It is estimated that half of all pregnancies in Australia are unplanned, and that half of those are terminated. It is also estimated that between a quarter and a third of Australian women will experience a termination of pregnancy



There is no formal national monitoring of the number of terminations of pregnancy in Australia but it has been estimated that between 10,000 and 14,000 terminations are performed each year in Queensland, with most performed in the first trimester of pregnancy.



Queensland public hospitals provide limited termination services. Those terminations performed in public hospitals are usually carried out on the basis of fetal abnormality or maternal illness or complications.



Most women pay upfront at a private clinic for a termination.

Medical abortions through a GP in Queensland cost from $350 to $580 upfront before Medicare rebates, with costs as high as $790 for clinics in Rockhampton or Townsville, and as low as $40 at a Cairns clinic.

For surgical abortions the cost is from $400 to $760 for up to 12 weeks and from $810 to $1470 for 12–14 weeks, depending on where the woman lives.

Why is a law reform commission looking into this and not elected parliamentarians?

In February independent Cairns MP Rob Pyne withdrew bills to decriminalise abortion in Queensland a day before they were due to be debated in parliament after then Liberal National Party opposition leader Tim Nicholls vowed that “every single member” of his party would vote down the legislation.



The legislation would have failed, as Labor MPs had been given a conscience vote on the issue and other independents had indicated their opposition to abortion.



The bills were referred to the Queensland Law Reform Commission — which is expected to report early next year — and the Labor government has vowed to "modernise" the state's abortion laws.