NSW politicians will resume their heated debate about a bill to decriminalise abortion after rebel Liberal backbenchers called off a spill motion to oust Premier Gladys Berejiklian over her handling of the issue.
The upper house will start considering changes to the private member's bill on Tuesday afternoon after Liberal MPs Tanya Davies, Lou Amato and Matthew Mason-Cox, who are angry at the premier's support of the bill, backed away from demanding a vote on her leadership.
The debate, which is expected to continue late into the night, comes after a weekend of demonstrations from supporters and opponents of the draft legislation.
In its current form, the Reproductive Health Care Reform Bill 2019 would allow terminations up to 22 weeks as well as later abortions if two doctors agree.
The bill passed the lower house 59-31 in August.
Independent MP Alex Greenwich, who introduced the bill, has called for parliament to come together to "ensure women and their doctors are appropriately protected under the law".
Protesters during an anti-abortion rally in Hyde Park, Sydney, Sunday, September 15, 2019. Source: AAP
Liberal and Labor MPs have been allowed a conscience vote, with opponents raising concerns about late-term abortions, conscientious objection, gender-based terminations and the way the bill was introduced.
A group of upper house MPs, including the Shooters' Robert Borsak, One Nation's Mark Latham, Labor's Courtney Houssos and the Liberals' Natasha Maclaren-Jones, are expected to push for a number of amendments this week.
Under some of their changes, medical practitioners would not perform terminations reasonably believed to be for sex selection or perform terminations after 20 weeks except to save the life of a mother or another unborn child.
Mr Borsak has said that as MPs "with very different perspectives on many issues", they are united in their determination to pursue the "vital" amendments.
But the changes have been criticised by the NSW Pro-Choice Alliance, which says they would "devastate" women's access to healthcare.
