of gestationally viable babies are not accounted for in this practice. After 23 weeks a baby is considered gestationally viable and can survive if born. At this gestation an in-utero baby is no longer dependent on her mother’s body for survival. Instead of the practice of ‘feticide’, which kills a gestationally viable baby in-utero and results in the baby being delivered intact and stillborn, gestationally viable babies should be born alive and medical care should be provided to the baby.
No jurisdiction in Australia protects the human rights of gestationally viable babies but in South Australia, there are legislated mandatory considerations which doctors must take into account prior to a late-term abortion.
Amendment Five
WA abortion law must provide for the collection of anonymised statistical data in relation to abortions undertaken within the state.
There is very little information about abortion in WA. South Australia is an example of best practice in data collection, as it collects fulsome data about abortion procedures. WA needs to introduce a robust approach to data collection to enable evidence-based policy. This data collection should be anonymised to protect the privacy of patients.