Jacinda pledges abortion law change

Stuff reports:

Labour leader Jacinda Ardern says abortion should not be in the Crimes Act and she would change the law.

Access to abortion is governed by the Crimes Act 1961 and the Contraception, Sterilisation and Abortion Act 1977.

The law has not been changed since 1977, although there have been calls for it to be liberalised. 

During the Newshub debate on Monday night, Ardern said she would change the law if she became Prime Minister.

This is a significant change as traditionally abortion is a conscience issue but Ardern has said she will change the law if elected. This implies all Labour MPs will have to vote for a law change.

I support changing the law. The current law doesn’t reflect what happens and forces women to go through a fiction of claiming danger to their mental health if they don’t have an abortion.

I believe the law should allow abortion on demand. The main issue for me is for how long. My view is that it should be uncontested up until the point the foetus could survive if born.

Abortion is an issue with extremely strong feelings on both sides. It will be a highly polarising law change, which is probably why no Giovernment has tried to change the law since 1977.