Dr Sood, 56, allegedly gave a 20-year-old woman - who was about 23 weeks pregnant - an abortion drug in May 2002 and asked her to come back to her clinic the next day.

The young woman went home and gave birth to a baby in the early hours of the morning while on the toilet. The male child survived less than five hours.

Dr Sood, who in 2002 owned the Australian Women's Health abortion clinic at Fairfield in western Sydney, was charged with manslaughter and administering a drug to a woman with intent to procure a miscarriage.

Liverpool Local Court magistrate Tony Marsden found yesterday that there was a reasonable prospect of a conviction and committed her to trial.

At the court hearing in August, prosecutors alleged the abortion was illegal because Dr Sood had not properly assessed the woman's physical and mental health or social wellbeing. Dr Sood told The Weekend Australian yesterday she would fight the charges.

"These things that have been presented and said are not the truth and I am all ready to defend and fight for it," she said.

"I don't think I have done anything wrong. It is a challenge to me personally and a challenge to the profession. This could happen to anybody - it is just distortion of the facts."

Dr Sood, a 10th-generation doctor who moved to Sydney from Adelaide in 1992, said she had performed almost 10,000 abortions through her two Sydney clinics.

She has sold the Australian Women's Health Clinic and is practising as a GP in Sydney.

David King and Dan Box

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