THE Legislative Council has been warned against trying to drastically re-draft abortion reform legislation by sending it to a committee.
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MLCs voted overwhelmingly to send the Reproductive Health Bill to one of its standing committees last night after hearing conflicting reports of its medical and legal ramifications in a full day of briefings from campaigners on both sides of the debate.
Murchison independent MLC Ruth Forrest will chair the committee and said she would call a meeting today in order to complete the process as soon as possible.
The bill as passed by the lower house in April will decriminalise abortion and make consent the only barrier to termination up to 16-weeks' gestation.
Past 16 weeks two doctors will be required to prove that continuing the pregnancy poses a greater risk to the woman's mental and psychological health than termination would.
A similar test exists now in the Criminal Code.
Ms Forrest voted against sending the legislation to committee last night, saying the legislation was not intended to reopen debate on whether women should be able to access an abortion.
"If that was the intent of the committee process, to pull apart the bill and change it, then that would be completely wrong," Ms Forrest said.
"The focus should be on the bill and not on the broader view of whether termination should be legal in Tasmania."
Ms Forrest said if anyone wanted to make other changes to Tasmania's existing laws governing abortion they should bring their own private member's bill.
Health Minister Michelle O'Byrne, who sponsored the legislation as a private member's bill, said she was disappointed the Legislative Council had voted to send it to committee.
"A number of experts in the field, on all sides, have been available to members and the issue has been the subject of a significant level of discussion for months," Ms O'Byrne said.
Ms Forrest and Mersey independent MLC Mike Gaffney were the only MLCs to vote against Huon independent MLC Paul Harriss's move to send the legislation to committee.
Windermere independent MLC Ivan Dean said the briefing process raised more concerns for him about the proposed legislation, and he hoped a committee would be able to address some of those issues.
