A bill before the New South Wales parliament, which would make it a crime to cause serious harm or death to a foetus, would set a “dangerous precedent” and present “a real risk to women’s reproductive rights”, women’s and legal groups have argued.

Five years after it was first introduced, the “Zoe’s law” bill has been revived by the conservative NSW Christian Democrat MP Reverend Fred Nile. But even with pro-choice Nationals MP Trevor Khan seeking a compromise deal, opponents say it could still result in restricted access to abortions in the state.

This week, the NSW premier, Gladys Berejiklian, promised to introduce new laws making it a separate crime to kill or injure an unborn child during a criminal act if she was re-elected next March.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Berejiklian said she would take a “fresh look” at the issue following a fatal car crash in September that claimed the lives of two women, including heavily pregnant newlywed Katherine Hoang and her unborn twins.

She said she had referred the issue to legal and medical experts, and would introduce new laws to recognise the death of unborn children during a criminal act if her government was returned after the state election next year.

But in doing so, Berejiklian reignited a years-long fight over the issue, which now threatens to run until after the next state election.

On Thursday, Nile used the premier’s comments to revive the Zoe’s law bill for debate.

The bill seeks to recognise the death of a foetus killed during a criminal act, and was first introduced after Brodie Donegan, who was 32-weeks pregnant, lost her unborn child when hit by a driver under the influence of drugs on Christmas Day 2009.

The bill has been before the NSW parliament in some form since 2013, when it passed the state’s lower house.

It stalled amid a backlash from legal and women’s rights groups, but with just a week remaining of parliamentary sitting days until the election, Nile is seeking to push the legislation through.

Whether he’ll be successful or not is another matter.

This week, the pro-choice Nationals MP Trevor Khan introduced several amendments to the bill, which would make significant changes to Nile’s legislation.

They include a specific exclusion for abortion and a definition of a foetus as being a minimum of 24 weeks.

It is also proposed to change the reference to “a child in utero” in Nile’s bill to the “foetus of a pregnant woman”.

Khan concedes his amendments are unlikely to win over sceptics of the intent of the bill. He told Guardian Australia he had met members of the NSW Bar Association who remained “unconvinced” about the need for the legislation.

The Bar Association opposed the bill in 2013, and has updated its opinion to reflect the latest iteration of the legislation.

“The Bar Association has consistently taken the position that the current New South Wales criminal law in this area is satisfactory,” it said in a briefing note this month.

“That remains the position of the Bar Association. The proposed amendments in Rev Nile’s Bill would set a dangerous precedent with possible wide-ranging implications for the law of this State.”

This week, the NSW Family Planning director of medical services, Dr Deb Bateson, said the new bill was “a great risk to the reproductive independence of women”.

“This bill is unnecessary and presents a real risk to women’s reproductive rights by giving legal personhood to a foetus,” she said.

“This change to the law could be used to further restrict access to lawful abortions and we’re worried this provision could see women who have an abortion treated as serious criminals.”

The bill could also prove politically sensitive for the NSW Labor opposition going into the election. New leader Michael Daley supported the bill in 2013, but has yet to say whether he would back the new iteration.

But Penny Sharpe, the NSW Labor deputy leader who worked with Khan on a safe access zone around abortion clinics this year, is sceptical.

“As awful as the situation these women find themselves in is, I really think that fundamentally it’s a radical thing to do, to set up the rights of an unborn child versus the rights of the mother,” she said.

“I think it’s a radical legal idea and I really worry about the unintended consequences.”

Khan also faces opposition from the right. Last month, the anti-abortion group Right to Life NSW said it opposed his amendments on the basis that it would limit the definition of a foetus as being a minimum of 24 weeks.

The amendment, the group said, would “completely undermine the purpose of this bill” and would lead to decriminalisation of abortion in NSW.