CHANGES would have to be made to a bill to decriminalise abortion in NSW before it was supported by member for Albury Justin Clancy.
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The Liberal MP on Monday announced his position on the Reproductive Health Care Reform Bill which is due to be debated by the NSW parliament on Tuesday.
Mr Clancy said he supported abortion no longer being deemed an offence under the Crimes Act, but could not support the bill to decriminalise it based on its current form.
"I recognise the principle that abortion should be moved from its current position in the Crimes Act into its own legislative framework," he said.
"(However) I would like to see amendments that help address concerns held in our community before I can give my support to the bill."
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Mr Clancy cited five areas of concern with the proposed legislation, based on feedback in the week he had received since the bill was unveiled by Sydney Independent MP Alex Greenwich.
The contentious matters related to informed consent, counselling to minors, conscientious objection, the threshold of 22 weeks for abortion on demand and abortion being allowed to term.
Mr Clancy believes the role of informed consent and counselling to minors should be addressed in legislation and wants more detail about how the threshold and abortion to term would operate.
On the matter of conscientious objection, Mr Clancy has been contacted by doctors and nurses with religious beliefs who believe the bill would still make them party to abortion via referral.
"The case is that it is not a successful delivery of a conscientious objection if the health professional is still caught up in a process which ends in a termination," he said.
"This is a matter capable of amendment and I feel an important aspect to attend to."
Mr Clancy spoke to Mr Greenwich in Sydney last week about the concerns.
"I see well-considered amendments as important to improve the bill and more fully express the intentions behind some of its key sections but I would not like to see this lead to undue delay in taking the bill to a vote," he said.
Mr Clancy said he would be amenable to amendments to the bill that met his concerns or having them addressed via policy.
He said hundreds of people have provided feedback to his office and there was a view across a spectrum that abortion should be not subject to the Crimes Act.
"I have found that many people (including many people from a faith background) hold a sense that the matter of abortion should not sit within the Crimes Act," Mr Clancy said.
"The criminalisation of the woman through law is a blunt way to promote human dignity - criminalisation leads to all involved being victims."
