The number of abortions in Queensland has not increased since pregnancy terminations were decriminalised two years ago.
In 2018, Queensland became the second-last state in Australia to remove the procedure from the criminal code after laws were introduced by the state Labor government.
Queensland and NSW were the last two Australian states to decriminalise abortion.Credit:Istock
NSW became the final state in the country to do so a year later, in 2019.
Changes to the Queensland law allowed abortion on request up to 22 weeks’ gestation, and introduced safe access zones of 150 metres around clinics to protect women from harassment.
Abortion after 22 weeks is also not a crime, but women must gain consent from two doctors. There is no requirement for mandatory counselling for women considering an abortion in Queensland.
The year after abortion was removed from the crime act there were 9496 terminations in both public and private facilities, an average of about 182 each week.
Answering a question from Independent MP Sandy Bolton, Health Minister Yvette D’Ath said the number of procedures had been “stable” since 2017, after decreasing each year since 2013.
“In 2013 we saw over 12,000 terminations,” she said.
“There were over 11,000 in 2014, 10,800 in 2015, over 10,400 in 2016 and … 9445 in 2017 and 9308 in 2018.”
