Review of termination of pregnancy laws [Report]. Vol. 76.

The current law under which terminations are regulated in Queensland —
as contained in sections 224, 225 and 226 of the Criminal Code — makes it a crime to ‘unlawfully’ terminate a woman’s pregnancy except in limited circumstances. The Queensland courts, in interpreting these sections, have adopted a ruling based on decisions in other jurisdictions that a termination by a medical practitioner, with the consent of the woman, is ‘lawful’ if it is necessary to preserve the woman from a serious danger to her life or her physical or mental health (not being merely the normal dangers of pregnancy and childbirth) which the continuance of the pregnancy would entail, and in the circumstances not out of proportion to the danger to be averted. The Commission was asked to conduct a review and investigation into modernising Queensland’s laws relating to the termination of pregnancy.