An ACT parliamentary inquiry will consider how accessible abortion and reproductive choice is in the territory, in the wake of a landmark United States Supreme Court decision to overturn that country's right to abortion that has sparked global concern.
The Legislative Assembly's standing committee on health and community wellbeing will consider the accessibility of abortion services in the territory along with legal protections for the procedure.
"In response to what our community is seeing unfold overseas, now is the right time to reflect on the accessibility, affordability and legal protections for abortion and reproductive health services for people here in the ACT," the committee's chair, Johnathan Davis, said.
The inquiry has been prompted by the US Supreme Court's 6-3 decision, powered by a conservative majority, to overturn the 1973 decision in Roe versus Wade, which recognised a woman's constitutional right to an abortion.
The court, on June 24, upheld a Republican-backed Mississippi law that bans abortion after 15 weeks. The decision prompted law changes in a slew of states to ban or severely restrict abortions.
The decision has sparked global protests, including in Canberra where thousands have rallied over two weekends in Garema Place to express opposition to the Supreme Court decision.
While the decision has no legal effect on abortion rights in Australia, experts have warned it would encourage anti-abortion activists.
The Human Rights Law Centre's associate legal director, Adrianne Walters, said Australians needed to pay attention to the change in the United States, which would strip millions of women of their right to an abortion.
"What it demonstrates is the need for constant vigilance in Australia. Make no mistake, anti-abortion extremists in Australia will be emboldened," she told The Canberra Times last month.
References to abortion being a crime in the ACT were removed from the Crimes Act two decades ago, following concern prompted by a 1994 NSW Supreme Court decision, subsequently overturned, which reaffirmed abortion was illegal under the act. The ACT's criminal code was modelled on NSW's laws.
NSW decriminalised abortion in 2019, more than a century after it was included in the state's criminal code.
Abortion is presently accessible in the ACT up to the 16th week of pregnancy, ACT Health says on its website. After this point, people seeking abortions must travel to clinics in Sydney.
Pro-life supporters were banned from protesting within 50 metres of Canberra's abortion clinics under ACT laws that come into effect in 2016. The High Court upheld the validity of exclusion zones in 2019.
Submissions to the Assembly inquiry are open to 5pm on August 15. The inquiry will report by October 18.
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