Ms Stevenson welcomed an announcement by NSW Opposition leader Luke Foley on Wednesday that a Labor government would review the state’s archaic abortion laws.

It comes after the Queensland government passed legislation last week decriminalising abortion, leaving NSW the last state to have pregnancy terminations in the criminal code.

Keira MP Ryan Park said he would support any legislation put before parliament to change the outdated law, and Ms Stevenson would like to see other politicians follow suit.

“I’d like to see more from major political parties to really commit to putting this to parliament and voting on it to withdraw it from the criminal code,” she said.

“The law stems from 1900 – it’s 118 years old – and it was qualified in 1971 to say ‘with the permission of a doctor’, who has to assure the system that the woman wants to terminate otherwise it would have a material impact on her physical or mental health.

“In effect what it means is that the woman does not have autonomy over her body – that unless she gets the permission of a doctor then having an termination is unlawful and there’s the potential for prosecution.

“And it sends a very strong message to the community that a woman’s body is not her own in terms of pregnancy options and reproductive health and rights, which is a really damning message.”

Mr Park said changes to the law were “long overdue”.

“We need to listen to the overwhelming calls for legislative reform here in NSW,” he said.

“I believe that women have the right to choice on this matter and they should do so without feeling like a criminal. 

“Abortion is the only criminalised listed medical procedure in Australia thanks to an outdated piece of legislation.”

Mr Park said if the Berejiklian government wouldn’t act, then an incoming Labor Government would.

“We will ask the NSW Law Reform Commission to examine this area of the law and to present recommendations to the Parliament,” he said.

“Earlier this year I was proud to support ‘safe access zones’ around abortion clinics but more needs to be done.

“All Labor Party MP’s will be granted a conscience vote in relation to abortion legislation. I will be strongly supporting voting to decriminalise abortion in NSW.”

Meantime the Illawarra Women’s Health Centre has withdrawn its support for White Ribbon after the organisation removed its reproductive statement from its website after Queensland legalised abortion.

“We were horrified it withdrew the statement,” Ms Stevenson said.

“We know very well, and there’s a lot of evidence to show, that there’s a very strong intersection between violence against women and women’s rights to their sexual and reproductive health.

“We also know that if a women is pregnant she’s much more likely to be subjected to violence if she’s already in a domestic violence relationship. And women in domestic violence relationships are more likely to have unwanted pregnancies.

“So for White Ribbon to withdraw that shows they’re being incredibly irresponsible and around their understanding of violence against women quite subjective and also quite judgemental.”

Ms Stevenson said the organisation had since reinstated the statement, and would be clarifying their position with stakeholders.

“We will wait and see what their new statement will reveal,” she said, “but the fact they took it out suggests they have a very limited, very poor understanding of what violence against women truly means – and what that means in terms of her reproductive health and rights.”

Ms Stevenson was among hundreds of health and legal professionals at the Connecting Health and Justice Forum in Shellharbour on Wednesday, and hosted a session on the state’s termination laws.

“Getting abortion out of the criminal code is one thing,” she added. “Getting access is another.

“In the Illawarra Shoalhaven access to termination is incredibly limited and financially prohibitive.”

Elder abuse, domestic violence, pregnancy termination – these are just a few areas where the health and justice systems collide.

So strengthening partnerships between local health and justice services was the aim of the region’s third Connecting Health and Justice Forum on Wednesday.

Hundreds of South Coast health and legal professionals attended the event at Shellharbour’s civic centre, to learn more about each other’s roles.

A joint initiative of Legal Aid NSW and the Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District, the forum explored ways to help people before health concerns led to legal problems – and vice versa.

“It’s been shown by a lot of research, starting with the World Health Organisation Commission on Social Determinants on Health 10 years ago, that a person’s health is affected not only by medical factors but by social determinants,” Wollongong Legal Aid lawyer Megan Pikett said.

“It might be affected by the poverty they live in, whether they’re victims of violence or have been sexually abused, whether they’ve got debts or are homeless – there’s a lot of problems that impact a person’s health and can lead to legal issues.

“Conversely in the legal sector we see a lot of people who have legal problems, who have also got health issues such as depression as well. 

“The aim of the forum is to highlight that connection between health and justice issues, to get people who work in those services thinking about it and to make connections with each other.”

The forum heard from a range of speakers including NSW District Court Judge Warwick Hunt who highlighted the merits of “wrap-around services” that supported people facing multiple issues.

“Judges and magistrates need to take an evidence-based approach on what’s in front of us,” he said.

“Clearly people face all sorts of health issues, including mental health issues, that create challenges for them to interact positively with the criminal justice system.

“In sentencing we have to balance what’s been done against a massive picture of social disadvantage.”

He said it was hugely beneficial if health and justice agencies worked together to give a clearer picture of a person’s issues, and what steps they were taking to address them.

And he said more funding was needed for day and residential programs that helped people with addictions and other health issues.