There are a series of barriers to abortion access in the ACT, including a "critical lack" of ultrasound equipment and outdated models of care forcing patients to travel as far as Brisbane to access abortions.
An inquiry has also found it is "unacceptable" and "problematic" that one of the territory's major hospitals does not provide full reproductive services.
The government should also extend protest exclusion zones near abortion clinics from 50 metres to 150 metres, the Legislative Assembly's standing committee on health and wellbeing recommended.
The committee handed down a report from its inquiry into abortion access in the territory, making 18 recommendations to improve access.
Among those was improving access to ultrasounds and later-term abortions in the ACT.
The committee said abortion was time critical and could not be treated like other elective surgeries but it said this awareness had not translated to other medical processes such as examinations needed before termination.
"A failure to expediently provide this suite of services will not only impact on the type of abortion that is provided (administration of abortifacient [medical] or surgical abortion) but also on whether or not a patient is forced to endure an unwanted pregnancy," the report said.
The committee heard from a local general practitioner around a lack of ultrasound equipment in the territory and this affected those who seek treatment later in their pregnancy.
"Access to pregnancy ultrasounds for the whole Canberra community, no matter how wealthy or affluent you are, is difficult and hard to get in a very timely way," the GP said.
"Particularly in the service where I work, people will present very late with an unplanned pregnancy, for a range of reasons, and so we have often not got the weeks available for people to be able to make their choice of option, which is that they wish to terminate the pregnancy."
This makes it especially difficult in the territory as there is a 16-week gestational limit for surgical abortions in the ACT.
It is not a legislative requirement in the ACT but rather abortions after this time require additional accreditation requirements. This limit is the result of a "hangover from having developed these models of care and relevant infrastructure under previous legal restrictions".
Patients have needed to travel to Sydney or as far as Brisbane to access abortions after 16 weeks. The committee recommended the government invest in infrastructure to provide abortions after this time.
The committee also recommended the government advocate for Calvary Hospital to provide full reproductive health services.
There was a submission to the inquiry from a woman who said she was refused medical treatment after a miscarriage. She needed a procedure to remove remaining tissue from her uterus but there was a waiting period of several months at Canberra Hospital.
She was told Calvary Hospital would not perform the procedure because it has religious objections as the procedure, a dilation and curettage, is used for abortions.
The committee said the experience of this patient was "unacceptable".
"It is the committee's view that it is problematic that one of the ACT's major hospitals is, due to an overriding religious ethos, restricted in the services that can be delivered to the Canberra community," the report said.
However, Calvary chief medical adviser Tracey Tay said the hospital did provide this procedure to people who present at emergency departments. She said Canberra women could be assured Calvary Public Hospital in Bruce does offer care in the event of a miscarriage.
"Although Calvary does not offer an elective termination of pregnancy. Calvary does provide D&C for a range of gynaecological conditions," she said.
"The details in the report of the ACT inquiry into abortion and reproductive choice do not reflect Calvary's commitment to women in need of emergency health care when experiencing a miscarriage."
The committee also recommended the ACT extend protest exclusion zones around abortion clinics to 150 metres to be in line with other jurisdictions.
The Assembly passed a law in 2015 for a 50-metre exclusion zone but the committee said this should be expanded.
The report said it "refuses any justification" that the territory's exclusion zone of 50 metres is on the basis the city was small.
"Instead, the committee urges that ACT government to respect the clear mandate throughout Australian courts that 150 metres, and nothing less, comprises a safe zone to abortion facilities," the committee said.
The inquiry was prompted by the reversal of Roe v Wade in the United States.
Women's Health Matters chief executive Lauren Anthes said the report had identified there were barriers beyond cost for people wanting to access abortions in the ACT.
"The report means that the ACT government has a clear mandate for improving access to abortion for women and people with uteruses and has worked out the steps that are needed to get there," she said.
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