ALRANZ Abortion Rights Aotearoa welcomes the passing of the Contraception, Sterilisation, and Abortion (Safe Areas) Amendment Bill 2020 at its third and final reading today. The Bill passed with overwhelming cross-party support. ALRANZ believes this reflects the view of the majority of New Zealanders who believe women should be able to access healthcare services without being harassed.
ALRANZ would like to thank all those MPs who worked on the Bill, spoke in favour of it, and who voted for it at the third reading. In particular ALRANZ would like to thank Louisa Wall for introducing this Bill and being such a strong advocate for abortion rights in Aotearoa.
ALRANZ President Tracy Morison said “women and pregnant peoples’ bodies are constantly policed, and it is encouraging that this bill rejects this in favour of restoring women’s dignity and privacy when accessing abortion care”.
“This legislation will ensure that people are able to exercise their fundamental right to healthcare and are able to choose whether or not to end a pregnancy. This is the definition of reproductive justice”.
The passage of this bill will also protect healthcare providers from obstruction, intimidation and threats of violence when accessing their place of work.
ALRANZ hopes that the Ministry of Health creates safe areas in a timely fashion to ensure that people seeking abortion healthcare in Aotearoa have unimpeded access to the services they require.
A victory for decency and common sense! However, if the anti-abortionists think this is over, I suggest that they wait and see. They have some long overdue bad karma to compensate for after what they put New Zealand women through over the last thirty-three years…
A disaster for freedom of speech and prayer- the crushed skulls of the unborn cry out for justice
How is it a ‘disaster for freedom of speech’ when anti-abortion protestors are still able to protest outside the 150 m protest-free perimeter zone? Rather, it balances the right to peaceful protest with the right of women and other pregnant people (ie trans men and some non-binary people) to access legal medical services. One Aotearoa/New Zealand anti-abortion group, Family Life International NZ, has already said that it is willing to comply with the new law. Over in the states and territories of Australia, all of which have such legislation already, there have only been three significant arrests- in Queensland, Tasmania and Victoria – where anti-abortionists deliberately chose to trespass within the specified buffer zone, against the law. Otherwise, anti-abortion groups have complied with the law and kept their specified distance.