On Wednesday, 5 December at 12:30pm ALRANZ is co-sponsoring a march and rally in Wellington along with Organise
Aotearoa, the Victoria University Feminist Organisation, and the Feminist Law Society.
Speakers will include MPs, former MPs, and activists.
“The Law Commission’s report to the Ministry of Justice on abortion law reform highlights the inadequacies and
injustices of our current system. Current law discriminates against women and pregnant people by forcing them to seek
the approval of two certifying consultants and lie about their mental health status in order to receive abortion care,”
said Terry Bellamak, National president of ALRANZ.
“After forty years, it’s long past time for reform.”
In New Zealand, abortion is still in the Crimes Act.
The Minister of Justice, Andrew Little, has asked the New Zealand Law Commission to review the country’s abortion laws
with the intention of treating abortion as a health matter rather than a criminal matter. During the election campaign,
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern promised to reform New Zealand’s abortion laws, making abortion care available as a matter
of right.
ALRANZ wants to reform New Zealand’s laws around abortion. Under New Zealand’s abortion laws, two certifying consultants
must approve every abortion under a narrow set of grounds set out in the Crimes Act. Those grounds do not include rape,
nor the most common reasons cited overseas: contraception failure and the inability to support a child.
Poll results show a majority of New Zealanders support the right to access abortion on request.