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Abortion in Australia is a subject of state law rather than national law. The grounds on which abortion is permitted in Australia vary from state to state. In every state, abortion is legal to protect the life and health of the woman, though each state has a different definition. There is no law anywhere in Australia that requires the notification or consent of a woman's sexual partner. There is also no enforced waiting period for an abortion. Except in Western Australia, a minor does not require parental consent or notification. Early-term surgical abortions are generally available around Australia for those women who seek them. The procedure is partially funded under Medicare, the government-funded public health scheme, or by private healthcare insurers. Prosecutions against medical practitioners for performing abortions have not occurred for decades, with one exception – a prosecution in 1998 in Western Australia that soon after led to the explicit legalisation of on-request abortions under certain circumstances in that state. RU-486, an abortifacient widely used overseas, has been available in Australia only since February 2006. When 'a child capable of being born alive' (usually taken to mean after 28 weeks of pregnancy), a termination may be subject to a separate crime of child destruction in some States and Territories. ==History== Abortion in Australia has always been regulated by state (previously colonial) law. Before the end of the 19th century, each colony had adopted the Imperial ''Offences Against the Person Act 1861'', which in turn was derived from English laws from 1837, 1828 and 1803, which made abortion illegal under any circumstance. Since then, abortion law has continued to evolve in each State by case law and changes in legislation. A legal precedent concerning the legality of abortion was set in Australia in 1969, by the ''Menhennitt ruling'' in the Victorian Supreme case ''R v Davidson'',〔''R v Davidson'' (1969 V.R. 667)〕 which held that abortion was lawfully justified if "necessary to preserve the physical or mental health of the woman concerned, provided that the danger involved in the abortion did not outweigh the danger which the abortion was designed to prevent." The ruling was later largely adopted by courts in New South Wales (with the Levine ruling of 1971) and Queensland (McGuire ruling of 1986), and was influential in some other states. Over time this has come to be broadly defined so as to include the mental health of the woman, to which an unwanted pregnancy is interpreted as clinically injurious. There are anti-abortion groups and individuals in Australia, some of whom stage protests outside clinics providing abortions. However, the wider public seems largely happy with the ''status quo'', and most politicians prefer to avoid the topic entirely, if possible. However, a number of federal politicians have expressed anti-abortion views including Senator Ron Boswell (who was for a time National Party leader in the Senate), Barnaby Joyce (when he was a Senator, and is now Deputy Leader of the National Party) and Tony Abbott (when he was federal Health Minister), who in 2004 described the scale of abortion as a "national tragedy". RU-486, a drug widely used overseas as an abortifacient, was effectively used in Australia in 1996. This was because of a deal in the federal Senate between anti-abortion Tasmanian Senator Brian Harradine and the major parties to get his vote on other issues. Abortifacient drugs were designated as "restricted goods" for which approval from the health minister had to be obtained before the drug could even be assessed by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), without which drugs cannot be sold in Australia, in effect vesting the minister with a veto over such drugs. Health Minister Tony Abbott, and previous ministers, used this process to prohibit the sale of RU-486 in Australia, by refusing the drug being assessed by the TGA. In late 2005, a private member's bill was introduced in the Senate and passed on 10 February 2006 to transfer the veto over abortifacients from the health minister to the TGA. The bill was approved by the Houses of Representatives in March 2006.〔Albury, Rebecca. "Too Many, Too Late and the Adoption Alternative: Shame and Recent Abortion Debates" uow.edu.au〕 Abbott responded to the vote by calling for the addition of a Medicare item number for funding of alternative counselling to pregnant women through church-affiliated groups to lower the national abortion rate, without success. In 2010, while seeking election as Liberal Party leader, Abbott pledged not to make any changes to abortion laws, to ban funding for abortions through Medicare or to ban drug RU-486.〔 The violence seen in the United States against abortion providers has generally not occurred in Australia, with two exceptions. In 2001, Peter Knight forced his way into a Melbourne clinic carrying a rifle, kerosene, and equipment to lock the doors of the clinic. Three people attempted to disarm him after he pointed his rifle at a woman at the clinic. He shot and killed a security guard. Afterwards, Knight, described by the prosecution as a "hermit obsessed with killing abortion doctors" was convicted of murder.〔(R v Knight [2002] VSC 498 (19 November 2002) )〕 On 6 January 2009 A firebombing using Molotov cocktails was attempted at a medical clinic in Mosman Park, Western Australia. Faulty construction of the bombs limited damage to a single external burnt area, though if successful damage would have been severe. It is believed that the individuals who made the attack were responsible for graffiti "baby killers" on the site, indicating an anti-abortion reason for the attack. The site turned out to in fact not be an abortion clinic, though the attackers most likely were not aware of this.〔.〕 Another tactic adopted by anti-abortion campaigners is to form picket lines outside premises where abortions are being performed, this was also including the Suva Private hospital. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Abortion in Australia」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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