A victory for abortion rights in Australia
20 April 2017
In Australia’s Northern Territory (NT), a bill to amend the Northern Territory Medical Services Act, in order to decriminalise abortion, has passed in parliament. Voted through by 20 votes to four, this new bill brings in dramatic, positive changes for women in the NT seeking abortion services.
Women will no longer have to visit hospitals – sometimes hundreds of miles from home – to access abortion services. Instead, they can now attend specialist, local clinics. The bill also legalises the use of abortion drugs such as RU486 for up to nine weeks into pregnancy, offering women the non-surgical option to terminate a pregnancy in its infancy. As well as this, the bill officially changes the criminal code, meaning abortion is no longer regulated by the criminal law in the NT.
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