The New Zealand Parliament has passed a law that decriminalizes abortion and allows women to choose abortion up to the 20th week of pregnancy. Because clandestine abortions were so dangerous, some people advocated for making safe abortions more widely available. Others thought abortion was bad or responsible for the decline in the birth rate. In the 1930s, Isabel Annie Aves was tried four times without conviction for “unlawful use of an instrument with intent to cause miscarriage.” [14] In the 1940s, activists like Alice Bush campaigned for access to medical abortions. [15] 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, compared to 13.7 per 1,000 women in 2017. Disaggregated by ethnicity in 2018, the highest rates were observed among European women (7,567), followed by Maori (2,979), Asian women (2,789) and Pacific women (1,354) and MELAA (or Middle East, Latin America and Africa) (215). [125] On March 18, the abortion law passed its third and final reading by a vote of 68 to 51. [83] [84] The passage of the law preceded a debate on the same day, in which parliamentarians voted 100-19 against holding a public referendum on abortion. [85] [86] False. New Zealand only allows abortions after 20 weeks if a doctor deems it appropriate, in accordance with several other jurisdictions. The Catholic Church in New Zealand has remained an opponent of abortion, teaching that life begins at conception.
[113] The Aotearoa Presbyterian Church in New Zealand expressed concern that the Abortion Legislation Act 2020 does not protect unborn children and could lead to sex- and disability-selective abortions. [114] A person who requests an abortion no longer needs a doctor`s referral to access abortion services. The first abortion clinic in New Zealand was the Auckland Medical Aid Centre (AMAC), which opened in 1974 and introduced the practice of vacuum aspiration to New Zealand. By the end of the first year, he had performed abortions on 2,288 women. By 1975, that number had risen to 4,005. AMAC has faced resistance from anti-abortion activists, including arson. New Zealand police also raided AMAC in 1974, which led to the indictment and acquittal of one of their doctors, Jim Woolnough. [20] [21] [22] You can still access abortion services if you are not eligible for publicly funded health services, but you will likely have to pay for this treatment. For more information, see the DECIDE website.
The New Conservative Party, which has never been represented in New Zealand`s parliament, opposes abortion and advocates for parents to be informed about teenage abortions. [121] In 1936, New Zealand`s first Labor government set up a committee headed by D.G. McMillan to investigate the incidence of septic abortions in New Zealand. The report estimates that at least 13 out of every 100 pregnancies ended in a criminal abortion, with that number increasing in the previous five years. During the same period, maternal mortality decreased, but the number of deaths due to septic abortions increased, accounting for two-fifths of total maternal mortality. Based on testimony before the committee, it was concluded that one of the main reasons for abortion was a change in social attitudes, “especially towards the education of large families” and “an attitude of compassionate superiority over women with many children.” Other reasons include the lack of adequate housing in cities, the lack of assistance for women with household chores and the widespread use of ineffective contraceptive methods. [12] [13] [11] “From now on, abortions will be rightly treated as a health issue,” Justice Minister Andrew Little said in a statement after Wednesday`s vote. In 2009, the anti-abortion group Right to Life New Zealand filed a lawsuit against the Abortion Oversight Committee, accusing it of failing to adequately regulate abortion by allowing a broad interpretation of the mental health exception.
A Supreme Court decision upheld some of the points raised by Right to Life New Zealand, noting that there was de facto abortion on demand. However, the Abortion Monitoring Committee appealed to the New Zealand Court of Appeal. [52] The New Zealand Association of Rationalists and Humanists (NZARH) advocated removing abortion from the Crimes Act 1961 as a reproductive rights issue. [99] Amnesty International New Zealand supported abortion law reform, including removing abortion from the Crimes Act. [100] Since 1978, the Abortion Supervisory Committee (ASC) has collected statistics on the number of abortions performed each year and why under the Contraception, Sterilization and Abortion Act of 1977. In 1983, Statistics New Zealand agreed to process abortion statistics on behalf of the ASC. and took 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] In the 1970s, the Catholic Church, conservative Protestant denominations, and Mormons opposed abortion.