Summary

Finally, at the time that this course was written (December 2018), abortion law was under review. In October 2018, the Law Commission has proposed 3 possible legal models for reform in abortion care: 

Model A: 

• There would be no statutory test that must be satisfied before an abortion could be performed 
• The decision whether to have an abortion would be made by a woman in consultation with her health practitioner 

Model B: 

• A statutory test would need to be satisfied before an abortion could be performed, but the test would be in health legislation rather than the Crimes act 
• The statutory test: the health practitioner who intends to perform the abortion would need to reasonably believe the abortion is appropriate under the circumstances, having regard to the woman's physical and mental health and wellbeing 

Model C: 

• For pregnacies of not more than 22 weeks of gestation- same as Model A
• For pregnancies of more than 22 weeks of gestation- same as Model B

The full report can be found here.

Do you have any thoughts on these models, or the status quo?