Liberal leader refuses to show hand on contentious abortion bill

“I’ll be following NSW Health advice, as well as my own conscience, and voting yes to the substantially amended bill before us this week,” Sloane said.

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“I know not everyone will agree with me and I respect that, but I believe this vote is about dignity, safety and ensuring women are supported.

“Allowing highly trained nurse practitioners and endorsed midwives to prescribe the abortion pill before nine weeks I see as a sensible provision which is supported by NSW Health and brings us into line with other states.”

Health Minister Ryan Park has also said he will support the legislation.

But Speakman declined to say which way he will vote on the bill. In a statement, the opposition leader said it was “a sensitive issue where people hold strong and sincere but different views” and that Coalition MPs would “decide based on their own conscience.”

During the debate in the upper house, moderate Liberal Chris Rath apologised after he was criticised for invoking the Nazis’ genocide of Jews, saying it was “bizarre” that the termination of a pregnancy was categorised “as a human right to healthcare”.

Only two Liberal MPs – deputy leader Natalie Ward and fellow moderate Jacqui Munro – supported the bill in the upper house. Rath, Damien Tudehope, Susan Carter, Scott Farlow, Rachel Merton and Natasha Maclaren-Jones all opposed it. Aileen MacDonald did not vote.

The original bill included provisions which would have strengthened laws requiring conscientious objectors to refer patients to abortion providers, and legislated a responsibility for the health minister to ensure abortion services were provided within a “reasonable distance” from people’s homes.

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