Doctors would become unwitting “parties to crime” if laws are passed attempting to prevent abortion for gender selection, a high-profile GP has warned. 

The NSW Parliament is considering legislation to remove a century-old statute from the state’s criminal code that treats abortion as an offence carrying penalties of up to 10 years’ imprisonment.

The new bill, authored by a cross-party working group of MPs, allows terminations for any reason up to 22 weeks’ and later abortions if two doctors considering all the circumstances agree a termination is necessary.

But there have been demands from some MPs for the bill to be amended to include a specific ban on terminations based on the gender of the fetus.