Fines or Up to 5 Years Jail for Performing Abortions for Sex Selection; Health Practitioners Lose Insurance Cover and Face Misconduct Charges
Abortion Law Reform Amendment (Sex Selection Prohibition) Bill 2025
Private Member's BillLegislative Council
Legislative Assembly
Assent
Introduced by: John Ruddick MLC (LIBT)
Links to official parliament websites
Effects of this bill
If this bill passes, it means that:
The Debate
What different members said when this bill was debated:
Mark Latham IND
“I resume my contribution to debate on the Abortion Law Reform Amendment (Sex Selection Prohibition) Bill 2025. In some communities, preferences have deep cultural roots, meaning that girls are most often the ones not carried to term. Globally, more than 23 million documented missing female births have been linked to these practices.”
Cameron Murphy ALP
“I do not support the Abortion Law Reform Amendment (Sex Selection Prohibition) Bill 2025 in any form. This bill is based on a fallacy. There is no evidence that sex-selective abortion is happening in New South Wales at all, let alone in the large numbers claimed by the proponents of the bill.”
Scott Barrett NAT
“I open by saying there has been some disappointing behaviour in relation to the Abortion Law Reform Amendment (Sex Selection Prohibition) Bill 2025. I recall from other conscience votes in this place seeing the very best of what we should expect politics to be, but that was not so much with this debate.”
Sarah Mitchell NAT
“I contribute to debate on the Abortion Law Reform Amendment (Sex Selection Prohibition) Bill 2025. I acknowledge, and associate myself with, a lot of the remarks made by my colleague the Hon. Scott Barrett. He summed up his view extremely well. It certainly aligns with my view, and with my position on this bill.”
Aileen MacDonald LIB
“I thank the Hon. John Ruddick for bringing this bill before the House. From the outset, I want to be clear that I share the concerns that underlie it. Terminating a pregnancy because the baby is a girl is sex‑based discrimination—and Parliament has already said, on the record, that it opposes this practice. On that principle, I am in agreement with the honourable member.”
Mark Banasiak SFFP
“I support the Abortion Law Reform Amendment (Sex Selection Prohibition) Bill 2025 brought by the Hon. John Ruddick. When difficult social issues come before this House, it is often tempting for members to retreat to familiar positions and assume every debate must fit neatly into an existing ideological camp. I do not believe that it is the case here.”
Damien Tudehope LIB
“Unsurprisingly, I support the Abortion Law Reform Amendment (Sex Selection Prohibition) Bill 2025. The bill raises a question that ought to be capable of commanding support well beyond those who share my broader opposition to abortion: Should the law permit the deliberate ending of an unborn child’s life simply because that child is female?”
Scott Farlow LIB
“I support the Abortion Law Reform Amendment (Sex Selection Prohibition) Bill 2026 being read a second time and preface that I will support many of the amendments foreshadowed by the Hon. Stephen Lawrence, particularly those with respect to including a defence and to practitioners knowingly being aware of the sex selection occurring.”
John Ruddick LIBT
“I also thank my colleagues for the tone in which the debate has been conducted. I particularly thank the warhorse of the pro-life movement, the Hon. Damien Tudehope, who delivered a terrific summary speech today. I also thank the Hon. Stephen Lawrence, who has proposed good amendments that I will endorse if we get to that point.”
News articles and press releases
Abortion Law Reform Amendment (Sex Selection Prohibition) Bill 2025
The Hon. JOHN RUDDICK — 2025-10-22
The bill seeks to end the practice of aborting unborn babies based on nothing other than their sex. Whether a person believes in God, Mother Nature or evolution, we are all agreed that, for whatever reason, the natural pattern is that for every 100 baby girls born, 105 baby boys are born. Demographers have known of this pattern for over three centuries. That statistic is consistent across time and ethnic groups. But with the advent of modern medicine and the ability to determine the sex of a baby in the womb very early, there have been studies that have indicated that the ratio of 100 girls for every 105 boys can sometimes be way out of whack, resulting in what is known as a skewed sex ratio at birth.