"We have limited medical professionals willing to be involved in terminations, we have almost no access to state public hospitals to have terminations," she said. Professor Douglas said there were few practitioners in Queensland, compared with the population, so when a doctor retired or left, the impact on services in the region was quite severe. "There's recent incidents in Cairns for example, where a person has stopped giving terminations, and I'm hearing that women are being flown down to Victoria for terminations," she said. "And certainly, in my work with Children by Choice, I'm aware that women are flying interstate for terminations on a reasonably regular basis. "So the law has real implications for women's lives."

Professor Douglas spoke at the Unplanned Pregnancy and Abortion in Australia Conference, held recently in Brisbane. Children by Choice data, based on the 553 women they had financially supported in two years to June 2017, showed 158 were from outside south-east Queensland. Of these, 15 per cent had to travel more than 600 kilometres each way to access a termination and half had to travel more than 50 kilometres each way. The furthest distance was more than 1350 kilometres each way - the equivalent of Mount Isa to Rockhampton, or 14 hours in the car. Two women from south-east Queensland travelled to Victoria for terminations between 20 to 24 weeks' gestation after requesting financial assistance from Children by Choice in the past two years.

In Queensland, private clinics cannot provide abortions after 19 weeks and six days, while Victoria can provide them up until 23 weeks and six days. Public hospitals account for only about 2 per cent of terminations in Queensland. There are only two clinics outside the south-east which provide surgical abortion, in Rockhampton and Townsville. It was estimated about 12,000 terminations took place each year in Queensland, with Children by Choice supporting about 250 to 300 per year with financial assistance. That meant the total number of women facing long travel distances to access an abortion was likely much higher.

Professor Douglas said women carrying a child with foetal abnormalities could face difficulties accessing a termination in Queensland. "A woman was talking to me recently asking what she could do, she had tried to obtain a termination because of a late term recognition that there was a [fatal] foetal abnormality," she said. "She had to wait three weeks for an ethical committee to sit at the hospital to make a decision on whether she could have access to a termination. "Three weeks is a long time in pregnancy." Professor Douglas said people had been prosecuted under Queensland's laws, written in 1899, although occasionally updated since then.

"It's not impossible to imagine that a young woman could be convicted in this state," she said. Independent member for Cairns Rob Pyne introduced two private member's bills to decriminalise abortion but at the 11th hour, when it appeared they would fail on the floor of the Parliament, he withdrew them in February. On the same day, Labor promised to refer the current laws to the Queensland Law Reform Commission and bring a bill into the next term of Parliament. Professor Douglas said the referral to the commission was made in June and their work usually took at least 12 months. That places the return of the commission's report and recommendations after the next state election, due by May 2018.

At the Liberal National Party state convention in Brisbane last month, a resolution was carried calling on a future LNP government to "uphold the value of human life as being immeasurable and without comparison". That would include facilitating and encouraging the viability of adoption as a real choice, ensuring support was provided to any woman and her partner considering an abortion beyond 18 weeks and ensuring legislation was enforced requiring women to be informed of their rights and choices in relation to termination.