The Militant (logo)  

Vol. 79/No. 23      June 22, 2015

 
Pro-choice picket challenges
anti-abortion court case in NZ
 
BY FELICITY COGGAN  
WELLINGTON, New Zealand — “They seem to be trying to make abortion as dysfunctional and inconvenient as possible,” Terry Bellamak, an executive board member of the Abortion Law Reform Association of New Zealand, told more than 100 supporters of women’s rights picketing the High Court here June 2. The court was hearing a suit by the anti-abortion group Right to Life aimed at limiting access to medical abortion.

Their target is the Family Planning Clinic in the North Island city of Tauranga. The clinic has provided medical abortion, which is not widely available in New Zealand, since 2013. Right to Life claims it’s illegal to operate a clinic that provides only medical abortion with no surgical facilities.

In New Zealand, abortion is legal only in cases of serious danger to the life or mental health of the woman, severe handicap of the fetus or severe mental incapacity of the woman. Access is delayed, due to a requirement for approval from two government-appointed “certifying consultants.” The vast majority of abortions are approved on grounds of danger to mental health.

Georgia Gasper, a student at the picket, said she thought attacks on abortion access are out of step with popular opinion. “Most New Zealanders don’t know that the law is so narrow,” she said.

“This case is harassment really,” Dr. Margaret Sparrow, a long-time leader of the struggle for women’s right to choose abortion, told the protesters. “It’s being put forward on the grounds of safety, but Right to Life are not concerned about safety at all.”

The same week as the picket, abortion doctor Simon Snook launched a free national telephone service to try to streamline the consultation and approval process.  
 
 
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