A bill to restrict access to abortion after 22 weeks and six days has been defeated in the South Australian parliament.
The former One Nation MLC Sarah Game, who is now an independent, worked with the controversial anti-abortion activist Joanna Howe on the legislation that went before the SA parliament on Wednesday night.
It was voted down by 11 votes to eight.
Several MLCs became visibly distressed and tearful during the debate on Wednesday evening.
The attorney general, Kyam Maher, referred to comments from the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (Ranzcog) that the bill was premised either on an ignorance of reality or a wilful misrepresentation of the facts.
“I can only imagine the pain and anguish that mothers and families must experience when having such a difficult decision so late in a pregnancy for a variety of complex and very deeply personal reasons,” he said.
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The current law allows abortions from 23 weeks when there is significant risk to the physical or mental health of the mother.
Game’s proposed amendment bill would have watered that down to only allow abortion where it would save the life of the mother or another foetus, or if there was a significant risk of foetal abnormalities.
She said if a mother’s life was at risk or her health threatened, doctors should do an emergency caesarean or induce labour so the baby is born alive.
“Let’s be clear about what good medical practice looks like,” she said when she introduced the legislation. “In a genuine emergency, where a mother’s life is at risk – for example, with extreme pre-eclampsia, or even in non-emergency situations where her physical health is threatened – the safest and most effective treatment is to end the pregnancy by delivering the child alive.”
The Greens MLC Tammy Franks told parliament that would then disallow abortion in cases of young girls, women who were prevented from accessing earlier abortions, in cases of domestic violence, including in cases of the abuse of minors and vulnerable adults, and in cases of sexual and physical violence including rape, incest and sexual slavery, as well as deteriorating maternal physical health.
The Liberal MLC Michelle Lensink voted against the bill and said the facts were settled, that the bill undermined “one of the fundamental principles in health decision-making, which is informed consent for the patient”, and that the policies of “a certain US administration” were not “contagious”.
Howe has been banned from the state parliament indefinitely after alleged “threatening and intimidating tactics” over a different late-term abortion bill introduced last year by the Liberal MLC Ben Hood.
The Legislative Council president, Terry Stephens, said in parliament at the time it was “entirely unacceptable for visitors to roam the corridors and other areas adjacent to the chamber unaccompanied. It is even more unacceptable that any member should feel intimidated or threatened by visitors while carrying out their free performance as a member of the council.”
Howe denied she had done anything wrong.
“I refute every allegation that has been made, and I’ll be considering my options in terms of what I can do to challenge it,” Howe said at the time.
She has subsequently requested that her response to the decision to ban her be read in the parliament – which has not occurred – but otherwise it is unclear whether she has formally challenged the ban.
Maher said in parliament on Wednesday the last time late-term abortion had been debated – after which Howe was banned from the building – was the most unedifying he had seen.
Experts have said anti-abortion tactics from the US that focus on late-term abortion – which happens rarely, and for medical reasons – are being imported to Australia to “chip away at rights”.
The Liberal MLC Nicola Centofanti voted for the bill and said it “represents a reasonable and compassionate safeguard, a clear restriction on late-term terminations while maintaining the ability to provide appropriate medical care and compassion where circumstances require”.
Ranzcog said the bill was “based on a fundamental misunderstanding” of the “extraordinarily rare” procedure, which “almost always invariably involve circumstances of severe foetal abnormalities incompatible with life, or serious threats to the pregnant woman’s health and life”.
The South Australian Abortion Action Coalition has referred to the bill as introducing “forced birth”. Co-convenor Brigid Coombe said the failure of Wednesday’s bill and of last year’s was a reminder “that these anti-abortion MLCs are out of touch with the SA community’s expectation and appreciation of evidence-based and compassionate healthcare”.
It comes less than a fortnight after a similar, ill-fated federal move, which Howe also claimed credit for.
The Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce and Liberal backbencher Andrew Hastie were among those suggesting a law to allow parental leave after a stillbirth would be used by women needing a late-term abortion.
