3 January 2009

Media Release

Abortion Supervisory Committee

Right to Life is concerned that the Abortion Supervisory Committee has withheld important statistical information from Parliament in their 2008 report. The Committee is appointed by Parliament and is accountable to Parliament. The Committee has a statutory duty to report annually to Parliament on the performance of abortion in New Zealand.

This duty is enshrined in the Contraception Sterilisation and Abortion Act 1977, section 14. Functions and Powers of Supervisory committee, [1] [g], To obtain, monitor, analyse, collate, and disseminate information relating to the performance of abortions in New Zealand.

There are ten tables of statistics in the 2008 report, in the 2007 report there were sixteen tables which have been included in the Committee’s reports for many years.

Three of the omitted tables of particular importance are the table listing the reasons for the authorisation of the abortions. This table in previous reports revealed that 98% of abortions were authorised on the grounds of mental health. These statistics were of critical importance in obtaining a favourable judgment of the High Court in the Judicial Review of the performance of the Committee which declared that certifying consultants were using mental health grounds to provide an unlawful abortion on demand in New Zealand. Table seven listing the ethnicity of the women having an abortion has been withheld, as is table 15 which lists the procedures used for abortions. We are also concerned that table 8, Induced Abortions by Previous Abortions has been drastically changed to omit the number of repeat abortions after two. In the 2007 report it provided information on the number of abortions a woman had including up to six previous abortions, this information was also of importance in our Society’s Judicial Review in the High Court.

We believe that Parliament and the public of New Zealand have a right to the statistical information that has been withheld. It is the view of this Society that the information withheld impedes a fuller understanding by Parliamentarians and citizens of the performance of abortion in New Zealand. This important issue raises important questions;

• Why is the Committee withholding this important statistical information from Parliament?

• Is the information being withheld in order to prevent Parliament from concluding that certifying consultants are using mental health grounds to provide an unlawful abortion on demand?

Right to Life requests that the Committee urgently present a supplementary report to Parliament to include the statistics withhold. We also request that the withheld statistical tables be re instated in the Committee’s 2009 report to Parliament.

ENDS

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