No update for abortion law, says Govt

A 40-year abortion law that still refers to people with impaired mental capacity as ‘‘subnormal’’, does not need changing, the Government says.

Justice Minister Amy Adams said the law might be outdated but it was workable and the Government had higher priorities. ’’The Government has a busy legislative programme focused on issues that affect large numbers of New Zealanders, such as family and sexual violence, money laundering and vulnerable children to name just a few. We are not currently looking at reforming or re-drafting the abortion law on the basis that it is working broadly as intended.’’

Adams comments came after the chair of the Abortion Supervisory Committee, Dame Linda Holloway, requested MPS on the justice and electoral select committee redraft aspects of the law.

The statute, which sits under the Crimes Act, was outdated and ‘‘offensive’’ in parts and opened up the committee to lengthy legal challenges by anti-abortion groups using semantics to chip away at its authority. ’’In fact, some parts of the language is 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’s not been corrected,’’ Holloway said on Thursday.

‘‘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.’’