Pacific Rim Bureau (CNSNews.com) - An Australian medical student whose complaint about illegal abortions triggered a legal crisis in the state of Tasmania says even though lawmakers passed urgent abortion legislation late last year, doctors still could face criminal prosecution.

Armin Tadj expressed doubts Monday, saying he thought doctors would simply continue providing what was effectively abortion on demand, thus breaking the law.

The fifth-year student last year launched a one-man campaign after witnessing doctors at his university hospital giving patients a green light for abortions of convenience - and then falsifying documents to cover their actions by claiming women's physical or psychological health was at risk.

Taking up the matter with hospital, health and legal authorities got him nowhere, so he eventually approached the police, who investigated claims that a 73-year-old, vaguely-worded law was being widely broken.

News of the police probe prompted some doctors in the island state to suspend all abortions until the matter was clarified. More than 60 women traveled to the Australian mainland for abortions.

Amid claims of a "crisis," state lawmakers were then recalled from their Christmas break to debate and pass a new law, which allows abortion if two doctors agree that a mother's physical or psychological well-being is at risk.

Abortions are now set to resume, and a new abortion clinic is set to open in Hobart, the state capital, within days.

But in a phone interview Monday, Tadj predicted abortion on demand would continue. He expects doctors will continue to approve abortions in cases where they would not by law be considered necessary.

The new law passed last month says abortions are legal if two doctors certify in writing that continuing the pregnancy would involve greater risk of damage to the physical or mental health of the woman than if the pregnancy were terminated.

Tadj said it would be interesting to see what happened with abortion statistics in Tasmania (pop. 473,000). In the past, about 1,000 abortions had taken place there each year.

If that number stays roughly the same, he said, it would be obvious that doctors were breaking the new law. It would be hard for a doctor to justify every abortion as physically and psychologically more beneficial to a woman than carrying the child to term, he argued.

When he made his complaint last year, the 31-year-old father of three recalled, he did so because he was "astounded" to discover from more than one gynecologist that women were being given abortions for no better reason than because they saw the pregnancy and expected child as an inconvenience.

A doctor had admitted to him and another student that he was "lying" when he filled out the forms justifying the reasons for an abortion.

"That's when the alarm bells began to ring," leading him eventually take up the matter with the authorities.

Although his intervention unleashed a political and legal storm, Tadj said he had not set out to make a high-profile statement.

Although he holds pro-life views, he would not classify opposing abortion as a key priority for him. "I'm more concerned about helping the socially disadvantaged, to be honest."

But the students were taught to think and to ask questions, and he had done so, said Tadj, who added that his Christian faith had also played a role.

"I happened to see something that was wrong. It's an integrity thing. I don't believe in lying, in being dishonest. If you don't speak up ... "