Flurry of media coverage around parental notification

In May the Sunday Star Times appears to have started a bit of a campaign around supporting parental notification for "teen" abortions, featuring SHOCK stories at the top of their news agenda three weeks' running.

Mothers For Choice did some media work in response to this, in particular the following:

Spokesperson Rebecca Matthews on Back Benchers (in Chapter 2)
Row rages over school abortion  - NZ Herald
Some abortion secrets need to be kept, say advocates  - TVNZ
Debate continues over abortion controversy - Otago Daily Times
I wrote a blog post critiquing the original SST article
Mothers For Choice backs girls' right - our original media release on the issue at Scoop

Court of Appeal decide against Right to Life NZ

On June 1st the Court of Appeal announced their decision in the long-running case taken by Right To Life NZ (RTL) against the Abortion Supervisory Committee (ASC). 

The basic gist of it is that they have overturned the previous High Court decision is which Justice Miller raised questions about the legality of the 98% of abortions permitted on the grounds of the mental health of the pregnant person. 

The Court of Appeal has also rejected RTL's claims that the fetus has a right to life.  (Wonder if they're going to change their name?)

Here's the Court of Appeal decision (PDF, quite long) and a summary.  The ALRANZ site has a timeline of the whole saga.

Also a round-up of pro-choice blog-posts on the matter, from The Hand Mirror.

Media coverage:
Unborn have no right to life: Court of Appeal rules - Stuff
Appeal court strikes out abortion finding - NZ Herald
Praise for court ruling over abortion - Newstalk ZB - includes link to Mike Hosking talking to Dame Margaret Sparrow of ALRANZ about the announcement
Anti-abortion group considers taking case to Supreme Court - NZ Herald

Wgtn Abortion Rights demo today

No More Jumping Through Hoops, a protest in support of abortion law reform, was held today in Wellington.  Organised by Victoria's Action for Abortion Rights group, the aim of the demonstration was to show support for a pro-choice law change outside the Court of Appeal hearing of Right to Life v the Abortion Supervisory Committee.  More background on the court case, and the challenge it poses to access to abortion, can be found at the ALRANZ site.

You can see the Dominion Post article covering the protest here, including a great picture and some good quotes from two women involved in organising it.* 

Rebecca from Mothers For Choice was asked to speak briefly to the rally and her speech is below:

Mothers For Choice is a group of women - who, obviously, are mothers and hold a pro-choice position on abortion.

We define a pro-choice position on abortion as: respecting the right of individual women to choose for themselves whether or not to continue a pregnancy, without the need to seek permission from anyone else for a termination. Obviously, given that position, legislative change is very high on our agenda.

We have a very strong message for the Right to Life brigade – not only do you not own women’s bodies, you don’t own families. Your ilk has spoken on behalf of families for too long. Most people in most families want a decent law that means everyone who needs an abortion can get one, without having to make the kind of case necessary under current law.

As mothers, we know how hard parenting can be at the best of times, and as such we want women with unwanted pregnancies to be able to access abortion – free and safe abortion, when and where they need it.

One thing I try and encourage my daughter to do is to be brave. Whether its trying a new food for the first time, or playing on the playground or writing a letter she finds a bit tricky, I encourage her to have a go and be a bit brave. I want to encourage our politicians to demonstrate some bravery on abortion legislation.

They don’t have to be too brave – we believe very strongly that most people support law for abortion on demand. But they do have to face up to a small, committed opposition. But being a bit brave and showing some leadership on this issue is the right thing to do, and you will find many many more people will support you than criticize you.

My daughter is four. I hate the thought that when she is older, she would have to jump through hoops to get an abortion if she had an unwanted pregnancy. I don’t want any more women to have to do so. The time is long overdue for the law we need, and together we are going to make sure it happens. 

Hopefully this is the first of many new opportunities for those in favour of abortion law reform, and a woman's right to choose, to publicly voice our support for a positive change.  Well done to the organisers and attendees.

* Note that as I type the caption to the picture says the protesters are "Abortion Right to Life protesters" when they aren't!  Several people have already emailed the Dominion Post web editor (web@dompost.co.nz) to nicely ask for this to be corrected.  Update:  The caption has now been corrected, many thanks to the Dom for quick action to rectify it.

Herald: More teenage pregnancies, fewer births

Article in the Herald today, including:

The teen pregnancy rate hit a 40-year peak in 2008 despite a long-term downward trend in the proportion of teenagers actually giving birth.

A report by Social Development Ministry analyst Dr Barbara Collins has found that an almost continuous rise in the number of teenagers having abortions has more than offset the downward trend in the actual birthrate since the mid-1980s.

Both the abortion rate and the teenage birthrate dropped last year, but the overall teen pregnancy rate was still the fifth-highest since the teenage birthrate peaked in the early 1970s.

...Dr Collins' data show that the teenage birthrate dropped from a peak of 67.6 for every 1000 girls aged 15 to 19 in 1972 to a postwar low of 25.6 in 2002.

Click through for the whole article.

Herald: Women feel wait for abortion too long

Article in the Herald earlier this week, including:

Women are waiting nearly a month on average to get an abortion - and they feel that is too long, research by Auckland University has found.
The study, published in the journal Reproductive Health, looked at the timeliness of services provided by nine New Zealand clinics.
More than half of women at the clinics were having abortions in or after their 10th week of pregnancy, with an average wait of 25 days after seeing their referring doctor.
Lead researcher Martha Silva said abortion was a safe procedure but the risk of complications increased with gestational age.
Clinics and referring doctors needed to make an effort to reduce waiting times, she said.
In an anonymous questionnaire, 38 per cent of women felt they had waited too long and would have wanted the procedure sooner, while 15 per cent thought the wait was too long, but did not mind waiting.
...Part of the delay was caused by the requirement to gain the approval of two certifying consultants before having an abortion.

Click through for the whole Herald article (from NZPA) and you can find the full journal article here.

Update:  I've written at my everyday blog, The Hand Mirror, about my issues with the misleading photo and caption used by the Herald in their online version of this story.  Further update:  The Herald has now changed the picture to one of Steve Chadwick, with reference to her possible Bill.  Thanks to everyone who raised the issue with The Herald for bringing about this positive change.  Boganette has also written about the fetus picture issue today, as well as giving Mothers For Choice a nice promo.