ABORTION is likely to remain a crime in Tasmania if the upper house votes this week.
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The legislation appears to be headed for a seven-all draw, forcing Legislative Council President Jim Wilkinson to use his casting vote.
MLCs could also vote to send the proposed legislation to a select committee, potentially delaying the process by months.
The Reproductive Health Bill is set to be debated in the Legislative Council on Wednesday after a two-hour briefing.
It passed the lower house 13-11 in April.
The legislation would decriminalise abortion, remove all barriers to abortion if a woman is less than 16 weeks pregnant and restrict abortions past 16 weeks to cases where two doctors agree it is necessary because of a risk to the woman's physical or psychological health.
Most MLCs say they support decriminalisation but have other concerns about the bill.
Some who otherwise support the legislation say they will not support a requirement for doctors with a conscientious objection to abortion to refer women to a non-objecting doctor.
Windermere independent MLC Ivan Dean said he would move an amendment altering that section as well as an amendment deleting the inclusion of a woman's social or economic circumstances as matters to be considered in the physical or psychological harm test.
Mr Dean said he would not support the legislation if those sections were not amended, which would deny the legislation its seventh vote.
Several MLCs are also considering amendments that would potentially make access to abortion more restrictive, not less as the legislation intended.
Health Minister Michelle O'Byrne, who sponsored the reforms, has repeatedly said she would pull the legislation if it was changed to create a worse outcome for women than existed under the current law.
Rumney independent MLC Tony Mulder said he would move to send the legislation to a select committee, with a view to tighten up the current laws.
``I would like to see the current situation where abortion can occur at any stage looked at,'' Mr Mulder said.
``I think we need to put some controls around that.''
Under existing legislation, abortion is illegal but a pregnancy may be terminated if two doctors certify in writing that it is medically and psychologically necessary.
Apsley independent MLC Tania Rattray said she did not want to see the existing law revisited, and Murchison independent MLC Ruth Forrest said such a situation would be ``horrific''.
``I think it would be a retrograde step if we wound back the availability of safe and accessible abortions,'' Ms Rattray said.