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For Professionals

Helping Clients Access Abortion in Queensland

Below is a summary of abortion access options in Queensland. Depending on your patient’s or client’s situation, you may need to provide them with some extra support to enable them to access a procedure – either in the form of referring them for some financial support to access a procedure through a GP or private clinic, or advocacy and referral to enable them to access a publicly provided procedure.

Options for accessing abortion in Queensland

Procedures

Surgical abortion: The procedure itself takes between three and ten minutes, however the average length of time spent at the clinic is between three and four hours because this includes pre and post operative care. A different procedure technique and timeframe applies for abortions after about fourteen weeks. They can also be more difficult and expensive to access after this time.

Medical abortion: This uses the drugs mifepristone (commonly known as RU486) and misoprostol to induce a miscarriage. Medical abortion is only available to nine weeks gestation, and patients will need to attend a follow-up appointment with their provider in most cases, around two weeks later.

Both procedures are very safe when performed by trained medical professionals. See our surgical abortion and medication abortion pages for more detailed information on procedures.

Providers

Private clinics: The majority of terminations in Queensland are performed in private day surgeries licensed by Queensland Health. There are around seven of these clinics, predominately operating in the southeast corner of the state. These clinics offer high-quality care. Some clinics only offer either medical or surgical abortion, some offer both. Gestation limits and costs vary from clinic to clinic. Queensland clinics are listed here.

Public hospitals: All public hospitals in Queensland are required to provide terminations or have a referral pathway in place for someone seeking a termination in their catchment. Get in contact with your local hospital to find out their current pathway or click here to know more.

GPs: Medical abortion is able to be prescribed by GPs who have undergone training to be certified prescribers. No public list of GP providers is available and most GPs still have out-of-pocket costs of over $250 for medical abortion. Some Queensland GPs who provide medical abortion in Queensland are listed here.

The cost of termination procedures vary depending on method, provider, location and the gestation of the pregnancy. Costs increase regularly, so check our abortion costs page for up to date information.