MEDIA RELEASE

Thursday 18 October 2018

WEL calls on NSW MPs to follow Queensland and modernise abortion laws.

Wendy McCarthy, Chair of the WEL Round Table for Abortion Law Reform in NSW, this morning congratulated the Queensland Parliament on last night’s passage of the Termination of Pregnancy Bill 2018. *

The Queensland Termination of Pregnancy Act decriminalises abortion, respects a woman’s right to choose up to 22 weeks of pregnancy and creates safe access zones around abortion clinics.

Queensland now joins Victoria, Tasmania, the ACT and the Northern Territory in regulating abortion as a healthcare matter, said Ms McCarthy.

‘NSW is now the only state where abortion laws are stuck in an era when women were considered incapable of making decisions about their own bodies. Abortion is the only medical procedure that is criminalised’.

Media contact: Mary O’Sullivan 0419444889

Note * The WEL Round Table is an alliance of medical, health and legal experts and practitioners, women’s and community groups who believe that it’s time that abortion stopped being a crime in NSW.