Abortion has long been a political hot potato
particularly safe procedure
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Abortion
particularly safe procedure. Opposition to AMAC Repeated attempts were made by those opposed to abortion to close AMAC. Police raided the centre, Parliament passed restrictive legislation and an arson attempt caused $100,000 worth of damage. The courts were used in attempts to restrict abortion. In the two most notable cases this backfired, and access to abortion was eased. After police raided AMAC in 1974, Jim Woolnough, one of the centre’s doctors, was prosecuted. When the Court of Appeal upheld his acquittal, it was on the basis of his sincere belief that the abortions he performed were necessary. In 1982 Dr Melvyn Wall went to court to prevent a 15-year-old from having an abortion. He lost the case, and a subsequent Appeal Court judgment found that Wall did not have the right to represent the foetus. AMAC was still open in 2018. Abortion law Parliament considered several abortion bills in the 10 years from 1974 to 1983. Two were passed. The Hospitals Amendment Act 1975 was a direct response to AMAC. It limited provision of abortion to licensed hospitals. The act forced AMAC to close, but it re- opened after buying a private hospital. The act was later ruled invalid for technical reasons. By 1975 abortion had become such a political hot potato that Parliament set up a royal commission to consider it, along with contraception and sterilisation. The Contraception, Sterilisation, and Abortion Act 1977, based on the commission’s recommendations, made getting an abortion more difficult. The act proved difficult to implement and was amended in 1978. Setting up a system: 1977 onwards Women had to see their doctor, then two medical consultants, who had to agree that her physical or mental 1 8/15/23, 11:44 PM Abortion https://teara.govt.nz/en/abortion/print 8/11 Cross-Tasman alert Abortion was also a hot issue across the Tasman, and links between Australian and New Zealand activists were close. A 1974 warning to New Zealanders about a Sydney doctor was typical: ‘[H]e is a very bad operator – made a terrible mess of a young girl who had to spend the week in hospital, he would not help her when she went back to see him after the op’. health made an abortion necessary. It was also necessary to find a surgeon to perform the operation. Counselling had to be available for the woman, and some clinics required women to see a clinic-employed counsellor. The Abortion Supervisory Committee was formed to appoint certifying consultants and licence abortion clinics. Sisters Overseas Service The Contraception, Sterilisation, and Abortion Act 1977 forced AMAC to close for several months. Within days, women set up the Sisters Overseas Service, which helped women travel to Australia for abortions during 1978 and 1979. Abortion clinics open The Contraception, Sterilisation, and Abortion Act 1977 also required health boards to fund lawful abortions. In 1978 and 1980 hospital boards in Auckland and Wellington set up their own abortion clinics. AMAC reopened in 1980. Lyndhurst Hospital in Christchurch, a public abortion clinic, was opened in 1986. Married or single? From the mid-1970s information about the kinds of women who had abortions became available. The number of unmarried women seeking abortions increased. However, as de facto relationships were increasingly common, these women may not have been single. Age and race In this period women aged 24 and younger were most likely to have an abortion. The rate then steadily tailed off. Pākehā women typically had an abortion at a young age. Māori and, to a greater extent, Pasifika women had poorer access to family planning and contraception, and so were more likely to use abortion throughout their fertile years. Footnotes Quoted in Hayley Brown, ‘A woman’s right to choose: second wave feminist advocacy of abortion law reform in New Zealand and New South Wales from the 1970s.’ MA thesis, University of Canterbury, 2004, p. 81. Back 2 8/15/23, 11:44 PM Abortion https://teara.govt.nz/en/abortion/print 9/11 Abortion picket Picketing outside abortion clinics continued. It was one reason Wellington’s Parkview Abortion Clinic moved into the main hospital in 2000. Women were warned that there might be protesters outside, but were assured that there was no way the protesters could know who was coming to the unit. Quoted in ‘A woman’s right to choose,’ p. 63. Back Abortion: 1990s to 21st century In the 1990s the controversy of the 1970s and 1980s waned. Although the law was restrictive, in practice abortion was generally available. Abortion-rights activism wound down. Anti-abortion groups continued to protest, but to little effect. However, in the 2000s anti-abortion activism increased. New groups were formed, the Abortion Supervisory Committee was challenged in court, and the internet became a base for activity. In the 2010s a wave of pro-abortion activism focused