South Australian Consolidated Acts South Australian Consolidated Acts82A—Medical termination of pregnancy
(1) Notwithstanding
anything contained in section 81 or 82, but subject to this section, a
person shall not be guilty of an offence under either of those sections—
(a) if
the pregnancy of a woman is terminated by a legally qualified
medical practitioner in a case where he and one other legally qualified
medical practitioner are of the opinion, formed in good faith after both have
personally examined the woman—
(i)
that the continuance of the pregnancy would involve
greater risk to the life of the pregnant woman, or greater risk of injury to
the physical or mental health of the pregnant woman, than if the pregnancy
were terminated; or
(ii)
that there is a substantial risk that, if the pregnancy
were not terminated and the child were born to the pregnant woman, the child
would suffer from such physical or mental abnormalities as to be seriously
handicapped,
and where the treatment for the termination of the pregnancy is carried out in
a hospital, or a hospital of a class, declared by regulation to be a
prescribed hospital, or a hospital of a prescribed class, for the purposes of
this section; or
(b) if
the pregnancy of a woman is terminated by a legally qualified
medical practitioner in a case where he is of the opinion, formed in good
faith, that the termination is immediately necessary to save the life, or to
prevent grave injury to the physical or mental health, of the pregnant woman.
(2)
Subsection (1)(a) does not refer or apply to any woman who has not
resided in South Australia for a period of at least two months before the
termination of her pregnancy.
(3) In determining
whether the continuance of a pregnancy would involve such risk of injury to
the physical or mental health of a pregnant woman as is mentioned in
subsection (1)(a)(i), account may be taken of the pregnant woman's actual
or reasonably foreseeable environment.
(4) The Governor may
make regulations—
(a) for
requiring any such opinion as is referred to in subsection (1) to be
certified by the legally qualified medical practitioners or practitioner
concerned in such form and at or within such time as may be prescribed and for
requiring the preservation and disposal of any such certificate made for the
purposes of this Act; and
(b) for
requiring any legally qualified medical practitioner who terminates a
pregnancy, and the superintendent or manager of the hospital in which the
termination is carried out, to give notice of the termination and such other
information relating to the termination as may be prescribed to the
Director-General of Medical Services; and
(c) for
prohibiting the disclosure, except to such persons or for such purposes as may
be prescribed, of notices or information given pursuant to the regulations;
and
(d)
declaring a particular hospital or a class of hospitals to be a prescribed
hospital or a prescribed class of hospitals for the purposes of this section;
and
(e) for
providing for, and prescribing, any penalty, not exceeding two hundred
dollars, for any contravention of, or failure to comply with, any regulations.
(5) Subject to
subsection (6), no person is under a duty, whether by contract or by any
statutory or other legal requirement, to participate in any treatment
authorised by this section to which he has a conscientious objection, but in
any legal proceedings the burden of proof of conscientious objection rests on
the person claiming to rely on it.
(6) Nothing in
subsection (5) affects any duty to participate in treatment which is
necessary to save the life, or to prevent grave injury to the physical or
mental health, of a pregnant woman.
(7) The provisions of
subsection (1) do not apply to, or in relation to, a person who, with
intent to destroy the life of a child capable of being born alive, by any
wilful act causes such a child to die before it has an existence independent
of its mother where it is proved that the act which caused the death of the
child was not done in good faith for the purpose only of preserving the life
of the mother.
(8) For the purposes
of subsection (7), evidence that a woman had at any material time been
pregnant for a period of twenty-eight weeks or more shall be prima facie proof
that she was at that time pregnant of a child capable of being born alive.
(9) For the purposes
of sections 81 and 82, anything done with intent to procure the
miscarriage of a woman is unlawfully done unless authorised by this section.
(10) In this section
and in sections 81 and 82—
"woman" means any female person of any age.