00:00Abortion was decriminalised in New South Wales in 2019, but unfortunately that wasn't actually
00:07followed up with service provision.
00:09And I've heard from so many people who are still travelling hundreds of kilometres to
00:13access care, especially in rural and regional New South Wales, forking out hundreds or thousands
00:17of dollars to access care in the private system.
00:20The bill would also allow nurse practitioners and endorsed midwives to prescribe medical
00:24abortion.
00:25This is something that's permitted by the TGA.
00:27It's already happening in Queensland in the ACT, and this is just about bringing that
00:30New South Wales legislation up to date.
00:33It would also remove onerous and bureaucratic mandatory reporting requirements that are
00:37real barriers for practitioners, and require practitioners who have a conscientious objection
00:42to providing abortion to actually refer a patient onward, and that's something that's
00:46already in legislation in Victoria and the Northern Territory.
00:50What sort of response have you had from your parliamentary colleagues so far, if any?
00:57We've heard heart-wrenching stories here in New South Wales in recent months of people
01:01being refused abortion care in public hospitals in places like Orange and Queanbeyan.
01:06I think there is a real understanding of these problems and a mood for change.
01:12Your changes wouldn't force every smaller healthcare facility to offer abortion care.
01:18So would there be discretion for some doctors and facilities, and then what would the options
01:24there be for those patients seeking that care?
01:30The bill proposes a very broad duty to ensure that abortion services are provided within
01:35a reasonable distance of where people live.
01:38What might be reasonable for someone in Gunnedah or Wilkenya or Albury is very different from
01:42what's reasonable in Western Sydney, so that section of the bill has been deliberately
01:46drafted to provide quite a lot of flexibility.
01:50But I think there is a real community expectation that these services are available at
01:54public hospitals.
01:55A significant number of public hospitals do have the technical capacity and the expertise
02:00to be providing surgical abortion care, particularly up to 12 or 15 weeks, and there really needs
02:05to be a responsibility for the public health system to step in and provide those services.
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