Luxon “won’t change” Aotearoa’s abortion laws, but he likely won’t enforce them either

Luxon “won’t change” Aotearoa’s abortion laws, but he likely won’t enforce them either

by | 15 Jun, 2023 | Our Blog

Image from Simeon Brown on Facebook. National Party leader Christopher Luxon (R) and MP for Pakuranga Simeon Brown (L) are both anti-choice.

By Alma De Anda, Abortion Rights Aotearoa Co-Treasurer

On 18 March 2022, a law was passed in Aotearoa to allow for the creation of ‘safe areas’ around abortion service providers to protect staff and patients from intimidation from anti-choice protestors.  (This is following the removal of safe areas from the initial Bill decriminalising abortion in 2020, thanks to the ACT party.)  Yet, as I type this, there have been NO safe areas established around any abortion provider in the entire country due to the unnecessarily arduous process to implement one.  Former ALRANZ (Abortion Rights Aotearoa) President Terry Bellamak wrote about this in March.  Three months later and there is still no progress.

The safe areas amendment passed because the government acknowledged abortion care is healthcare and should be treated as such.  Despite this approach, implementing safe areas has proved to be an arduous process.  This means anti-choice, anti-abortion extremists can still get together to harass anyone (patients or staff) entering or exiting abortion care facilities.  We use the word ‘extremists’ in this context because it is extreme and dangerous to believe that a government or any one person has a right to force someone to stay pregnant against their will. 

ALRANZ receives messages from concerned citizens wondering why people are still harassing abortion seekers and abortion providers if it’s unlawful.  We must reply and explain the tedious and ridiculously long process that leaves providers and patients exposed to violence and harassment each day after an abortion provider’s application is received.  A hopeful time estimate for the completion of the process is at least six to nine months.

If this glacial progress is what we have under a pro-choice government, one wonders what it would be like under one lacking the political will to implement abortion law reform.  If a National or a National/ACT government win the next election, we could see the advancement of abortion access and abortion equity across Aotearoa die from purposeful procedural stagnation. 

Abortion rights do not exist in a silo, and ALRANZ knows people have a wide range of beliefs about God and religion.  ALRANZ has no issue with religious freedom, what we are concerned with is the Christian nationalism seeping its way into politics in Aotearoa.  We know several key members of the National Party are actively and vocally opposed to abortion rights, as well as other human rights related to sexuality, race, and gender. 

Party leader and MP for Botany Christopher Luxon is anti-choice and believes abortion is tantamount to murder.  That implicitly means Luxon believes that one in four women in Aotearoa are murderers.  Similarly, Tāmaki MP Simon O’Connor was overjoyed at the overturning of Roe v Wade, which ended the constitutional protection for abortion in the United States.  O’Connor is also a fan of appearing on podcasts and YouTube channels to talk about the “annoying” topics of race and gender.  (I won’t link to those, but if you want to look for them yourselves, you will find them.  I do not recommend it though.)  MP for Pakuranga Simeon Brown was “holding back tears” at the thought of abortion law reform and, as demonstrated when he voted “no” alongside seven of his National colleagues at the third reading of the Bill banning conversion therapy, thinks it is OK to tell LGBTQIA+ youth that his God does not approve of their ‘lifestyle’.  Likewise, Northland-based MP Dr Shane Reti has personal views in direct conflict with abortion and LGBTQIA+ rights allegedly because of his Catholic faith.  Reti would become the Minister for Health under a National government.  How would he, or any of these other high-profile National MPs, advance or even conserve abortion rights in Aotearoa?

The short answer: they won’t.  The National Party might not undo abortion law reform like what is happening in the United States.  However, as the safe areas stagnation demonstrates the government does not have to introduce specific legislation to stifle abortion access.  All they have to do is drag their feet on any aspect around abortion service delivery and they can still say, “See, we did not touch abortion law reform.”

And they would be correct, but they would not do what 74 per cent of New Zealanders want regarding abortion – to properly implement choice for all. 

New Zealand Owes PM Ardern a Debt of Gratitude

by | 19 Jan, 2023 | Media Release

On the day of her resignation announcement, ALRANZ Abortion Rights Aotearoa expressed its gratitude to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern for her steadfast support for reproductive rights in Aotearoa.

During the second 2017 leaders’ debate, Ardern stated her position that abortion should be decriminalised in Aotearoa and treated as a health matter rather than a criminal matter. Ardern stood firm in her support for the bodily autonomy of all citizens, and as Prime Minister she presided over a government that decriminalised abortion in its first term.

After almost 50 years of neglect and shamefaced silence from New Zealand’s political class (with a few exceptions), Ardern flipped the script and took a stand on much-needed, much delayed reform. Even though it was a conscience vote, the government’s support provided cover for MPs who might otherwise have been too intimidated to vote for reform.

In the years since New Zealand’s COVID-19 response saved thousands of Kiwi lives, Ardern, along with other high-profile women, has experienced vicious misogynist attacks in the guise of critique from both mainstream media and social media. Some of those attacks have focused on her government’s commitment to reproductive rights. She has, however, stayed the course.

Around the world, reproductive rights are under attack, even in places like the USA, whose early adoption of legal abortion made it a model for other countries. New Zealand stands in sharp contrast, with a new, reformed abortion law that has improved access to abortion care. With Arden moving on, ALRANZ will increase its efforts to make sure abortion remains safe, legal, and accessible.

