Abortion in Australia is legal. There are no federal abortion laws, though decriminalisation of the procedure has been enacted in all jurisdictions. Access to abortion varies between the states and territories: Surgical abortions are readily available on request within the first 22 to 24 weeks of pregnancy in most jurisdictions, and up to 16 weeks in Tasmania. Later-term abortions can be obtained with the approval of two doctors, although the Australian Capital Territory only requires a single physician's approval.
Since at least the 1980s, opinion polls have shown a majority of Australians support abortion rights, and that support for abortion rights is increasing. While anti-abortion violence is rare in Australia, anti-abortion activists have used tactics including "verbal abuse, threats, and impeding entry" outside abortion clinics. In response, all jurisdictions have enacted laws prohibiting protesters from harassing visitors and staff within a certain radius of abortion clinics, starting with Tasmania in 2013 and lastly with Western Australia in 2021.
A woman's sexual partner is not required to be notified of an abortion, and Australian courts will not grant injunctions to prevent the procedure, even if the applicant is the putative father of the foetus. No waiting periods are imposed on having an abortion. A minor does not need to notify a parent of a proposed abortion, nor is parental consent required. While abortions are regulated by the states and territories, the procedure is partially funded under the federal government public health scheme, Medicare, or by private healthcare insurers.
History Since colonisation, abortion in Australia has always been regulated by state (previously colonial) law. Before the end of the 19th century, each colony had adopted the Imperial Offences Against the Person Act 1861, which, in turn, was derived from English laws from 1837, 1828, and 1803, which made abortion illegal under any circumstance. Since then, abortion law has continued to evolve in each state by case law and changes in legislation.
A legal precedent concerning the legality of abortion was set in Australia in 1969, by the Menhennitt ruling in the Victorian Supreme Court case R v Davidson,. which held that abortion was lawfully justified if "necessary to preserve the physical or mental health of the woman concerned, provided that the danger involved in the abortion did not outweigh the danger which the abortion was designed to prevent". Since then, court rulings and legislative reform have helped deliver a medical framework for abortion in Australia; the Menhennitt ruling was later largely adopted by courts in New South Wales and Queensland,R v Bayliss & Cullen (1986) 9 Queensland Lawyer Reports 8. and was influential in some other states. Over time, this has come to be broadly defined so as to include the mental health of the woman, to which unwanted pregnancy is interpreted as clinically injurious.
Abortion rights received more attention over the 1970s across Australia, due, in part, to the efforts of many organisations and individuals such as the Abortion Law Reform Association (ALRA), Control Abortion Referral Service, and government initiatives such as the Royal Commission on Human Relationships, and activist medical practitioners such as Bertram Wainer.
RU-486 controversy In the mid-1990s, the conservative Howard government was in power in Australia, with conservative independent Tasmanian Senator Brian Harradine holding the balance of power in the Senate. Howard brokered a deal with Harradine to ensure his support for proposed bills, including the privatisation of national telecommunications provider Telecom. In return, Harradine received support for introducing restrictions on abortion. As a result, unlike other medications, abortifacient drugs were made to require approval from the Minister for Health before they could be assessed by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA). As TGA assessment is a requirement for drugs to be sold in Australia, this created a ministerial veto. Accordingly, the abortifacient RU-486, which was widely used overseas, was banned in Australia. The continued refusal by Tony Abbott, then Minister for Health, to allow abortifacients into Australia led to a private member's bill being introduced in late 2005 to transfer the approval back to the TGA. The bill was subsequently passed as the Therapeutic Goods Amendment (Repeal of Ministerial responsibility for approval of RU486) Act 2006. From 2006 to 2012, the drug was still not registered by the TGA, and medical practitioners needed special status from the TGA in order to prescribe it; even after registration, its use still has special conditions and restrictions. There is opinion among medical experts in Australia that abortifacients are over-regulated.
In 2006, after losing his veto power over abortifacients, Tony Abbott lobbied for funding of alternative counseling to pregnant women through church-affiliated groups to lower the national abortion rate, without success. In 2010, however, while he was seeking election as Liberal Party leader, Abbott pledged not to make any changes to abortion laws.
