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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 9 Hansard (21 August) . . Page.. 2562 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):

I would submit that the plain words of that section support that contention. It is not the case, even on the face of the Crimes Act, that a woman will be prosecuted for seeking an abortion or obtaining an abortion. It is not the case.

What it does certainly address is a woman who performs an abortion on herself. That is a punishable offence. I wonder whether in the course of this debate we might just slip for a moment into the question: should perhaps we retain a penalty for a person performing an abortion procedure on herself?

One would like to think that a woman would not be in that position, would not be in a state of mind where she would want to do that to herself and to the child she carries. But is it wise to remove from the statute books a provision which deals with that very issue. That is all the section deals with, plainly.

The view that I have put on my reading of the section, the view of Mr Bogle of counsel, I understand, is also the view of parliamentary counsel in the ACT. I think it has also been put in other papers that have been tabled in the course of this debate.

We can continue to build up and inflate what it is that we are attacking, but whether it has justification or truth is another matter. The effect of this bill is that it strips away all criminal sanctions in relation to abortion. There are no offences in relation to abortion, at least on the face of Mr Berry's bill as it baldly stands before the house today.

Mr Berry: Wrong.

MR HUMPHRIES: I am afraid that in relation to abortion that is the case. There is no offence of conducting an abortion at nine months gestation, for example, on the face of this bill. If I am wrong, you can point to that Mr Berry when you sum up this debate, but I cannot see where it is.

I remind members that to put ourselves in that position would make us the only jurisdiction in the whole of Australia which has chosen to remove all criminal sanctions in relation to abortion. The Tasmanian parliament was presented recently with the option of removing all penalties in relation to abortion, and it chose not to go down that path.

I would submit to the house that to remove all penalties of this kind is dangerous. I want to give some examples of why I think it is dangerous. Some of these have been mentioned already. If a man assaults a woman to procure the death of her baby, what is the offence committed? Of course there is an assault on the mother, but that assault may be relatively minor compared with the harm occasioned to the child inside her. Is it really appropriate to charge a person in those circumstances merely with the assault on the mother?

What, for example, if a drug is administered to kill the child but not harm the mother? In those circumstances, arguably, under Mr Berry's regime, no offence would be committed. That disturbs me deeply.

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