After years of sustained pressure from women's health advocates and local council, New South Wales's largest inland hospital is investigating how it could offer access to surgical abortion.

The Murumbidgee Local Health District (MLHD), which covers an area of 125,000 square kilometres and has an estimated population of nearly 250,000 people, includes the major regional centre of Wagga Wagga.

Wagga Women's Health Centre president Vickie Burkinshaw said the lack of reproductive healthcare services in Wagga was "appalling".

"Wagga is an abortion desert,"

she said.

Surgical abortions are currently not available in the MLHD despite being decriminalised since 2019.

The city has a long history of reproductive health controversy due to a conservative undercurrent in the medical community .

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