Anniversary of Safe Areas Bill’s Passage Passes with No Safe Areas

by | 19 Mar, 2023 | Media Release

Last Saturday 18 March, Aotearoa New Zealand marked the first anniversary of the passage of the Contraception, Sterilisation, and Abortion (Safe Areas) Amendment Act 2022. ALRANZ Abortion Rights Aotearoa notes that in spite of the act, New Zealand has no safe areas.

 

The process to create a safe area is cumbersome and time-consuming. It requires months of work by the Ministry of Health to plot out the safe area and get it approved. After all that, the fate of a safe area is in the hands of Cabinet, which can move it forward or ignore it.

 

There are currently about a dozen safe area applications in the pipeline. Half are ready for Cabinet to consider.

 

People who receive or provide abortion care need safe areas yesterday. Every day, people have to walk by judgemental anti-abortion protesters with huge, misleading, gory signs in order to access safe, legal health care. 

 

ALRANZ president Dr Tracy Morison said, “Parliament passed the Safe Areas Bill because they saw the need for it. If there’s a need, and there definitely is, then the process for creating safe areas isn’t fit for purpose because not one safe area has been created to date.”

 

ALRANZ believes Cabinet needs to approve the safe areas applications as a matter of urgency, or admit the government got it wrong when they set out the requirements for creating safe areas.

Losing Our Religion

Losing Our Religion

by | 6 Dec, 2022 | Our Blog

by Craig Young

The Aotearoa/New Zealand anti-abortion movement still doesn’t get it. In the United States, there’s at least some semblance of ersatz pluralism, despite the fact that their movement is overwhelmingly dominated by conservative Catholics and fundamentalist Protestants. There are self-labelled anti-abortion “agnostics and atheists”, pseudofeminists, LGBTQI+ gtroups, scientists, pagans, medical practitioners, ad nauseum. This adds some unconvincing garnishing to the US anti-abortion movement. Some anti-abortion Orthodox Jews and Muslims are also involved in both Britain and the United States.

But in Aotearoa/New Zealand? Their movement is oblivious to the need to look secular in the context of plummeting Christian religious observance. There is only one Maori figure, Hilary Kieft, in Taranaki and no Maori organisations listed in the anti-abortion March for Life’s list of endorsers, which seem to consist entirely of fundamentalist Protestants and conservative Catholics- Couples for Christ, Family Life International NZ, Family First, Right to Life New Zealand, Voice for Life New Zealand, Jesus for NZ, Promise Keepers, John Paul II Centre for Life, NZ Catholic Bishops Conference, (fundamentalist) NZ Christian Network, and the Executive Presbytery of the Assemblies of God. Notice something? Well, for starters, there are no mainline Protestants, no-one from other faith groups, no self-professed atheists or agnostics, no anti-abortion womens groups, and no medical or scientific organisations whatsoever. Proof, if anyone ever needed it, that the New Zealand/Aotearoa anti-abortion movement is almost wholly pakeha and conservative Christian. And they’re certainly not out there to win friends and influence people- Family First’s Bob McCoskrie dislikes progressive Christians, Voice for Life doesn’t even pretend to be politically nonpartisan anymore, and McCoskrie also thinks the anti-abortion movement needs more men.

We should be happy at this outcome. If they carry on this way, they will be unable to deal with either side of Aotearoa/New Zealand politics, with Labour and the Greens already uninclined to listen to them due to their blatant partisan bias and National and ACT trying to distance themselves from an unpopular extremist movement.  The New Conservatives, One Party and Vision New Zealand might make occasional anti-abortion noises, but they’re more obsessed with the anti-vaccination movement than with other fringe opponents of reproductive freedom and LGBTQI issues.

Burning Down the House

Burning Down the House

by | 21 Nov, 2022 | Our Blog

by Terry Bellamak

Back in May, when the US Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v Jackson was leaked by persons unknown, the world thought such treachery was unprecedented in US history. It turns out we were wrong.

The Rev Bob Schenck, a former anti-abortion leader turned whistle-blower, disclosed to Chief Justice Roberts (and now to the New York Times) that in 2014 Justice Alito leaked the results of the Burwell v Hobby Lobby decision to Schenck’s agents, whom he called “stealth missionaries.” The leak gave Schenck and other conservative parties with an interest in the decision a head start on their public relations work. 

This revelation throws unexpected light on the Dobbs leak. At the time, astute court watchers speculated radical conservatives on the court leaked the decision to lock in Chief Justice Roberts’s yes vote and to prevent his persuading other justices to water it down. 

The justice with the most to gain by such a move was Justice Alito himself, who wrote the decision. Given his alleged form in this area, he now appears to be the prime suspect in the May leak.

