A spokesperson from the Central Adelaide Local Health Network (CALHN) confirmed to InDaily that that the new “patient care zone” would have dedicated nursing staff and separate bathrooms for patients preparing for and following a surgical abortion.

They said the space, to form part of the new $314 million clinical services building currently under construction at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and due to open in the second half of 2024, would be purpose-designed for women undergoing surgical abortions.

“(It) will enable private and streamlined care for patients preparing for, and following, their surgical abortion,” the spokesperson said.

“Safe and quality care are our highest priority and every effort is made to ensure women have timely, safe, respectful and dignified access to termination of pregnancy services.”

Following changes introduced by SA Health in 2019, all surgical abortions were relocated from the main abortion provider in the state, the Pregnancy Advisory Centre (PAC) at Woodville, and into the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

The decision was due to concerns that the PAC’s ageing operating theatre no longer met safety standards.

The Queen Elizabeth Hospital. Photo: InDaily

Currently, women are consulted and have medical abortions performed at the PAC’s Woodville site, but those requiring surgery – including for pregnancies of more than seven weeks – must go to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital’s day surgery ward.

In December, InDaily reported concerns from the Australian Medical Association that it was not safe for surgical abortions to be performed in general operating wards.

Australian Medical Association SA obstetrician and gynaecologist representative Dr Brian Peat said at the time that some women “may come up against people who have different views” about abortion, which could be a “traumatic” experience.

“There’s lots of awkward things, for example, if someone is having medication to start the process of their abortion and they start to get pain and bleeding, they have to go onto a bed and to do that they have to go into recovery with all the other recovery patients, which just is not ideal,” he said in December.

“If we are going to protect that clientele through this difficult situation then safety is a big element.”

Once the new clinical services building is built, surgical abortions will take place in an operating theatre and immediate post-care will be provided in a general recovery zone.

Patients will then be moved to a second stage recovery area where they will be cared for by dedicated staff.

Peat, who is also a member of the South Australian Abortion Action Coalition (SAAAC), told InDaily this morning that the change was welcomed.

But he said the AMA and SAAAC remained concerned that the Queen Elizabeth Hospital was unable to perform surgical abortions after more than 22 weeks’ gestation, as is now permitted under the state’s new termination of pregnancy laws which came into effect last year.

That is because the Queen Elizabeth Hospital is not a maternity hospital and is unable to perform induction of labour, which is required for later-term abortions.

“It’s great to have a better system and separate space, which will be much better in the long-run, but we’re still working to the pre-decriminalisation era,” he said.

“We’d like to have an integrated system for those very rare cases where it is beyond 22 weeks.

“There needs to be a pathway.”

AMA SA president Dr Michelle Atchison told state parliament’s Health Services Select Committee earlier this month that she met with the Women’s and Children’s Hospital to discuss whether abortion services could be shifted to the new hospital once it is built by 2032.

“There are pros and cons for that service, clearly, to be sitting within a Women’s and Children’s Hospital, so that’s an ongoing discussion that needs to be had,” she said.

Latest SA Abortion Reporting Committee data, tabled in parliament last week, shows that in 2021, there were 4597 abortions recorded in South Australia, compared with 4681 the year prior.

The abortion rate in South Australia has been declining over the past decade.