After weeks of heated debate, the Reproductive Health Care Reform Bill has overwhelmingly passed the NSW Parliament.

Opposing groups protest outside the New South Wales parliament as abortion legislation is debated.

Opposing groups protest outside the NSW parliament as abortion legislation is debated. Source: AAP

A controversial bill that removes abortion from NSW's 119-year-old Crimes Act has passed the state's lower house to applause. 

MPs voted in favour of the amended legislation on Thursday morning, a day after it passed the upper house after nearly 40 hours of discussion. The bill was passed with no division.

Independent MP Alex Greenwich, who first introduced the proposed legislation to Parliament last month, presented the amended bill to the lower house for the final time.

The legislation was passed with a number of amendments, including that doctors performing abortions after 22 weeks be able to seek advice from a multi-disciplinary team or hospital advisory committee and that doctors must provide care to babies born alive after an attempted termination.

The upper house also voted to change the name of the bill to the Abortion Law Reform Act 2019.  

More than 100 amendments were discussed for nearly 40 hours, making it the third-longest debate in the NSW upper house.

 


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Published 26 September 2019 11:17am
By Maani Truu
Presented by Fazila Tasmim

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