Abortion Notification System

The Maternal and Child Health (MCH) team manages the Abortion Notification System. The Chief Health Officer is the data steward and the Principal Data Management Officer of MCH is the data custodian.

The WA Health (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1911 (external site) requires that medical practitioners report information about induced abortion they perform. Information to be reported is specified on the Abortions Notifications Form 1 Reg 2 (PDF 91KB).

The Health (Section 335(5)(d) Abortion Notice) Amendment Regulations 2001 (external site) last amended and published 22 October 2001 regulates the use and contents of Form 1.

Notifications received from medical practitioners working in public and private services about all induced abortions performed in Western Australia.

The data items contained in the WA Abortion Notification System are described with metadata for events from Jan 2001 (external site).

Information is about the pregnancy, reason for induced abortion and procedures used to perform the abortion. Minimal demographic data for Aboriginal status, age and postcode are collected about the woman. Information provided does not enable identification of women who had an induced abortion.

All information provided on Form 1 is added to the Abortion Notification System through data entry.

Inclusions

• Medical and surgical abortions in hospital settings
• Medical abortions in outpatient settings
• Medical abortions conducted remotely
• Single fetus termination in a multiple pregnancy

Exclusions

• Nil

Cooperative processes (PDF 32KB) between Maternal and Child Health and reporting medical practitioners aim to ensure data quality improvement and measurement.

Reports about induced abortions are published regularly.

Aggregate (summarised) data reporting is also available upon request. Aggregation of data will suppress names of medical practitioners and health services and will not report small cell values (less than 5).

Requests for data must be directed to Birth Data.

A review conducted in 2001 resulted in changes to the collection. The report of the Review of Provision of the Health Act 1911 and the Criminal Code Relating Abortion (PDF 369KB) was published in 2002.

There have been no changes to the collection since 2001. Form 1 (PDF view) had formatting and submission address changed in 2009.

Changes to Form 1 require legislative amendment and may require changes to reporting processes and information systems used by medical practitioners.

Changes to Form 1 must be recommended by the Data Steward and approved as an amendment to Regulations for Form 1 of the WA Health (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1911.

Requests for changes to the collection must be directed as an email to the Principal Data Management Officer, MCH to Birth Data.

For links to current E-form version of Form 1 see link under heading "Related Links".

An E-form has been developed to assist in directly notifying cases using a secure online form.

A Guide (PDF 1MB) is available to assist with using the E-form to submit a Form 1 notification.

If a paper notification process is preferred, a paper copy of Form 1 (PDF 91KB) can be provided to medical practitioners free of charge as a duplicate, no carbon required (NCR) form.

The original (top) copy of the NCR form must be provided within 14 days of the abortion being performed.

Self addressed pre-paid envelopes can be supplied to ensure forms are returned to the correct address shown below.

Maternal and Child Health
Department of Health, WA
Reply Paid 70042 (Delivery to Locked Bag 52)
PERTH BC WA 6849
Marked: PRIVATE & CONFIDENTIAL

• E-form version (see "Related Links")
• Form 1 2009 current (PDF 91KB)
• Form 1 2001 (PDF 97KB)
• Form 1 1998 (PDF 72KB) 

For information about how to notify to the Abortion Notification System email Birth Data.

Maternal and Child Health
Tel: (08) 6373 1882
Fax: (09) 9222 4408
Email: birthdata@health.wa.gov.au