The NSW Greens have proposed allowing registered nurses and midwives, who undergo advanced training, to prescribe abortion drugs.
A suite of reforms to the state’s 2019 abortion law proposed by MP Amanda Cohn were mainly rejected by the upper house, except for expanding who can prescribe the drugs.
Cohn’s bill is currently being debated in the lower house.
The major parties have allowed their MPs a ‘conscience vote’, meaning they can make up their minds individually rather than deciding on a position as a party.
Abortion laws
In Australia, there are two main kinds of abortion procedures: surgical and medical.
Surgical abortions are when the patient is under some form of sedation or anaesthetic.
In NSW, medical practitioners can perform surgical abortions up to 22 weeks’ gestation.
After 22 weeks, abortions may be carried out under certain circumstances if there are “sufficient grounds”.
Medical abortions can be performed up to 63 days’ gestation.
The process involves two medications, given separately, called mifepristone and misoprostol — typically sold as MS-2 Step.
Under the law, practitioners with a “conscientious objection” can refuse to perform the service, but must refer the patient to a clinic that will.
While abortion has been decriminalised in NSW since 2019, fines and imprisonment can apply if it is performed by an unqualified person.
Amendments
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Earlier this month, Greens MP Amanda Cohn proposed changes to the state’s abortion law. Cohn is a former GP who has provided medical abortions.
The first draft of the bill would have required the government ensure abortion is accessible “within a reasonable distance of residents’ homes”.
It also sought to change how “conscientious objections” to abortion work. Currently, if a doctor has a moral objection to providing an abortion, they must tell their patient where they can access one.
Under Cohn’s bill, health practitioners would be required to refer patients to someone who is willing to provide an abortion.
However, following debate in the upper house, these proposals were amended.
The bill now only seeks to expand access to abortion by legally allowing nurses and midwives to prescribe medical abortion drugs, including MS 2-Step.
Queensland was the first state to allow nurses and midwives to prescribe the drugs, passing a law in March 2024.
Debate
In the upper house, Liberal MP Chris Rath said he opposed the bill “in its entirety,” citing religious beliefs as a key reason.
Rath, who was not in Parliament when the original law passed, said he could not support a bill that causes “physical and psychological harm to the mother, and the intentional ending of a viable baby’s life”.
His Coalition colleague, Nationals MP Sarah Mitchell, who supported the original 2019 abortion bill, said: “I am pro-choice, and my views remain unchanged.”
Ahead of the bill’s debate in the lower house, Premier Chris Minns said Labor will uphold its “party platform that anything to do with abortion is up to individual MPs”.
Minns has indicated he will vote in favour of the bill following its amendments, particularly dropping the change to conscientious objection requirements.
“That would have actually driven some doctors out of the profession — the exact opposite of what we need and want in terms of access to reproductive rights and abortion services,” Minns said.