Contemporary debate In 2017, Senator Cory Bernardi moved a motion to ban sex-selective abortion. The motion was voted down (10–36). There is no evidence that sex-selective abortions are common in Australia, though according to the Human Rights Law Centre, attempting to create bans on the procedure is a "well-known tactic of opponents of abortion to limit women's access to abortion".
The National Women's Health Strategy 2020–2030, published by the Department of Health in 2019, listed "equitable access to pregnancy termination services" as a key measure of success for maternal, sexual and reproductive health.
Before the 2019 federal election, the Australian Labor Party unveiled a national abortion policy for the 2019 Australian federal election. The party's policy included requiring public hospitals to offer abortion procedures consistently under new Commonwealth funding agreements, encouraging New South Wales to remove abortion from its criminal laws and building an abortion clinic in Tasmania. In response Liberal Party leader Scott Morrison stated the issue was controversial and sensitive and decisions should be left to the states. His Coalition colleagues were largely quiet on the matter, while anti-abortion groups including the Australian Christian Lobby and Cherish Life campaigned against Labor on the issue. Cherish Life claimed that Labor had an "extreme late-term abortion agenda", and that "more babies would die" if they were elected. Labor MP Ed Husic, who retained his seat at the election, said the misrepresentation of the party's abortion policy was a factor in his decrease in votes.
In October 2024, the South Australian Legislative Council narrowly voted down 10 to 9, a bill that would have seen those seeking a termination after 28 weeks to instead undergo an induced birth, with the babies then being adopted – effectively banning abortion at 28 weeks.
A 2025 study of registered births in Western Australia and New South Wales found male-to-female sex ratio at birth evidence of sex-selective abortion for birth mothers born in certain countries such as China and India. The study's authors strongly recommended that sex-determination technologies like NIPT [non-invasive prenatal testing] should not be used to reveal non-medical traits of the fetus, including sex.
Anti-abortion violence and protests Anti-abortion violence is rare in Australia. The first serious attack and murder by an anti-abortion activist occurred in 2001, carried out by Peter Knight. Knight walked into a Melbourne clinic carrying a rifle, kerosene, and equipment to lock the doors of the clinic. He was intending to murder all patients and staff in the building, though he was overpowered after shooting and killing a security guard. Anti-abortion activists had been protesting outside the clinic, though left 15 minutes before Knight's attack. Knight, described by the prosecution as a "hermit obsessed with killing abortion doctors", was convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment.. In January 2009, a firebombing using Molotov cocktails was attempted at a medical clinic in Mosman Park, Western Australia. Damage was minimal, and only resulted in smashed windows and blackened external walls. Police believed graffiti saying "baby killers" on the building was related to the attack; however, the medical clinic did not actually offer abortion services..
Since at least the 1990s, tactics used by anti-abortion campaigners outside abortion clinics included "verbal abuse, threats, impeding entry to clinics, displaying violent imagery, and acts of 'disturbing theater' such as pushing a blood-splattered doll in a pram". In response, states and territories began creating "safe access zones", which prevent protesting about abortion within a proscribed area surrounding a clinic. Tasmania was the first state to do so in 2013. In April 2019, the High Court of Australia upheld these laws after they were challenged by two people arrested for violating them. The petitioners claimed their right to freedom of political communication had been denied as a result of the laws, though the court dismissed the appeals, saying the laws served a legitimate purpose. In August 2021, Western Australia became the last state to introduce safe access zones. In the months prior, patients at abortion clinics in that state were continuing to be approached and intimidated by protesters; footage was also obtained of anti-abortion protesters outside a Western Australian clinic at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, despite social distancing guidelines at the time. All jurisdictions have their exclusion zone at 150m around abortion clinics at all times, except for the Australian Capital Territory which may set a zone of 50m with approval from a health minister.
Abortion laws
Federal involvement Abortions are partially funded under Medicare, the federal government-funded public health scheme. As of 2015, Medicare effectively halved the cost of surgical abortion, and those provided by private healthcare insurers, which are also regulated by the federal government. The federal government also provides funding to public hospitals, and can thereby influence abortion policy and practice. Abortions and abortion advice are regarded as health services, and are exempt from the Goods and Services Tax (GST).
Summary of state laws