Sunday, May 22, 2011
Update soonish
There's been lots and lots going on since the last News post in October last year - not least a pro-choice gathering in Wellington and some media work recently on the issue of parental notification. Hopefully we'll get some time to update the news section soon. Our Facebook page is pretty much always up to date, so if in doubt check there. Thanks for your patience.
Monday, October 4, 2010
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:
* 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.
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.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.
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.
* 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.
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Talking about abortion
On Friday afternoon I attended a presentation at Auckland University organised by the Campus Feminist Collective where Julie spoke about the need for a pro-choice law in regard to abortion in New Zealand. The talk was well attended by both women and men, and there was the inevitable presence of some pro-lifers. Unfortunately they had to leave early to prevent their cars being ticketed.
First up, I'd like to thank Julie for hauling her heavily pregnant self out to talk to us about women's choice and why it is so important to be able to access safe, legal, and timely abortion services in the event of an unwanted pregnancy. If you'd like to read Julie's presentation in full, it can be found over at The Hand Mirror.
And now I'll consider some highlights of the talk and discussion following the presentation.
I loved that Julie highlighted that the aim of most people behind the pro-choice movement is working toward a world where abortion isn't needed at all. That world, unfortunately is a long way off, but in the mean time we do need to keep working toward it. To keep trying to prevent rape, increase availability of effective and free contraception, create positive attitudes toward sex, encourage respect and support of parents, and hope for healthy, safe, and viable pregnancies. But until all those forces combine, people will keep having sex and there will be unwanted pregnancies and subsequently, the need for safe and legal abortion services.
As part of the presentation, Julie introduced us to individual stories to accompany the statistics she used which showed the diverse range of circumstances that people have to deal with in the event of an unplanned pregnancy. Many different factors form part of a woman's decision whether to continue or not with a pregnancy (definitely wider than the legally used "a risk to [the pregnant woman's] physical or mental health"), and we need to remember that she's the one in the best position to consider all those individual factors.
Following the presentation, the pro-lifers got their chance to talk about their previous foetal form (before their parking money ran out) and how in the years following, they realised that they'd have been a smidgeon upset if they hadn't been born. Leaving aside that they'd never know if that was the case, it was noted that foetal personhood is socially ascribed and that not all people feel the same way about the terms used to describe the process of pregnancy. It was also mentioned that there was another person involved in this whole pregnancy business, a woman, and her bodily autonomy was worthy of consideration too. The pro-life types continued to reiterate their former foetal state and that the rights of the foetus should trump the rights of the woman, sitting in a room of many other former foetuses that held the opposing view. Their parting point was around how fantastic big families were and how wonderful children are; the mothers of the audience nodded in agreement without feeling any less pro-choice than when they entered the room (while acknowledging that parenthood ain't no walk in the park and is a lifetime commitment).
Once the pro-life crew had gone, we heard more individual stories from those in the audience. Real women and real lives where choices about unwanted pregnancies needed to be made. I enjoyed the questions people asked and the issues raised, including the lack of support for women post-abortion due to the social taboo that surrounds abortion, when and how we came to our pro-choice position, and how close abortion often is to our own lives, usually involving those who don't fit the commonly used stereotypes of who accesses abortion.
We talked about contraceptive effectiveness and some women shared why they didn't want to be pregnant; including wanting to be in a position to be a good parent, which included current children and/or future ones. The current law was discussed and the cases that have been taken to court recently seeking to get the law to be more tightly interpreted... issuing shudders from the women in the audience.
After being in that room with people committed to a pro-choice law (or at least a discussion about it!), I'm feeling positive about our ability to really make a difference to people's lives. Watch this space!
And thanks again to Julie for the presentation and the Campus Feminist Collective for organising the talk. And providing some seriously awesome cupcakes. I did see the pro-lifers posing with a cupcake for a cell phone pic, so I can only assume they were appreciative of the cupcakes too.
First up, I'd like to thank Julie for hauling her heavily pregnant self out to talk to us about women's choice and why it is so important to be able to access safe, legal, and timely abortion services in the event of an unwanted pregnancy. If you'd like to read Julie's presentation in full, it can be found over at The Hand Mirror.
And now I'll consider some highlights of the talk and discussion following the presentation.
I loved that Julie highlighted that the aim of most people behind the pro-choice movement is working toward a world where abortion isn't needed at all. That world, unfortunately is a long way off, but in the mean time we do need to keep working toward it. To keep trying to prevent rape, increase availability of effective and free contraception, create positive attitudes toward sex, encourage respect and support of parents, and hope for healthy, safe, and viable pregnancies. But until all those forces combine, people will keep having sex and there will be unwanted pregnancies and subsequently, the need for safe and legal abortion services.
As part of the presentation, Julie introduced us to individual stories to accompany the statistics she used which showed the diverse range of circumstances that people have to deal with in the event of an unplanned pregnancy. Many different factors form part of a woman's decision whether to continue or not with a pregnancy (definitely wider than the legally used "a risk to [the pregnant woman's] physical or mental health"), and we need to remember that she's the one in the best position to consider all those individual factors.
