Tasmania Removes Abortion from Criminal Code

news.com.au: Tas abortion reform removes stigma: govt:

TASMANIA'S new abortion laws will help remove the stigma around the procedure, the state's health minister says.

Minister Michelle O'Byrne's private members bill to remove abortion from Tasmania's criminal code has resulted in the state becoming the third jurisdiction in Australia to do so, joining Victoria and the ACT.

Ms O'Byrne said abortion should be dealt with as a health matter, not a criminal matter. . . .

The Guardian (opinion column): Abortion in Tasmania is decriminalised, but it wasn't an easy battle, by Briony Kidd:

Tasmania has removed abortion from its criminal laws after seven months of deliberations in parliament – but politicians have had to face a barrage of anti-choice tactics in the process

In the last days of her prime ministership this June, Julia Gillard attempted to warn of "abortion [becoming] the political plaything of men who think they know better” and was smacked down hard, first by the media and then her own party, for "cynically" raising the issue.

That same month in Tasmania, Labor health minister Michelle O'Byrne and pro-choicers were facing fierce opposition as they spearheaded a bill decriminalising abortion. The bill, which had passed through the lower house in April, was now debated by the largely conservative upper house. It finally passed this week. . . .