THE Health Minister has asked a legal academic to write to MLCs about proposed abortion reform legislation, after another group of legal academics suggested the reforms could lead to an increase in murder investigations.
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University of Tasmania law lecturers Michael Stokes, Helen Cockburn and Jeremy Pritchard, together with Dr Helen Lord, wrote to MLCs last week outlining what they said were a number of potential legal problems with the Reproductive Health Bill.
The legislation would decriminalise abortion and only require doctors to find abortion was necessary to prevent mental or physical risk to the woman if she was more than 16 weeks' pregnant.
The letter says the bill is flawed because it does not explicitly require a woman to be informed of options other than abortion, does not impose a penalty for breaching the abortion provisions, invites homicide charges in late-term abortions if a baby is viable, and exposes the state to being sued for creating psychological trauma by requiring medical professionals with a conscientious objection to abortion to assist if the woman is otherwise at risk of serious physical injury. The authors will brief MLCs ahead of the debate the bill on Wednesday.
Mr Stokes said he was opposed to abortion for personal and religious reasons but offered the advice as his professional legal opinion.
"The bill is an absolute mess," he said. "I would be opposed to this legislation regardless of my religious position."
University of Tasmania senior criminal law lecturer Terese Henning said she disagreed with all the points raised in the letter.
Ms Henning said the lengthy discussion about the possibility of murder or manslaughter charges in late-term abortions was based on the legislation as it now stood and had nothing to do with the proposed changes.
"There is no evidence that the current law has given rise to such problems in practice," Ms Henning said. "The authors are coming from a particular political and religious position and would actually like to see the current law repealed."
Ms Henning said she had been asked by Health Minister Michelle O'Byrne, who introduced the legislation as a private member's bill, to provide a response.