NSW will become the final state in the country to remove abortion from the Crimes Act after the bill passed the lower house on Thursday morning.
Abortion has been decriminalised in NSW as the bill has passed in the lower house unopposed after an eight week debate.
The amended bill has placated conservatives,including Mulgoa MP Tanya Davies and Riverstone MP Kevin Conolly,who had threatened to abandon the government if the bill was not amended.
But after 72 hours of debate across both chambers,including 40 hours in the upper house which saw 102 amendments and 26 divisions,the bill passed on voices.
It returned to the lower house for a final voteWednesday night. It is the third-longest debated bill in the history of the upper house.
Sydney MP Alex Greenwich introduced the draft legislation eight weeks ago,with 15 co-sponsors including Health Minister Brad Hazzard and MPs from across the political divide.
Independent MP Alex Greenwich is congratulated by Liberal MP Felicity Wilson after the passing of the bill to decriminalise abortion.Getty Images
An emotional Mr Greenwich said his"deepest gratitude"went to his parliamentary colleagues and to the"dedicated women’s rights campaigners who have fought toward this for decades".
"Abortion has been decriminalised in NSW. I am sorry this has taken so long,"he said.
Despite it undergoing changes,Mr Greenwich had urged lower house MPs to back the amended bill.
"None of the amendments that were put forward in the upper house in any way create new barriers for women to access safe and legal abortions in NSW,"he said.
Labor's Penny Sharpe,another co-sponsor,said it was"a massive step forward for women in NSW".
Premier Gladys Berejiklian was not in the chamber for the vote because she “had to run the state”.
“If there was a vote I would have been there but to be honest my first priority is to run NSW,” she said.
The bill caused division in the Liberals,with several conservative MPs furious at the process in which it was introduced and the involvement of ministers.
Mrs Davies,one of the architects of a failed leadership spill motion against the Premier last week,said she and Mr Conolly had been “absolutely stonewalled” during discussions over amendments.
“I felt there had to be a significant alarm ring to say that what was going on was completely unsatisfactory,” Mrs Davies said.
But Mrs Davies said she was confident relations could be repaired with her colleagues.
She revealed she had breakfast with Ms Berejiklian before the vote on Thursday and they had constructive discussions.
"The process this bill went through was not as it should have,but anyway,it is what it is and we are at a better place,"Mrs Davies said.
The signed document with the names of those protesting against the passing of the bill.Supplied
Mr Conolly said he did not vote against the final bill but described it as a"sad day for NSW".
"It's the first time in decades that we have on our statute books a law that allows one person to kill another,"he said.
In a last-ditch attempt to block the bill,10 MLCs from the upper house signed a protest which was delivered by the clerk's office to the Governor on Thursday afternoon.
The MPs included One Nation's Mark Latham and Rod Roberts;Labor's Courtney Houssos,Greg Donnelly and Shaoquett Moselmane;Liberals Matthew Mason-Cox and Lou Amato;Shooters,Fishers and Farmers Robert Borsak and Mark Banasiak and Christian Democrat Fred Nile.
The protest will have no impact,but was the last option for members to register opposition.