Clark: Time for abortion reform

Former prime minister Helen Clark says abortion should be ‘‘simply a decision made between a woman and her doctor’’.

Clark, who is also a former health minister and director of gender advocacy group Women Deliver, told TV show The Project that abortion laws need liberalising, and the provision should be removed from the Crimes Act.

During the election campaign, now-Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said abortion should be taken out of the Crimes Act.

Clark said she agreed with Ardern, adding that she tried to have the provision removed when she was health minister in 1989 but met too much opposition.

Some of that opposition was from the doctors profiting from the provision in the law.

That provision makes abortion a crime, unless there are certain grounds Helen Clark and the foe

tus is under 20 weeks in gestation.

Abortion is only legal if two certifying doctors agree continuing the pregnancy would result in serious danger to a woman’s mental or physical health.

‘‘We have complicated law, because the Crimes Act says abortion is an offence, but then we have the Contraception and Sterilisation Act, which gives grounds on which you can get an abortion.’’

And while that was often liberally interpreted by doctors, and Kiwi women were able to access abortions, Clark told The Project it should be ‘‘simply a decision made between a woman and her doctor’’.

The comments come after Ireland voted last week to liberalise its restrictive abortion laws.

The vote means the Irish Government will legislate by the end of the year to make it relatively easy for a woman to obtain the procedure in early pregnancy. As a result, Ireland – a deeply Catholic conservative nation – will be more liberal than New Zealand when it comes to abortion laws.

Following Ardern’s comments on the election trail, where she said women should be able to access abortion as a right, Justice Minister Andrew Little asked the Law Commission to review New Zealand’s law.

It had been tasked with considering changes, including removing abortion from the Crimes Act and making it a health issue.

Little said the commission was due to report back to him by the year’s end.

Providing the Government can agree on the panel’s recommendations, it was possible there could be legislation before Parliament next year.