A Parliament’s Right to Choose: Abortion Law Reform in South Australia

In December 1969, the South Australian parliament passed an act to permit abortions under certain circumstances, becoming the first Australian jurisdiction to legalise the procedure in statute law. This article examines the motivations behind the introduction of the reform and the reasons given by politicians for their support. It argues that, unlike abortion campaigns in later decades, the legislation was not aimed at granting women self-determination. Rather, its success was dependent on two arguments: the liberal ideal that morality should be separated from the law, and that safe abortion was a public health issue.