by admin | 3 Dec, 2018 | Event
Nobody should be denied the right to make informed choices about our health, our bodies, and how we plan our families, but in New Zealand, abortion continues to remain a criminal offence. Under our current law, we need two doctors to verify that continuing a pregnancy would be harmful to our health or mental health in order to be granted an abortion. These hurdles cause unnecessary stress and frustration for countless women and people seeking to end their pregnancy.
Unplanned pregnancies can result in job losses, exclusion from work and educational institutions, financial strain, and judgement from the community and family. The expectation to make these sacrifices, carry a pregnancy to term, and take on more duties as a parent, falls primarily on women.
The stigma towards abortion and discrimination against people with unplanned pregnancies cannot end while abortion remains in the Crimes Act. Access to abortion must not rely on our capacity to jump through hoops or lie about or health. Doctors and governments do not have the right to control our bodies – only we do!
On the 5th of December, we will march from Frank Kitts Park to Parliament. Join us as we stand before Parliament to demand abortion be removed from the Crimes Act, and demand free, safe, widely-accessible, publicly funded access to abortions for all who need them.
Confirmed speakers:
Jan Logie.
Terry Bellamak.
Catherine Healy.
Sue Bradford.
Confirmed Musical Acts:
Siobhan Leilani – NahBo
Please sign ALRANZ‘s petition: https://our.actionstation.org.nz/petitions/reform-our-abortion-law
Bigotry of any kind including transphobia, racism, homophobia, and ableism will not be condoned in this event page or at the march.
by admin | 25 May, 2018 | Event
What: Voice for Life is planning to arrange 12,000 pairs of booties on Parliament grounds in Wellington to represent the number of abortions last year. The demonstration, we are told, will be timed to coincide with the release of abortion data by Stats NZ.
Here is the original article talking about this event.
When: Wednesday, 25 July 2018, time still TBD
**UPDATE** 19/7/2018
We have confirmation the Booties will go down on Wednesday, 25 July 2018. We are waiting to hear from the Speaker’s Office whether we will get a permit to hold a counter protest rally. We will be there even if we don’t.
Where: Parliament Grounds, Wellington
How: When it comes to political demonstrations here in New Zealand, whoever is the bigger arsehole wins the arsehole sweepstakes and loses public opinion. Voice for Life has appropriated the idea of empty footwear symbolising loss of life from the YesWeCare shoe project, memorialising suicide victims. The idea or comparing living, thinking, feeling people with relationships, memories, and dreams to human foetuses that have not yet developed the physical structures necessary for thought, feeling, or volition is repulsive. They are winning the arsehole sweepstakes.
Let’s keep them winning by showing up with plenty of positivity. Should we encounter any anger or discord, let’s meet it with patience and a phone recording the video.
It looks like there will be lots of different groups doing their own thing – and that’s awesome! We hope it will contribute to a fun, carnival-like atmosphere.
Watch this space for more information about ALRANZ’s plans.
**UPDATE** 12/6/2018
The Booties organisers have extended the deadline for bootie submissions to 30 June. This tells us their event will likely take place in late July. We will keep you posted about the date.
We have heard from many friends and supporters with fantastic ideas about how to counter protest this event. Different groups are coming together with different themes. There will be humour, and feeling, and Handmaids. ALRANZ will have some Handmaids costumes for volunteers to wear, but if you’re clever with a needle, make your own, so that you’re sure to have one! Check YouTube for DIY videos.
We are still making plans, so watch this space!
Why: Their ‘memorial’ is designed to focus on foetuses and disappear the pregnant people who were carrying them. We need to refocus attention on the pregnant people, and with empathy, not judgment.
by admin | 15 Sep, 2017 | Event
You are warmly invited to the launch of
Risking Their Lives: New Zealand Abortion Stories 1900–1939
by Margaret Sparrow
at Unity Books
6pm–7.30pm, Thursday 28 September
in honour of International Safe Abortion Day.
This launch is kindly supported by ALRANZ Abortion Rights Aotearoa.
Risking Their Lives is the third book in a series recording the history of abortion in New Zealand. It fills the gap between Abortion Then and Now: New Zealand Abortion Stories from 1940 to 1980 and Rough on Women: Abortion in 19th-Century New Zealand.
Abortion has always been a fraught political issue in New Zealand, from the draconian laws of the 1860s, when most abortions were illegal and clandestine and society’s emphasis was on punishment, to the turbulent abortion rights protests of the 1970s. In the early years of the 20th century, abortion came to be recognised not just as a crime but also as a major public health problem. In response to an embarrassingly large number of deaths from septic abortion, the government in 1936 appointed a Committee of Inquiry to investigate the issues. This was a turning point in people’s attitudes to abortion and women’s reproductive health in general.
Risking Their Lives features many previously untold stories salvaged from the coroner’s reports and newspaper reports of the day. The narrative is grim, but this is an honest retelling of our past, primarily letting the stories speak for themselves. As those who fought to make abortion safer and easier for women grow older and there are fewer people who remember what it used to be like, such stories become increasingly important to ensure that history does not repeat itself.
by admin | 2 Aug, 2017 | Event
Back by popular demand!
If you missed TRAPPED last time around, we’ve got you covered. Come on down to the Light House Cinema on Cuba in central Wellington to see Dawn Porter’s award-winning documentary.
The film starts at 6 pm, but we will be there earlier with nibbles and conversation. Stay afterwards for a panel discussion on reproductive rights.
We would love to see you there!
TRAPPED
6 September 2017 6pm at the Light House Cinema on Cuba
Tickets: $20 waged, $10 unwaged
Email info@alranz.org to reserve tickets
by admin | 12 Jun, 2017 | Event
ALRANZ Abortion Rights Aotearoa is proud to present the award-winning documentary TRAPPED by Dawn Porter. Come join us for the film, and stay for the panel discussion afterwards! TRAPPED tells the story of the abortion providers who fight to make reproductive rights accessible in the face of dodgy, punitive state laws. TRAPPED won the ‘Best Documentary’ category at the Sundance Film Festival in 2015.
Date/time: Wednesday, 5 July 2017, 18:30 – 21:00
Place: Stone Lecture Theatre, level 3, 9 Eden Crescent at University of Auckland School of Law
Cost: $20 waged, $10 unwaged
The film starts at 19:00, but come early for nibbles and conversation from 18:30.
Please email us at info@alranz.org, and let us know how many tickets you would like. We will reply with payment details.
by admin | 17 Feb, 2017 | Event
Kia ora Christchurch members and friends,
ALRANZ, Abortion Rights Aotearoa, invites you to a screening of Dawn Porter’s acclaimed documentary TRAPPED.
Join us from 6pm for welcome and nibbles, before the screening at 7pm.
A panel discussion after the film will explore how the situation in the States relates to New Zealand’s current criminalisation of abortion.
Tickets are $15 for general admission or $10 for unwaged/students and includes nibbles.
To book, please email safeandlegal@gmail.com and please share this event with your networks.
**If the price is problematic, we would rather you come with a koha than not come at all!**
