Longtime ALRANZ president Terry Bellamak announced she is stepping down from the role. Dr Tracy Morison will take over as interim president until the next ALRANZ AGM.
In her final post, Bellamak said, “It has been an honour and a privilege to lead this organisation through the years in which our long-held purpose came to fruition. Abortion is now legal, it is health care, and it is the unquestioned right of every pregnant person up to 20 weeks gestation. When I reflect on abortion law reform, I am deeply proud of our country, and of our work.”
Bellamak also urged anyone who has experienced problems with reproductive health care to help ALRANZ hold the health system to account by using a new feature on the ALRANZ website. It facilitates people explaining what happened to them and helps ALRANZ to monitor the abortion care system.
Dr Morison is a senior lecturer in psychology at Massey University. Her research covers broad areas of health psychology, critical psychology, and feminism.
Dr Morison said, “Terry has done a sterling job steering ALRANZ these past years and her dynamic can-do leadership will be missed. At the same time, she’s stalwart in the reproductive rights movement and will still be very much involved in ALRANZ’s work. I’m honoured to stand in the gap as we plot our course in this new and hard-won post-reform phase.”
New Zealand reformed its abortion laws in 2020. The Government is in the process of ramping up the reproductive health care system to implement the new law.