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Abortion Legislation Bill — In Committee — Part 1 — Remove statutory test for abortions after 20 weeks

10 March, 2020

Summary

This Supplementary Order Paper amends the Abortion Legislation Bill. This amendment would implement Option A of the Law Commission’s 3 models, by removing the statutory test for abortions after 20 weeks’ gestation. Such abortions only occur in exceptional circumstances, and medical professionals are invariably involved in supporting pregnant people to make their decisions. An additional statutory test is therefore unnecessary and creates a potential barrier to service provision. Option A was preferred by the majority of the health sector, including the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RANZCOG), the New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO), the New Zealand College of Midwives, and the Abortion Providers Group Aotearoa New Zealand (APGANZ). This option is most consistent with a health-based approach to abortion care, recognises the importance of the pregnant person’s bodily autonomy, and will minimise delays to abortion provision. Minimising delay is particularly important for abortions later in pregnancy, due to the higher risk of complications as pregnancy progresses. This amendment would also clarify that all providers must comply with standards under section 18(b).

The question was put that the amendments set out on Supplementary Order Paper 325 in the name of Jan Logie to clause 7 be agreed to.

Mover of amendment

Photo of Jan Logie
Jan Logie
Green Party, List

Votes Not passed by a large majority

Amendments not agreed to.

Personal Vote

This was a personal vote (or conscience vote) which meant MPs could decide how to vote on their own, rather than having to follow the party position. Learn more on the official Parliament website.

12 Voted For

106 Voted Against








2 Absent

External References

This work is based on Member of Parliament data from the Office of the Clerk and Parliamentary Services which is licensed by the Clerk of the House of Representatives and/or the Parliamentary Corporation on behalf of Parliamentary Service for re-use under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence. Full licence available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

It also includes public domain content such as voting information from the Parliamentary debates (Hansard) and information about Government Bills.

Image of Jan Logie (resized, cropped) by The Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand, used under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence. Full licence available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

All original material is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence. Full licence available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.