Key Points
- South Australia's parliament has narrowly voted down changes to abortion laws.
- The bill was introduced by Ben Hood and would have prevented termination of pregnancies from 27 weeks and six days.
- Women dressed as handmaids protested on the steps of the South Australian parliament before the vote.
South Australia's parliament has narrowly voted down a bill that would have made it illegal to terminate a pregnancy after 27 weeks and six days.
The final vote was nine in favour and ten against.
The controversial proposal had drawn criticism from opponents inside and outside parliament, and was labelled an "extreme right-wing culture war bill" by SA Health Minister Chris Picton.
Ahead of the vote, the South Australian Abortion Action Coalition (SAAAC) had also staged a demonstration outside parliament, which included women dressed as handmaids, inspired by Margaret Atwood's novel The Handmaid's Tale.
The long red dresses and white bonnets symbolised the dystopian society depicted in the book, in which the state controls women's reproductive lives.
SAAAC spokesperson Brigid Coombe said the fight to protect reproductive rights remains an ongoing concern.
She believes many anti-abortion activists have been influenced by the United States, which has had abortion rights wound back in many states over the past two years.
"In Australia, we have had an undercurrent of anti-abortion activists, often getting their ideas from the United States — which is not a very good place to get their ideas from because the way that American law operates against women means they have in fact, a very high maternal mortality," she said.
Liberal MP Ben Hood introduced the private member's bill in the Legislative Council to amend the changes to SA's abortion laws, which passed parliament on a conscience vote in 2021 under the former Marshall Liberal government.
Hood's bill proposed that in cases where pregnant women seek a termination of a child after 28 weeks, women would have to end their pregnancy through early delivery rather than abortion.
Under the current laws, abortions are legal after 22 weeks if two practitioners agree it is medically appropriate.
In the first 18 months after the legislation was passed, fewer than five people terminated a pregnancy after 27 weeks, according to SA Health.
Ahead of the vote, Coombe said abortion care always needed to be addressed as healthcare.
"Legislating circumstances around how people's healthcare should be provided shows an enormous misunderstanding of how healthcare is provided," she said.
"Imposing a violent method of controlling women's reproductive autonomy is not the way to go about it."
She said Hood's bill was a "political stunt".
