Abortion Laws in Australia: Key Features and Ethical Considerations | Report Summary

Running head: ABORTION
Abortion
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1ABORTION
Executive Summary
This report primarily focuses on the abortion and related laws of Australia. In Australia, the rate
of unplanned pregnancy is very high and as a result the abortion related mortality and morbidity
also causes alarming situation to the country. Hence, the various abortion laws and legislation
come into practice and make the situation easy for the woman in Australia. In most of the states,
the abortion has become a lawful practice along with a few exceptions.

2ABORTION
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Key Features of Australian Legal System regarding Abortion.......................................................3
Policy...............................................................................................................................................5
Laws in Different States..................................................................................................................6
Analysis of the Laws in Different States.........................................................................................7
Ethical Considerations.....................................................................................................................8
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................9
References......................................................................................................................................10

3ABORTION
Introduction
Abortion issues in Australia is seriously regulated by various states and territories and
federal government is not directly interfering with this issues. However, abortion is permitted in
Australia with very specific situations. Moreover, it is observed that, the abortion is mainly used
to protect the women in Australia from severe life threatening condition. In Australia, there are
no such places where the woman needs to take permission for the process of abortion. The
judiciary system of Australia will not grant a command to restrict a pregnant woman from
terminating her pregnancy. In addition, there is no waiting period for an abortion procedure in
Australia. Except the region of Western Australia, no consent is required from the parents of a
minor for the process of abortion. In Western Australia, the abortion process must be notified to
one of the parents in case of minors under the age of 16 years. However, if the minor has the
permission from the children court, she don’t even need any consent from the parents. At first,
no action was taken in any cases of abortion for the women who are seeking it. Therefore it is
also true that, if a woman is in the 28th week of her pregnancy, the abortion or termination of
pregnancy will be counted as a crime of child destruction in a few states and territories of
Australia (Gotsis and Ismay 2017). In this report, the legislation regarding the abortion in
different territories of Australia is discussed. In addition, the concepts and principles of laws of
the abortion, recommendations for the ethicolegal dilemmas in the service delivery are also
highlighted in a brief manner.
Key Features of Australian Legal System regarding Abortion
The different territories and states have different laws and legislation regarding the issue
of abortion. In Australia, there are a number of legislations that have decriminalized the cases of