Abortion law from 1977 out of touch

Parts of the law governing abortions in New Zealand are ‘‘offensive’’ and outdated, the chair of the Abortion Supervisory Committee has told lawmakers.

The 40-year-old statute, which sits under the Crimes Act, was also opening the committee up to legal challenges by anti-abortion groups using semantics to chip away at its authority. Committee chair Dame Linda Holloway told Parliament’s justice and electoral select committee that a re-drafting of the law was needed.

‘‘For us, operating as a committee, things that may seem quite small – just little issues of semantics – can cause enormous administrative problems for us, for officials and those practising in the field, to make sure that they are operating within the law.’’

When the law was enacted in the 1970s it was reflective of the health system at the time, and also societal views of mental health.

‘‘It wasn’t written in inclusive language. In fact, some parts of the language are actually quite offensive, referring to people [with limited mental capacity] as subnormal, for example. And really, it’s an indictment that we’ve got a statute like that on the books, that has not been corrected,’’ Holloway said.

Medical practice had changed over 40 years.

‘‘And we have legislation that refers repeatedly to the operating doctor. Well now, one of the ways of performing abortions are medically-induced abortions – there is no operating doctor. Again that can cause lots of challenges and hassle.’’

Legal counsel to the supervisory committee Wendy Aldred said the committee had been involved in litigation steadily since 2004.

An anti-abortion group in 2015 challenged whether the committee could issue an abortion licence limited to medical abortions only, when the legislation solely referred to surgical abortions.

The court found in favour of the supervisory committee, accepting the law did not reflect medical advancements made since the 1970s. Those kinds of challenges had tied up the committee’s time and resources, Aldred said.

Outside the select committee hearing, Holloway said the supervisory committee was only seeking a modernisation of the legislation, that would reflect the current medical settings. also