We wish PM Ardern the very best in her next endeavours. We feel certain that, given her well-deserved stature on the world stage, she will continue to make the world a better place by espousing the values of kindness, following the science, and knowing your subject far better than your opponents do. 

Watch What They Do

Watch What They Do

by | 7 May, 2022 | Our Blog

by Terry Bellamak

This week in the USA, someone leaked a Supreme Court majority decision that reverses Roe v Wade, the decision that establishes a constitutional right to an abortion. Now Americans are incandescent with outrage at the dumpster fire their democracy has become. When we consider our happy, sensible little country in comparison, Kiwis might be feeling a bit smug.

We shouldn’t.

We legalised abortion only two short years ago. By now the law change has the feel of inevitability that Roe used to have. But it almost didn’t happen.

If Winston Peters had buried the hatchet with National instead of in it, Bill English would have remained Prime Minister. He would not have lifted a finger to advance abortion law reform – he would have moved heaven and earth to prevent it. We would still be lying to certifying consultants, saying that we were mentally disturbed to get their discretionary approval to end unwanted pregnancies.

Who is in power makes a huge difference to fundamental human rights. Every country on this planet is just a few bad politicians away from disaster.

Just ask Poland. It used to have fairly liberal abortion laws, but their unpopular right-wing government instituted a draconian abortion ban that has left doctors afraid to abort dying fetuses that are killing the person carrying them. People have died.

Even the support of large majorities doesn’t help. A large majority of New Zealanders favour abortion rights. The National Council of Women’s Gender Equality Survey found 74% of New Zealanders support the right to choose abortion. But that is no guarantee. Abortion rights are popular in the USA too – 70% say abortion should be between pregnant people and their doctors. 

People in the US thought their right to abortion was secure, but they were wrong. New Zealand must not fall into the same complacency.

You might say we are safe because opposition to abortion is driven by religious extremists in the USA, and we don’t have nearly as many here. 

I would submit religion is not so much the issue as authoritarianism, and we have more of those than we thought, as the occupation of Parliament demonstrated. We also have some former and current MPs who were willing to pander to the occupiers. 

Losing fundamental human rights is the last step in a long series of steps. The early steps barely register – we are halfway to the end before we realise we are going somewhere. 

Maintaining our reproductive freedom requires vigilance in the face of the media and politicians telling you not to be paranoid, those red flags are just decoration.

What would an erosion of abortion rights look like here? No one knows for sure.

It could start with a government hostile to reproductive rights quietly under-resourcing abortion care. Or perhaps encouraging the placement of anti-choice people in the health care system’s upper management, where they could undermine provision in quiet ways, like moving the abortion service to a different building which would require the service to request a new safe area. The service would be unprotected for the 3 – 6 months it would take to create and approve another safe area.

It could move on to nibbling away at the edges of abortion rights, perhaps starting with the least popular or most controversial. Perhaps ending telemedicine abortions. Perhaps reinstating the rule that the second set of medicines must be taken at the service, which requires another trip to the service. 

Always quietly, with as little fanfare as possible so that few people notice. They will always make the change sound reasonable, and promise nothing else will change and abortion rights are safe. Just like in the USA.

This is why we need to pay attention to the political class. When the leader of the opposition, Christopher Luxon, says abortion rights would be safe under a National-led government because deputy leader Nicola Willis is pro-choice – even though he considers abortion tantamount to murder, that’s a red flag. Don’t listen to what they say – watch what they do.

Now that we have abortion law reform, we need to make sure we keep it. 

 

The Long Game

The Long Game

by | 10 Apr, 2022 | Our Blog

by Terry Bellamak

To see what the world would look like if anti-abortion types had their way, look no farther than the USA.

Like Oklahoma, which just passed a bill making all abortions illegal except to save the life of the mother. The governor is expected to sign it.

Like Tennessee, which is moving forward with a bill that would allow a family member of a rapist to sue the rape survivor for $10,000. If fact, all the rapist’s family members could sue the survivor, and get $10,000 each.

Like Texas, which has banned abortions from 6 weeks on, and has just arrested and charged Lizelle Herrera with murder for ‘illegal abortion’. She is being held on a half million dollar bond.

Anti-abortion types talk a good game about ‘loving them both’, meaning both pregnant person and foetus. I guess charging someone with felony murder is what love looks like to them. Antis have droned on for years about how they don’t want to criminalise people who receive abortion care, just those who provide it. So much for that.

For the past 40 years, Americans believed their constitutionally protected access to abortion was safe, because it was settled law. But the US Supreme Court has the power to laugh at settled law, even at the cost of trashing the rules of precedent.

Here is New Zealand, access to abortion as health care is also settled law. Abortion care is embedded in the health care system, not kept at arm’s length like it is in the USA. The leader of the opposition has ruled out changes to the law if his party makes it into government next year.

But antis play the long game.

That’s why ALRANZ isn’t going anywhere. We will be right here, now and into the future, speaking out about things that need improving as the Ministry of Health implements abortion law reform and establishes systems to provide abortion care. We will be right here defending New Zealanders’ access to abortion should a government hostile to abortion be elected. We will be right here, talking about reproductive rights and breaking down abortion stigma.

The fight for fundamental human rights is never really over. That’s why we’re here. We play the long game too.

Passage of Safe Areas Amendment Bill at third reading welcomed by ALRANZ

Passage of Safe Areas Amendment Bill at third reading welcomed by ALRANZ

by | 16 Mar, 2022 | Media Release

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.