on persuading the government to decriminalise abortion. Rate of abortion The rate of abortion climbed through the 1990s and stabilised at around 0.6 per woman from 2002. In international terms, this was a moderate rate – lower than England, but higher than Germany. Availability in the 21st century Access varied from one area of New Zealand to another, and changed over time. In 2018 women up to 19 weeks pregnant were able to have abortions in Wellington and Auckland. A limited service for women over 14 weeks pregnant was provided in Dunedin and Christchurch. In Whanganui, the West Coast and South Canterbury only counselling and referral were available. In other regions abortions were available only in the first trimester. Availability of abortion increased with the 2002 introduction of the ‘abortion pill’, mifepristone (RU486). The two doses required had to be taken at an abortion clinic. Abortions obtained through the use of the abortion pill are known as 'medical abortions'. In 2018 medical abortions were not available in Whanganui, Northland or South Canterbury. The Tauranga Family Planning clinic provided medical abortions. Anti-abortion groups Groups formed in the 1970s continued to be active in the 21st century. In 2004 the Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child (SPUC) changed its name to Voice for Life. 8/15/23, 11:44 PM Abortion https://teara.govt.nz/en/abortion/print 10/11 Other groups opposed to abortion were Family Life International (founded in 1992), Right to Life New Zealand (1999), Liberty for the Unborn and Pro-life New Zealand (formed in the early 2000s). Anti-abortion groups were often well-funded. Some groups had strong international connections and were concerned with a range of matters including euthanasia and in-vitro fertilisation. Court challenges From 2008 Right to Life New Zealand challenged the Abortion Supervisory Committee’s management of abortion in New Zealand in the courts. In 2011 the Court of Appeal ruled that the Abortion Supervisory Committee could not review certifying consultants' decisions (as Right to Life had argued it should), and that there was no foetal right to life. Advocacy for decriminalisation In the 2010s the focus of pro-abortion activism shifted to decriminalisation. Under the Crimes Act 1961, the provision of an abortion remained a crime unless it was approved by two medical consultants (the procedure introduced by the Contraception, Sterilisation, and Abortion Act 1977). Pro-abortion groups (notably ALRANZ) argued that abortion was a health rather than a criminal issue, and should be decided by the pregnant woman. In 2018 ALRANZ and a group of women who had had abortions took a case to the Human Rights Commission challenging the existing system. The New Zealand push was part of an international move towards decriminalisation. After more than three decades of avoiding the issue, the New Zealand government introduced an Abortion Legislation Bill in Parliament in 2019. Enacted in 2020, this removed abortion from the Crimes Act and made it a procedure to which a woman was entitled in the first 20 weeks of pregnancy. After that, she had to satisfy a health practitioner that an abortion was ‘clinically appropriate’ with regard to her mental and physical well-being. A second practitioner then had to agree with the first before the procedure was carried out. Standard methods in the 21st century The most common method of abortion in the first trimester was dilation and suction curettage. Mifepristone and prostaglandin were used in approximately three- quarters of medical abortions carried out in the first nine weeks of pregnancy. In 2016, 94% of abortions were carried out before the end of the 13th week of pregnancy. External links and sources More suggestions and sources 8/15/23, 11:44 PM Abortion https://teara.govt.nz/en/abortion/print 11/11 Mein Smith, Philippa. Maternity in dispute: New Zealand 1920–1939. Wellington: Historical Publications Branch, Department of Internal Affairs, 1986. McCulloch, Alison. Fighting to choose: the abortion rights struggle in New Zealand. Wellington: Victoria University Press, 2013. Sparrow, Margaret. Abortion then and now: New Zealand abortion stories from 1940 to 1980. Wellington: Victoria University Press, 2010. Sparrow, Margaret. Rough on women: abortion in 19th-century New Zealand. Wellington: Victoria University Press, 2014. How to cite this page: Megan Cook, 'Abortion', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/abortion/print (accessed 16 August 2023) Story by Megan Cook, published 5 May 2011, reviewed & revised 8 Nov 2018 All text licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 New Zealand Licence ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/nz/deed.en ). Commercial re-use may be allowed on request. All non-text content is subject to specific conditions. © Crown Copyright. Download 174.61 Kb. Do'stlaringiz bilan baham: |
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