Abortion Laws in Papua New Guinea

PAPUA NEW GUINEA. 
Criminal Code.

Section 280.  Surgical operations

A person is not criminally responsible for performing in good faith and with reasonable care and skill a surgical operation on—

(a) any person for his benefit; or

(b) an unborn child for the preservation of the mother’s life,

if the performance of the operation is reasonable, having regard to the patient’s state at the time and to all the circumstances of the case.

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Section 291.  Subject to the succeeding provisions of this Code, any person who causes the death of another, directly or indirectly, by any means, shall be deemed to have killed the other person.

Section 292.  Death by acts done at childbirth

When a child dies in consequence of an act done or omitted to be done by any person before or during its birth, the person who did or omitted to do the act shall be deemed to have killed the child.

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Section 312.  Killing unborn child

A person who, when a woman is about to be delivered of a child, prevents the child from being born alive by any act or omission of such a nature that, if the child had been born alive and had then died, he would be deemed to have unlawfully killed the child is guilty of a crime.

Penalty:  subject to section 19, imprisonment for life.