Following the presentation, the pro-lifers got their chance to talk about their previous foetal form (before their parking money ran out) and how in the years following, they realised that they'd have been a smidgeon upset if they hadn't been born. Leaving aside that they'd never know if that was the case, it was noted that foetal personhood is socially ascribed and that not all people feel the same way about the terms used to describe the process of pregnancy. It was also mentioned that there was another person involved in this whole pregnancy business, a woman, and her bodily autonomy was worthy of consideration too. The pro-life types continued to reiterate their former foetal state and that the rights of the foetus should trump the rights of the woman, sitting in a room of many other former foetuses that held the opposing view. Their parting point was around how fantastic big families were and how wonderful children are; the mothers of the audience nodded in agreement without feeling any less pro-choice than when they entered the room (while acknowledging that parenthood ain't no walk in the park and is a lifetime commitment).
Once the pro-life crew had gone, we heard more individual stories from those in the audience. Real women and real lives where choices about unwanted pregnancies needed to be made. I enjoyed the questions people asked and the issues raised, including the lack of support for women post-abortion due to the social taboo that surrounds abortion, when and how we came to our pro-choice position, and how close abortion often is to our own lives, usually involving those who don't fit the commonly used stereotypes of who accesses abortion.
We talked about contraceptive effectiveness and some women shared why they didn't want to be pregnant; including wanting to be in a position to be a good parent, which included current children and/or future ones. The current law was discussed and the cases that have been taken to court recently seeking to get the law to be more tightly interpreted... issuing shudders from the women in the audience.
After being in that room with people committed to a pro-choice law (or at least a discussion about it!), I'm feeling positive about our ability to really make a difference to people's lives. Watch this space!
And thanks again to Julie for the presentation and the Campus Feminist Collective for organising the talk. And providing some seriously awesome cupcakes. I did see the pro-lifers posing with a cupcake for a cell phone pic, so I can only assume they were appreciative of the cupcakes too.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Why abortion needs to be legal - talk in Auckland tomorrow
Thanks to the University of Auckland's Feminist Collective for the invitation to speak at this event on Friday 13th August, 12noon - 2pm, in the Executive Chambers at AUSA:
Come along to hear Julie Fairey talk about the importance of legalising abortion, followed by an opportunity for people (both women and men) to talk about their abortion experiences.Above is the message from the Facebook event page.
Bring a friend :)
Note: (as I am sure everyone is aware) due to the sensitive nature of the issue we ask that everyone is respectful - this isn't a debate over whether abortion is right or wrong but rather a discussion focused around being pro-choice....
Look forward to seeing you there!
Sunday, August 8, 2010
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.
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Mothers For Choice: first media statement
Sent out this morning, launching Mothers For Choice to the media:
Update: Media statement now up on Scoop, in the Politics section.
Further Update: Also picked up by Voxy. From Scoop and Voxy it has popped up on other media aggregate sites too.
New group “Mothers For Choice” formed to support abortion on demand
A new group has launched in the last week to support a pro-choice position on abortion – and their point of difference in this debate is that they’re all mothers.
Mothers For Choice 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.
"We believe that most New Zealanders would support a law change that gives the woman concerned the right to decide, as only she truly knows her own circumstances and what is the right choice for her" said spokesperson Julie Fairey.
The group are making it a priority to update our abortion laws, said spokesperson Rebecca Matthews. “We believe any improvement to the current mess of our abortion laws would be a good start. The current legislation is over 30 years old, and does not give women the right to choose, as it allows abortion only on certain grounds and only with the permission of two certifying consultants.”
Mothers For Choice supports the key elements of a bill Labour MP Steve Chadwick has been considering putting in the ballot for Private Member’s Bill, in particular:
- abortion available on demand (i.e. woman concerned decides) to 24 weeks
- abortion with medial practitioner’s support after 24 weeks when appropriate
- decriminalize abortion (remove from Crimes Act)
- health practitioners who have conscientious objection to abortion must inform women they can access abortion from elsewhere
Will let you know if it gets picked up anywhere!
Mothers For Choice includes amongst our number mothers who have one child, several children; are single, married, in a civil union, in a defacto relationship, widowed, separated; have had fertility problems, have suffered miscarriages, have had unplanned pregnancies, have had abortions; are step-mothers; are religious, are atheists, are agnostic; and hail from a variety of different cultures and backgrounds.
Mothers For Choice has a website with further details www.mothersforchoice.org.nz. We also have a Facebook Page (keywords: mothers for choice) which at the time of writing has over 100 supporters and a twitter feed "mothers4choice".
Update: Media statement now up on Scoop, in the Politics section.
Further Update: Also picked up by Voxy. From Scoop and Voxy it has popped up on other media aggregate sites too.
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Herald: Women feel wait for abortion too long
Article in the Herald earlier this week, including:
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.
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.Click through for the whole Herald article (from NZPA) and you can find the full journal article here.
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.
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.
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