New Zealand – With doorstep pill delivery, having an abortion is about to get a whole lot easier

Sylvia Giles
Oct 2, 2022

Next month, access to early medical abortion will massively increase with the roll-out of doorstep delivery service. What does that mean for patients – and for surgical providers?

It’s what people who are pregnant and don’t want to be have wanted “since the beginning of time”, says Dr Janet Downs.

Continued: https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/03-10-2022/with-doorstep-pill-delivery-having-an-abortion-is-about-to-get-a-whole-lot-easier


New Zealand – The abortion debate: Her uterus, her decision – just give her compassion and respect

The abortion debate: Her uterus, her decision - just give her compassion and respect

Lynley Tulloch
Jun 03 2019

OPINION: In New Zealand there has been a recent upsurge in the abortion debate with a call to decriminalise abortions.

It is a crime to have an abortion in New Zealand unless you have certification from two consultants who agree that the mental or physical health of the mother is in danger, or that the baby would have a serious disability. How draconian is that?

Continued: https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/parenting/113199326/the-abortion-debate-her-uterus-her-decision--just-give-her-compassion-and-respect


New Zealand – Despair and Contempt: What it’s like to seek an abortion

Despair and Contempt: What it’s like to seek an abortion

By Paula Penfold
Apr 6, 2019

It’s such a ridiculously innocuous, unobtrusive looking thing, this piece of plastic with a felt-like tip. Years later when you want them, those two blue lines will make you smile.

But this is not then. This is too soon. Too terrifying.

I’m 21, fresh out of journalism school, starting my first job - a junior reporter in a radio newsroom in a small New Zealand town, still wearing my university op-shop clothes, earning less than $20,000 a year but eager, excited for what my career might hold.

Continued: https://interactives.stuff.co.nz/2019/circuit/seeking-an-abortion/


Abortion in New Zealand and How We Got Here

Abortion in New Zealand and How We Got Here
Untangling the criminal history of abortions in New Zealand shows our laws have long been out of step with society.

by Laetitia Laubscher
Nov 27 2018

Abortion is legal in New Zealand but to get one most women have to lie.

In the year to June 2017, New Zealanders had 13,285 abortions, about one-fifth of all known pregnancies that year. The overwhelming majority were obtained through the circuitous, ambiguously legal method that exists in New Zealand—a system criticised by the United Nations for being an arbitrary, discriminatory mess.

Continued: https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/wj3jmx/abortion-in-new-zealand-and-how-we-got-here


New Zealand – Editorial: Abortion law needs to catch up with real life

Editorial: Abortion law needs to catch up with real life

6 Nov, 2018

Abortion is not a subject most people want to discuss, either as personal experience or as a matter of public policy. New Zealanders who remember our abortion debate of the 1970s probably have no wish to repeat it, but it looks likely the country will need to. The Labour Party wants to remove abortion from the criminal law and treat it as a health matter. Justice Minister Andrew Little has taken the first step, getting advice from the Law Commission on how that might be done.

The debate of 40 years ago ended, as difficult issues often do, in a compromise that satisfied neither side. The Contraception, Sterilisation and Abortion Act 1977 set out conditions under which abortion could be legally performed in New Zealand. Essentially two doctors had to decide that a pregnancy met one of the conditions under which abortion was permitted on the Crimes Act.

Continued: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12154868


New Zealand – Abortion law change at last in sight

Abortion law change at last in sight

by Liz Beddoe
Oct 30, 2018

In her second opinion piece on the need for change to New Zealand’s abortion law, Associate Professor Liz Beddoe talks through the options proposed in the Law Commission’s briefing paper, Alternative Approaches to Abortion Law, released last Friday.

After many decades of calls for reform of our outdated abortion law, change is finally in our sights. The Law Commission’s briefing paper Alternative Approaches to Abortion Law, commissioned by Justice Minister Andrew Little in February, provides three alternative legal models for consideration.

Continued: https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2018/10/29/297669/abortion-law-change-at-last-in-sight


New Zealand pro-choice campaigners hail move towards abortion law reform

New Zealand pro-choice campaigners hail move towards abortion law reform
Newly released review sets out way to make abortion a health rather than criminal matter

Eleanor Ainge Roy
Fri 26 Oct 2018

Pro-choice advocates in New Zealand have welcomed a law review exploring ways to decriminalise abortion and treat it as a health issue instead.

Advocates called the report “amazing” and said its recommendations were long overdue.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/26/new-zealand-pro-choice-campaigners-hail-move-towards-abortion-law-reform


New Zealand – ALRANZ Analysis: The Law Commission Reports Back

ALRANZ Analysis: The Law Commission Reports Back

Thursday, October 25, 2018

During the last election campaign Jacinda Ardern declared her intention to reform New Zealand’s abortion laws by decriminalising the procedure, and changing the law to treat abortion as a health matter.

Last February, her Minister of Justice, Andrew Little, directed the Law Commission to report back to him in eight months with options for abortion law reform.
The Law Commission has finally reported back to the Minister. Their report contains three options for the reform of New Zealand’s abortion laws.

Continued: https://www.facebook.com/notes/alranz/alranz-analysis-the-law-commission-reports-back/10157838795719027/


New Zealand’s ‘degrading’ abortion ban breaches human rights, say activists

New Zealand's 'degrading' abortion ban breaches human rights, say activists
Advocacy group lays discrimination complaint with country’s rights commission over criminalisation of terminations

Eleanor Ainge Roy in Dunedin
Mon 8 Oct 2018

An abortion advocacy group in New Zealand has laid a discrimination complaint alleging New Zealand’s strict abortion laws breach the human rights of pregnant people, and subject them to “ritual humiliation”.

As experts prepare to hand down a major review into the country’s controversial abortion laws later this month, ALRANZ Abortion Rights Aotearoa has teamed up with five women who have experienced difficulties and emotional pain in accessing abortions in bringing their complaint to the country’s human rights commission.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/08/new-zealands-degrading-abortion-ban-breaches-human-rights-say-activists


New Zealand – Abortion case taken to Human Rights Commission

Abortion case taken to Human Rights Commission

Sasha Borissenko of Newsroom.co.nz
Oct 08 2018

Six women who have sought abortion care and the Abortion Law Reform Association (ALRANZ) have taken a complaint to the Human Rights Commission alleging abortion laws discriminate against women and pregnant people.

ALRANZ's complaint to the commission on behalf of the women alleges "people who seek abortion care receive different and demonstrably worse treatment than other people seeking health care", according to ALRANZ president Terry Bellamak.

Continued: https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/107674939/abortion-case-taken-to-human-rights-commission