On Wednesday night, South Australia’s upper house passed a bill to restrict late-term abortions.
For a bill to become law in the state, it must pass both houses of Parliament. This bill didn’t pass the lower house.
Activist Dr Joanna Howe, a supporter of the bill and of restricting abortion, posted to Instagram saying: “We passed the first pro-life bill in a house of parliament”.
Let’s unpack the bill and Howe’s claim.
Background
South Australia’s Parliament is ‘bicameral’, meaning it has a lower and upper house.
Members of either house can introduce a bill, but it must go through both houses. If it passes the lower house, it must be debated and reviewed in the upper house, and vice versa.
Almost all Australian parliaments are bicameral. QLD and the territories each have one house of Parliament.
In November 2025, the SA upper house voted against independent MLC Sarah Game’s bill to restrict abortions after 22 weeks and six days.
Latest bill
Under SA law, medical practitioners have to answer certain questions to perform an abortion after 22 weeks and six days:
- Is it necessary to “save the life of the pregnant person or another foetus”?
- Is there a risk to the physical and mental health of the pregnant person, or of serious foetal anomalies?
Last month, Game introduced a new bill to amend abortion laws, restricting them after 24 weeks and six days.
Abortions after that point would only be allowed if two doctors agreed it was necessary to save the pregnant person’s life.
On Wednesday, Game announced she would join conservative party Family First, which is against abortion in most cases.
Later that day, her amendment bill passed the upper house 10 votes to nine.
In the lower house, MPs voted it down 36 to nine.
It was introduced as a conscience vote, meaning members did not need to vote along party lines.
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Labor Premier Peter Malinauskas and Liberal Opposition Leader Ashton Hurn voted in favour of the bill.
Is it the first bill?
On Wednesday, Howe described Game’s legislation as “the first pro-life bill to pass an Australian house of Parliament”.
In a media release on Thursday, Family First Party National Director Lyle Shelton called it “the second time in history,” raising a previous example.
The ACT’s Legislative Assembly passed a requirement in 1998 for a 72-hour “cooling off period” between asking for and getting a termination. It undid the requirement in 2002.
TDA reached out to Howe, who said it is the first time a bill has passed a house of parliament since “abortion up to birth... was first introduced”.
Every jurisdiction in Australia requires two doctors to approve a termination in the late stages of gestation.
The only exception is the ACT, which does not have the facilities to perform these kinds of terminations so has not legislated for them.
The SA Abortion Reporting Committee reported 1% (48) of all abortions in 2024 were performed after 22 weeks and six days, which is within the second trimester.
The reasonings for these terminations were:
- the physical or mental health of the pregnant person (68%)
- foetal anomaly (30%)
- to save the life of the pregnant person or another foetus (1%).
Doctors could nominate multiple reasons for terminating a pregnancy.
Response
In the Family First media release, Shelton said “credit must be given” to Howe “for initiating several pro-life bills in recent years, including last night’s”.
Addressing the vote, Howe called it a “truly historic, breakthrough moment for our movement” and that “we couldn’t be more pleased at achieving this landmark victory.”
SA Health Minister Blair Boyer voted against the bill, saying he is “firmly of the belief that we already have a fit for purpose legislative framework that treats abortion as healthcare.”
