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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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