New Zealand
ABORTION POLICY
Grounds on which abortion is permitted:
To save the life of the woman
To preserve physical health
To preserve mental health
Rape or incest
Foetal impairment
Economic or social reasons
Available on request
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes*
Yes
No
No
Additional requirements:
The fact that the pregnant woman is mentally subnormal or that she is near the beginning or the end of
the usual child-bearing age, while not being a ground “in itself”, can also be taken into account under medical
indications. In general, an abortion must be performed by a registered physician in a licensed institution.
Termination of pregnancy beyond 12 weeks of gestation may only be performed in an institution with a “full
licence”. The woman must obtain the approval of two certifying consultants, one of which must be an
obstetrician/gynaecologist.
*
Rape in itself does provide grounds for abortion but may be taken into account under medical indications. A pregnancy occurring as
a result of incest can be terminated on juridical grounds, while a pregnancy resulting from rape may be terminated under medical indications.
REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH CONTEXT
Government view on fertility level:
Satisfactory
Government intervention concerning fertility level:
No intervention
Government policy on contraceptive use:
Indirect support provided
Percentage of currently married women using
modern contraception (aged 20-49, 1995):
72*
Total fertility rate (1995-2000):
2.0
Age-specific fertility rate (per 1,000 women aged 15-19, 1995-2000):
34
Government has expressed particular concern about:
Morbidity and mortality resulting from induced abortion
Complications of childbearing and childbirth
No
No
Maternal mortality ratio (per 100,000 live births, 1990):
National
Developed countries
25
27
Female life expectancy at birth (1995-2000):
79.7
*
Preliminary or provisional.
Source: Population Policy Data Bank maintained by the Population Division of the Department for Economic and Social Affairs of the
United Nations Secretariat. For additional sources, see list of references.
162
New Zealand
BACKGROUND
Prior to 1977, abortion legislation in New Zealand was largely based on nineteenth-century English
statutory law, which had remained virtually unchanged through various revisions of the criminal law, and on
case law interpretations. Abortion was generally illegal except when performed “in good faith” for the
preservation of the life of the pregnant woman or her physical or mental health. Because of the lack of clarity
as to what constituted physical or mental health, variations occurred in interpretation and application. This
situation fuelled arguments for the reform of abortion law in New Zealand, particularly after the liberalization
of abortion laws in the United Kingdom and in South Australia in the late 1960s.
Legislation reforming existing abortion law was enacted in the 1970s. In 1977 and 1978 the Government
amended the Crimes Act 1961 to provide a clearer definition of the grounds for legal abortion. Under sections
182-187A of the Act, an abortion is permitted during the first 20 weeks of pregnancy: (a) continuance of the
pregnancy would result in serious danger (not that normally attendant upon childbirth) to the life or to the
physical or mental health of the woman; (b) if there is a substantial risk that the child, if born, would be so
seriously abnormal as to be handicapped mentally or physically; (c) if the pregnancy is the result of incest or
of sexual intercourse with a girl under care or protection; or (d) if the pregnant woman is severely mentally
“subnormal”. In determining whether continuance of the pregnancy would result in serious danger to the life
or physical or mental health of the pregnant woman, the following may be taken into consideration: that the
woman is near the beginning or the end of the usual childbearing years and that reasonable grounds exist for
believing that the pregnancy is the result of rape. After 20 weeks of pregnancy, an abortion is permitted only
when it is necessary to save the life of the woman or to prevent serious permanent injury to her physical or
mental health.
In 1977, the Government also enacted the Contraception, Sterilization, and Abortion Act of 1977 (No.
112) to establish the procedures under which a woman could obtain an abortion. The Act establishes a
statutory body, the Abortion Supervisory Committee, to oversee the operation of abortion law. The
Committee consists of three members, two of whom must be registered physicians. A woman seeking an
abortion must obtain the approval of two consultants, one of whom is a practising obstetrician or
gynaecologist, certifying that legal grounds for the performance of the abortion exist. If they approve the
abortion, the two consultants must sign certificates to this effect to be sent to an institution where the abortion
is to be performed and satisfy themselves that an operating surgeon is available to the woman. In general, an
abortion can only be performed in an institution licensed under the Act. If the pregnancy is of more than 12
weeks’ duration, an abortion can only be performed in an institution with a “full licence”. A woman may
request counselling from a trained counsellor before the abortion is performed. Some critics have argued that
the above procedure is so cumbersome that the new legislation has in effect made abortion laws in New
Zealand more restrictive than before.
Under the Crimes Act, as amended, a person performing an unlawful abortion is subject to imprisonment
for up to 14 years. The woman upon whom the abortion is performed or a woman who performs her own
abortion, however, is not considered to have committed an offence. Nonetheless, under the Contraception,
Sterilization, and Abortion Act of 1977, if she procures her own abortion, she is subject to payment of a fine
not to exceed 200 New Zealand dollars ($NZ).
Abortion does not appear to be a major method of fertility regulation in New Zealand and seems to have
played a minor role in the fertility decline over the past several decades. During the 1980s, even though most
women obtaining abortions were of European descent, Maori women and women of Pacific island descent
Source: Population Policy Data Bank maintained by the Population Division of the Department for Economic and Social Affairs of the
United Nations Secretariat. For additional sources, see list of references.
163
New Zealand
were over-represented in the sample population when compared with their proportions in the total population.
Other studies have shown that for the low-fertility population of European origin, induced abortion appears to
be used primarily for timing purposes by young (under age 30) nulliparous women to delay their first birth;
for the higher fertility minority populations, induced abortion is a backup method in cases of contraceptive
failure for women that have achieved their desired family size. In addition, teenage pregnancy has
increasingly become a public issue in New Zealand. A significant proportion of teenage pregnancies are
terminated by abortion.
Abortions performed in New Zealand at a public hospital are normally free of charge. Unequal access to
abortion services owing to geographical distribution is of concern to policy makers. The issue of
contraception is of similar concern. More than one third of all women do not use any contraceptive method at
all and most of the women seeking an abortion in New Zealand do so because of contraceptive failure.
Source: Population Policy Data Bank maintained by the Population Division of the Department for Economic and Social Affairs of the
United Nations Secretariat. For additional sources, see list of references.
164