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About the bill 

On 20 March 2024, Mr Robbie Katter MP, Member for Traeger, introduced the Termination of Pregnancy (Live Births) Amendment Bill 2024 into the Queensland Parliament and referred it to the Health, Environment and Agriculture Committee for examination. The committee is required to report on its examination of the Bill within 6 months of its introduction.

View: Explanatory speech 
View: Bill 
View: Explanatory Notes 
View: Statement of compatibility 

The stated objective of the Bill is to enshrine in legislation the protections for babies born as a result of a termination of pregnancy procedure. The Bill is intended to remove any doubt that babies born in these circumstances are entitled to the same degree of medical care and attention as a baby born in any other way.

The Bill amends the Termination of Pregnancy Act 2018 (Act) to:

• insert a new section (section 9A) to apply when a termination results in a live birth
• state that nothing in the Act prevents a ‘relevant person’ for the termination from exercising any duty to provide the person who is born with medical care and treatment that is clinically safe and appropriate to the person’s medical condition
• clarify that the duty owed by a registered health practitioner to provide medical care and treatment to a person born as a result of a termination is no different than the duty owed to provide medical care and treatment to a person born other than as a result of a termination
• define ‘relevant person’ for a termination resulting in a person being born, as a registered health practitioner who performed the termination, and other practitioners, including students, present at the time.

Further information

When published, further information about public proceedings, transcripts, and other documents related to the inquiry can be accessed under the Related Publications tab.

Call for submissions

To view the submissions, click on the ‘View Submissions’ tab above.

PUBLIC PROCEEDINGS

The committee held a public briefing on the Bill on Monday, 29 April 2024. 

The committee will hold a public hearing on Monday, 19 August 2024. 

Please note - attendees at public proceedings at Parliament House need to pass through security and must provide government issued photo identification (such as a driver licence) as proof of identification before being allowed entry. Please note that items, including clothing, displaying a political statement are prohibited without permission (see section 11, Parliamentary Service By-law 2023).

Committee’s report

The committee is required to table its report within 6 months of the introduction of the Bill. The report will be published here.

Timeline