The health authority in southern NSW has disputed claims abortions for medical reasons have been banned at Queanbeyan Hospital.
The ABC reported that medically necessary terminations were being provided at the hospital until August but were then stopped. It said a woman was told the procedure was not available on the day it was due to take place.
A Southern NSW Local Health District spokesperson said, "Queanbeyan Hospital continues to provide abortion care services, and is actively developing more reliable and visible care pathways to assist the women of our community."
Sources within the health system said the procedure hadn't been carried out in this one case at the hospital because of a confusion over information about the patient's condition. Since that incident, abortions have been available and continue to be available.
But it's believed no abortions have been conducted at the hospital since August, though sources said very few abortions were performed there in any case.
The situation may remain confused to potential patients. Queanbeyan Hospital has equipment for relatively simple procedures and sometimes refers people with more complicated needs to a bigger hospital, like Canberra. But it is not known if this is what happened in the situation in question.
"It has been identified that this procedure has been performed whilst there has been no supporting framework within the hospital," the ABC quoted a hospital email saying.
The health authority said "personal beliefs of staff cannot impact a woman's right to access abortion care. If individual clinicians conscientiously object, referral pathways are in place to ensure women can safely access care.
"These pathways to abortion care services will be made known to GPs and other relevant health providers."
The ABC reported of the Queanbeyan case that the woman had "received a call from the hospital, telling her there'd been a 'misunderstanding', and that staff had thought she was 20 weeks pregnant, not 14."
Sources within the health service confirmed that this was so, but said the confusion over the duration of the pregnancy meant the hospital didn't have the right facilities for the procedure rather than that it was blocking all abortions.
The NSW health minister Ryan Park said that there was no block on abortions at Queanbeyan Hospital.
"There is not and will not be a blanket ban on abortions across any hospital system In New South Wales," he told reporters.
He added that "clinicians make decisions based on capacity within a hospital and skill set within a hospital and the risk profile of a particular patient.
"I'm certainly not going to make judgments about that, but what I can assure the community is that that health service and the health services around women's health, and in this case, abortion is not something that is going to be banned across our hospital system anytime soon."
