Western Australian Current Acts

PUBLIC HEALTH ACT 2016 - SECT 202MI

202MI .         Obligations of medical practitioners and prescribing practitioners who refuse to participate in abortion

        (1)         This section applies if —

            (a)         a person (the patient ) —

                  (i)         requests a medical practitioner or prescribing practitioner to perform an abortion on the patient; or

                  (ii)         makes a request to a medical practitioner that would require the medical practitioner to make a decision under section 202ME(1)(a) whether performing an abortion on the patient is appropriate in all the circumstances; or

                  (iii)         requests a medical practitioner or prescribing practitioner to advise the patient about the performance of an abortion on the patient;

                and

            (b)         the medical practitioner or prescribing practitioner (the refusing practitioner ) refuses the request, whether for the reason that the refusing practitioner has a conscientious objection to abortion or for some other reason.

        (2)         The refusing practitioner must —

            (a)         without delay transfer the patient’s care —

                  (i)         to another registered health practitioner who, in the refusing practitioner’s reasonable belief, can provide the requested service; or

                  (ii)         to a health facility at which, in the refusing practitioner’s reasonable belief, the requested service can be provided by another registered health practitioner;

                or

            (b)         immediately give the patient information, approved by the Chief Health Officer for the purposes of this paragraph, about how to locate or contact a registered health practitioner of the kind referred to in paragraph (a)(i) or a facility of the kind referred to in paragraph (a)(ii).

        (3)         Information approved by the Chief Health Officer for the purposes of subsection (2)(b) —

            (a)         must be kept up-to-date, and reviewed at least once each year, by the Chief Health Officer; and

            (b)         must not contain details of —

                  (i)         a registered health practitioner unless, in the Chief Health Officer’s reasonable belief, the registered health practitioner is of the kind referred to in subsection (2)(a)(i); or

                  (ii)         a health facility unless, in the Chief Health Officer’s reasonable belief, the facility is of the kind referred to in subsection (2)(a)(ii).

        (4)         This section does not limit or otherwise affect any duty of the refusing practitioner to do a thing referred to in subsection (1)(a) in an emergency.

        [Section 202MI inserted: No. 20 of 2023 s. 8.]