Irish waves will alter NZ tides
Given that the firming up of entrenched positions that always seems to precede a significant change in legislation has already started, it is difficult to see New Zealand’s abortion laws remaining unchanged for much longer.
The Republic of Ireland’s historic landslide vote at the weekend, in favour of repealing its restrictive legislation, has unsurprisingly thrown New Zealand’s own laws into sharp relief.
Justice Minister Andrew Little correctly points out Ireland’s circumstances are different to New Zealand’s, but the referendum on Friday, in which many travelled home to vote, most of them apparently in favour of repealing ‘‘the Eighth’’, seems certain to impart momentum to the debate here, half a world away.
Little agrees, but rightly he’s not being rushed into anything. In February, he asked the Law Commission to look at our laws with a view to changing them to treat abortion as a health issue rather than a criminal one.
In the run-up to the general election, Labour leader Jacinda Ardern called for abortion to be taken out of the Crimes Act, and Little’s direction to the Law Commission is in line with that.
He says the country’s opinion has yet to be put to the test, and the commission should be left to do its work, with a view to legislation being put before Parliament next year, where it would be the subject of a conscience vote. Terry Bellamak, president of the Abortion Law Reform Association of New Zealand, has pointed out that Ireland instead went ‘‘straight to the people’’, but hopes our politicians ‘‘see the sea change’’ implied in the conclusive Irish vote.
New Zealand’s legislation has not changed since 1977, with abortion here still regarded as a crime unless approved by two specifically certified medical consultants. As Stuff reported in March, they must be of the view that ‘‘carrying the child to term would endanger the physical or mental health of the mother, or the child is the result of incest, or the mother is ‘severely subnormal’, or the child is at risk of being ‘seriously handicapped’ ’’.
Those restrictions are less severe than those that moved so many Irish to go to the polls on Friday to vote on whether to repeal the Eighth Amendment, granting an equal right to life to expectant mothers and their unborn children. Twothirds of the vote was in favour of the repeal, which is expected to see the Irish Parliament legislate for more liberal laws.
On Monday, Opposition leader Simon Bridges told 1News he would be ‘‘loath’’ to take abortion out of the Crimes Act, saying he had ‘‘not seen the case for change in this area’’. It’s a stance that will undoubtedly be strongly supported by groups such as Right to Life, which has already promised ‘‘fierce opposition’’ to legalising or decriminalising abortion, and Family First. Whatever is put before Parliament, a polarising and possibly spiteful process seems certain.
Those views, like the opposing stances on the socalled anti-smacking legislation and marriage equality, are, like the entrenched Irish views, largely religious in nature.
However, the Irish vote shows that is no longer likely to carry the day, and the rights of women to greater autonomy on an issue that ultimately affects them most will surely be legislated here in time.