Australian state decriminalizes abortion

SYDNEY — Australia’s most populous state decriminalized abortion Thursday, becoming the last jurisdiction in the country to revise blanket penalties enacted decades ago.

The measure in New South Wales, a state of more than 7 million people that includes Sydney, overturned a 119-yearold law that made it a criminal offense to procure or administer an abortion. Under the new legislation, women can seek termination of pregnancies in the first 22 weeks. After that, they can receive abortions if two doctors sign off.

“I am sorry it has taken so long,” Alex Greenwich, an independent New South Wales lawmaker who introduced the bill’s first iteration, said in a statement. The final bill passed after days of debate and more than 100 amendments.

In practice, abortion has generally been available to women in New South Wales, though doctors have been required to attest that the pregnancy posed a mental or physical risk to the woman’s health. Doctors could also consider social and economic factors in some cases.

Prosecutions of women undergoing the procedure have been rare in the state. Since 1994, only a dozen people have been prosecuted under the Crimes Act of 1900, with most cases involving the actions of doctors. In 2017, a woman was convicted of taking abortion drugs while 28 weeks pregnant.

The move in New South Wales was “a massive step forward for women,” Penny Sharpe, a key lawmaker behind the bill, wrote on Twitter. “Not a minute too soon.”

The state branch of the Australian Medical Association supported decriminalizing abortion, saying the procedure should be “free of stigma.” But many groups, including religious organizations, opposed the legislation. The Roman Catholic archbishop of Sydney, Anthony Fisher, said it was a “dark day” for the state and called it “a defeat for humanity.”

Government figures from 2005 estimated that 80,000 women a year obtained the procedures, but with the rising use of long-term contraceptives, that number has probably dropped closer to 60,000 in recent years, according to a report from the Australian Broadcasting Corp.