Focus on late-term abortions

Late-term abortions dominated debate at the first session of public submissions on the Government’s new abortion bill.

The only two submitters yesterday to the special select committee set up to consider the law were the two main lobby groups in the area – the pro-choice Abortion Law Reform Association of New Zealand (Alranz) and the pro-life group Family First.

The Government’s proposed law, which sailed through its first reading 94 votes to 23, would take abortion out of the Crimes Act and remove the current legal hoops to abortion access for women up to 20 weeks of gestation. Currently those seeking an abortion require legal certification from two consultants that having a child would damage their physical or mental health, with even more stringent provisions after 20 weeks. The new law would allow abortions after 20 weeks if one doctor believed it was necessary to preserve the physical or mental health of the mother.

Abortions after 20 weeks make up a tiny proportion of abortions – just 56 were performed in 2018, out of a total of 13,282 abortions.

Despite this, discussion of the topic made up much of the debate at the select committee yesterday.

Alranz president Terry Bellamak, who supports the bill, asked that the restriction on abortions after 20 weeks be removed as all abortions after that time had passed were generally medically necessary. ‘‘The things that endanger foetal life after 20 weeks are not things that people choose.’’

Family First head Bob McCoskrie, who is opposed to the bill and wants to make current abortion law more restrictive, also largely focused on late-term abortions. ‘‘The Abortion Legislation Bill would make late-term abortions considerably more accessible than they are under the current law – currently it’s only available for exceptional circumstances – threat to life of mother or foetal abnormality.’’