Both the leak and the Dobbs decision itself have brought the US Supreme Court into unprecedented disrepute. It has reinforced the prevailing perception of the court as a haven for partisan right-wing hackery. Even the lower courts have joined in the criticism, as did Judge Robert CI McBurney of the Superior Court of Fulton County in Georgia, in a pithy footnote to his decision in Sistersong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective v State of Georgia: 

Despite its frothy language disparaging the views espoused by previous Justices, the magic of Dobbs is not its special insight into historical “facts” or its monopoly on constitutional hermeneutics. It is simply numbers. More Justices today believe that the U.S. Constitution does not protect a woman’s right to choose what to do with her body than did in that same institution 50 years ago. This new majority has provided our nation with a revised (and controlling) interpretation of what the unchanged words of the U.S. Constitution really mean. And until that interpretation changes again, it is the law.

What can you do when an institution that has no effective oversight becomes politicised? And loses not only the appearance of impartiality, but the reality as well?

If Alito is the culprit, he might as well be on a mission to destroy the Roberts court, or even SCOTUS itself. He’s like an arsonist in a house made of straw.

 

Telemedicine abortion service to expand access to care

by | 31 Oct, 2022 | Our Blog

 Whomever you are and wherever you live in Aotearoa New Zealand, you have the right to end a pregnancy if you want or need to. One way to do so is through early medical abortion, which uses pills and allows for self-managed abortion at home. This option has been available via telehealth for some time but has become more common in recent years, especially since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

 A new service called DECIDE, launched in April by the Ministry of Health, is helping to expand existing telehealth services and close overall gaps in access to abortion care. DECIDE provides consultations and medications for early medical abortions, along with related services, including consultations, information, referrals, counselling, and after-care support. This service cannot replace in-person care, which will always be necessary in certain cases, but helps to enlarge access to safe and timely abortion. This is a great step forward for equitable sexual and reproductive healthcare. 

 There is a growing evidence base on telehealth abortion services, especially due to its increased of rollout across the globe due to COVID-19 restrictions. International research shows that telehealth abortion care is extremely safe and effective. Self-managed medical abortion conducted by telehealth is just as safe and effective as when the procedure is completed in person at a doctor’s office, clinic, or hospital. This option is not associated with higher risks of complications compared with pills accessed in-office. In fact, only 2% of medication abortions result in complications, and most of those are minor. Plus, most patients report being satisfied with their experience.

The research also suggests several advantages to telehealth abortion services, namely:

  • allow more privacy and autonomy (avoid harassment, conscientious objection, disclosing choice if unsafe)
  • help ensure timely care
  • greater flexibility reduces burdens of cost, travel, and time
  • reduce pregnancy-related deaths

 

 Telehealth services are especially beneficial to those who may not otherwise be able to access abortion care. This may be due to low resources, disability, caregiving or work responsibilities, or geographical distances, especially if disclosing an unintended pregnancy is difficult or unsafe. Indeed, researchers report that barriers limiting abortion access most profoundly affect communities that already face health care and social inequities and can therefore widen existing socio-economic inequalities.

 It is also important to note that access to early medical abortion through telehealth ensures timely care. While abortion is among the safest medical procedures, the earlier it is done, the fewer complications there could be. Reducing wait times for abortion, which has been a major problem in the past, can also help alleviate some of the stresses associated with unintended pregnancy.

The country is already seeing higher rates of earlier access to abortion and the final rollout of the DECIDE services will hopefully maintain this trend and contribute to more equitable access to sexual and reproductive healthcare for all.

ALRANZ welcomes good news from Kansas

by | 3 Aug, 2022 | Media Release

ALRANZ Abortion Rights Aotearoa hails the failure of a Kansas referendum that would have removed protection for abortion rights from the state’s constitution. The vote is a strong demonstration of the popularity of abortion rights in the United States of America, even in conservative states like Kansas. US polls consistently show support for reproductive rights in the 60%’s.

ALRANZ president Dr Tracy Morison said, “It is a relief to see voters pushing back successfully against anti-abortion politicians’ undemocratic attempts to restrict the fundamental human right to bodily autonomy. It looks like the US Supreme Court decision in Dobbs may have provoked a backlash.”

Abortion access in the US in the wake of the overturn of Roe v Wade has become a patchwork with different states restricting or protecting access to abortion. Kansas has been a midwestern bulwark for protection of access to abortion. In 2009 Dr George Tiller was murdered by an anti-abortion extremist while Dr Tiller was serving as an usher at his church in Wichita, Kansas. 

New Zealand reformed its abortion laws in 2020, legalising abortion up to 20 weeks as a matter of right. The Ministry of Health is in the process of implementing the law to fulfil the promise of increased access to services. 0800 DECIDE (or www.decide.org.nz) is the most comprehensive element of that effort to date.

ALRANZ urges New Zealanders to remain vigilant regarding our rights. ALRANZ believes abortion is a fundamental human right, but as we have seen in the US, a hard won right is not always guaranteed.