Other anti-abortion groups included Family Life International,[102] Family First New Zealand,[103] youth organization ProLife NZ,[104] Focus on the Family New Zealand. [105] Some of these anti-abortion groups had international ties and were also interested in other topics such as euthanasia and in vitro fertilization. These anti-abortion groups were often well funded. [42] According to McCulloch, Right to Life had an annual income of NZ$25,000 to NZ$35,000 per year from the mid to late 2000s; Issued NZ$80,000 for his legal challenge against the Abortion Monitoring Committee until May 2009. Some former anti-abortion groups have founded Operation Rescue New Zealand, Women for Life and the Kiwi Party. In 2013, McCulloch estimated that the anti-abortion movement in New Zealand had tens of thousands of members. [106] In New Zealand, most abortions (91% in 2020) occur during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy (in the first trimester). As the annual statistics of the Abortion Monitoring Committee have repeatedly stated, mental health reasons are the main reasons for most certified abortions in New Zealand. The high number of mental abortions in New Zealand has prompted anti-abortion advocates to worry that the mental health exception will be used to allow abortion on demand. [124] In contrast, ALRANZ argues that successive abortion jurisprudence has preserved the status quo of partial decriminalization and liberal conditions of access to abortion for most New Zealand women who need an abortion. [93] Abortion is legal in New Zealand, and recent legislative changes have facilitated access to abortion in New Zealand Aotearoa.
Former ALRANZ president Margaret Sparrow founded a non-profit company called Istar to import mifepristone (formerly known as RU 486), a pill used in medical abortions to remove the embryo from the uterine wall and a prostaglandin supplement to expel the remains. [40] In 2002, Istar convinced the Abortion Oversight Committee to seek a court ruling on how the CS&A Act of 1977 applies to the use of mifepristone. In April 2003, Justice Durie ruled that women seeking an abortion with a doctor must take medication in a licensed facility, but do not have to stay between the two sets of tablets, which are taken 48 hours apart. Women also do not have to stay in the facility until the expulsion of the fetus has completed the abortion. [39] [41] [42] Under the old Act, abortion was a criminal offence in New Zealand, and a woman could only legally have an abortion if two doctors certified that the continuation of the pregnancy would pose a risk to her mental or physical health. The main advocacy group for abortion rights is the Abortion Law Reform Association of New Zealand (ALRANZ), which advocates for the complete decriminalization of abortion in New Zealand. [91] [92] In the 1990s and early 2000s, ALRANZ experienced a sharp decline in membership, with ALRANZ stores in Christchurch and Hawke`s Bay closing in 1996 and 2004. By 2011, the number of alRANZ members had fallen to about 235. Contemporary abortion rights activism has focused on defending the status quo against abortion opponents and lobbying for the legalization of mifepristone for use in medical abortions. [93] Historical lobby groups for abortion rights included the more radical Women`s National Abortion Action Campaign (WONAAC), the Auckland Anti-Hospital Amendment Committee, the May Abortion Action Committee, and the National Women`s Organisation (NOW). [16] [94] [95] On August 5, 2019, Justice Minister Andrew Little announced that the government would introduce new laws that would give women access to abortion during the first 20 weeks of pregnancy without having to circumvent legal loopholes and that abortion should be removed from the Crimes Act 1961. However, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said it was not a government project.
[59] The New Zealand Parliament rejects sex-selective abortions (as set out in the CSA Act). Abortion providers are required to collect information on the number of abortion requests they have received solely because of a preference for a particular fetal sex. The New Zealand Christian Network believes abortion should be “safe, legal and rare” and has opposed the abortion law on the grounds that it does not protect unborn children and would facilitate abortion on demand. [115] The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) rejects elective abortions for personal and social reasons, but allows abortions in cases of rape, incest, protection of the mother`s life and health, and fetal malformations. The government adopted the Law Commission`s third approach to testing for subsequent abortions, but reduced the time to 20 weeks. The criterion for late-term abortions is included in clause 11 of the proposed bill. Article 11 states that “a qualified physician may provide abortion services to a woman who is more than 20 weeks pregnant only if the physician has reasonable grounds to believe that the abortion is appropriate in the circumstances.” [60] The claim that New Zealand allows abortions on demand for any reason until birth is false. Abortions are only possible on request for up to 20 weeks, after which two doctors must approve the procedure as clinically appropriate. The law is in line with that of several other jurisdictions around the world. However, reproduction law experts told AAP FactCheck that the claim was false. New Zealand decriminalized abortions in March 2020, but only allows them after 20 weeks with the approval of two doctors, in line with several other jurisdictions around the world.
There have been no changes to the law. Since 1978, the Abortion Monitoring Committee (ASC) has been collecting statistics on the number of dismissals made each year and why under the provisions of the Contraception, Sterilization and Abortion Act 1977. In 1983, Statistics New Zealand agreed to process abortion statistics on behalf of the CSA and took over responsibility for publishing abortion statistics in 1998. [122] Since abortion was illegal until 1977, there are no exact figures on abortions until the 1970s. Megan Cook estimates that 10,000 abortions took place each year in the 1930s, based on statistics on the number of women hospitalized for septic abortions during that period. [11] A very small percentage of abortions (0.9% in 2020) occur after 20 weeks. English law, which was applied in New Zealand in 1840, prohibited abortion. In 1867, the New Zealand Parliament criminalized causing a miscarriage. Under the law, abortion advocates were considered criminals, while the woman seeking an abortion was considered an accomplice to the crime. If a woman ordered her own abortion, she was considered a criminal under the law. Therapeutic abortions were available in certain circumstances, such as when the woman`s life or mental health was seriously threatened. In the late 1930s, this right was extended by a court decision.
However, abortion was still heavily frowned upon by society, as many doctors refused to make layoffs. [11] According to Statistics New Zealand, 13,282 induced abortions were performed in New Zealand in 2018. In 2018, there were 13.5 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44, up from 13.7 per 1,000 women in 2017. Disaggregated by ethnicity in 2018, the highest rates were recorded among European women (7,567), followed by Maori women (2,979), Asian women (2,789) and Pacific women (1,354) and MELAA (or Middle East, Latin America and Africa) (215). [125] “For more than forty years, abortion has been the only medical procedure considered a crime in New Zealand. But from now on, abortions will be treated rightly as a health problem,” Justice Minister Andrew Little said in a statement after the law was passed. From now on, abortions will be rightly treated as a health problem,” Justice Minister Andrew Little said in a statement after Wednesday`s vote. The abortion services offered to you will be determined by the District Health Department (DHB) in your area. All DHBs are required to provide access to abortion, but some areas have less access and may require you to travel. FALSE. New Zealand only allows abortions after 20 weeks if a doctor deems it appropriate, in accordance with several other jurisdictions.
In 1936, New Zealand`s first Labor government set up a committee led by D.G. McMillan to study the incidence of septic abortion in New Zealand. The report estimates that at least 13 out of 100 pregnancies have resulted in a criminal abortion, with that number increasing over the previous five years. During the same period, while maternal mortality had declined, the number of deaths due to septic abortions had increased, accounting for two-fifths of total maternal mortality. From testimony before the committee, it was found that one of the main reasons for abortion was a change in social attitude, “particularly with regard to the education of large families” and “an attitude of compassionate superiority over women with many children.” Other reasons were the lack of adequate housing in cities, the lack of help for women in performing household chores and the widespread use of ineffective contraceptive methods. [12] [13] [11] Several jurisdictions, including Canada, the Netherlands and some Australian states and territories, allow abortions on demand up to 24 weeks or more, compared to 20 weeks in New Zealand.