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Abortion

Thirty years of safe legal abortion services

June 2008 Women's Health Update

The current debate on the abortion law in New Zealand masks the fact that this is a law which has served women in New Zealand well for thirty years. Lynda Williams looks at its history and its current dilemmas.

On 1 April 1978 the Contraception, Sterilisation and Abortion Act came into effect in New Zealand after almost a decade of intense lobbying and protests about the lack of a safe legal abortion service for women. The legislation was passed by a National government under the leadership of Rob Muldoon on 15 December 1977 after a debate that had lasted for 21 hours and which saw the introduction of several amendments. The amendments put forward by several conservative MPs managed to defeat all the contentious clauses in the bill....Read More

Whose rights? Whose choice? Who cares? A report from the Global Safe Abortion Conference

November 2007 Women's Health Update

This conference, held in London in October this year, marked the 40th anniversary of the 1967 Act which liberalised access to abortion services for women in England, Scotland and Wales. The Auckland Medical Aid Trust sponsored Dr Nesta Devine to attend and she shares her impressions of the conference.

The theme of the conference, safe abortion has relevance for domestic policies in wealthy, liberal societies like Britain and New Zealand, but also, obviously for poorer and developing countries, where abortion is not always legal. If legal, abortion is not always safe or available and for Ireland - the maverick of developed countries - abortion is legal but not performed and is beset with social and economic difficulties...Read More

Depressed about abortion?

June 2006 Women's Health Watch

News headlines highlighting New Zealand research pointing to a link between abortion and depression ushered in the new year.
The source was Professor Fergusson who published his analysis from the Christchurch Health and Development Study (CHDS) in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. While saying he "regretted" the finding, he also admitted that a number of confounding factors may be involved and his strongest conclusion is that further studies are needed on the topic. The debate and study around the links between abortion and depression have been circulating for quite some time and they continue to have varying findings. It is crucial that we maintain access to safe legal abortions for women who choose them. What we know is that when they are denied, women seek abortion in ways that put not only their sanity but their lives at risk....Read More

Abortion pill use doubles in 12 months

June 2006 Women's Health Watch

Demand for the abortion pill in Britain has reached an all time high with 10,000 pregnant women undergoing the procedure last year. BPAS, formerly known as the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, said the number of women, which it treated with early medical abortion (EMA), rose from 56 per cent to 65 per cent of its case load last year.

Use of the drug, which can legally be prescribed only within nine weeks of conception, has taken off since BPAS began offering the abortion pill in 2003. That year, 3,500 women went to the organisation for the treatment. The following year the figure rose to 5,000 and that number doubled last year.
Ann Furedi, the chief executive of BPAS, said: "Women's demand for the early medical abortion service is at an all time high. We're glad that it has been recognised that the best option for women needing abortion is earlier access.

"With EMA it's the woman having the abortion rather than the doctor doing it to them. This is what makes it attractive to women, as opposed to a surgical abortion involving a general anaesthetic."


About 77 per cent of 50,000 treatments carried out by BPAS last year were conducted on behalf of the National Health Service. The abortion pill works by blocking pregnancy hormones and making the uterus contract. The first oral dose of the drug called mifepristone is taken in a clinic. This blocks the pregnancy hormones. Two days later, the woman returns for a second drug which triggers the miscarriage. Patients are sent away after the second dose so the miscarriage takes place at home.
Great Britain.Daily Telegraph report. 29 April 2006

Bush's war on women

April 2003 Women's Health Watch

While US President George Bush wages war on Iraq, there is another more insidious war going on. This time the target is women's reproductive rights and sexual health, not just in America, but anywhere America has the ability to influence health programmes. Sandra Coney reports

The first major blow came in mid-March 2003 when after three-days of heated debate, the US Senate voted 64 to 33 to ban a form of abortion performed in the fifth and sixth months of pregnancy called intact dilation and extraction, dubbed by opponents 'partial birth abortion'. In this method, the contents of the skull of the foetus are removed while the foetus is partially delivered, then the intact foetus is removed from the woman's body. Most women who have this form of abortion do so because their foetuses have severe or fatal abnormalities or because their pregnancies endanger their health or lives. It is rarely used and only when other forms of abortion might cause grave harm to the mother. Pro-choice campaigners saw the bill as the first overt stage in a wider battle being waged against women's reproductive rights....Read More

Abortion - breast cancer link dismissed

April 2003 Women's Health Watch

Last month SPUC brought to New Zealand Angela Lanfranchi, a private breast surgeon, who made the news with claims that abortion increased the risk of breast cancer. The CV provided by SPUC showed that Ms Lanfranchi has one publication to her name. The booklet she wrote on the subject is distributed by Babette Francis of the Endeavour Forum of Australia. Mrs Francis is well-known for her anti-abortion and 'family values' position.

Similar tactics have been used in the US. The US National Women's Health Network recently released this report on the controversy surrounding abortion and breast cancer....Read More

Unwanted pregnancies in New Zealand

September 2002 Women's Health Watch

Six out of ten pregnancies in a New Zealand cohort of women under 25 were unwanted, according to interviews from 1998.
The cohort was made up of 966 participants in the Dunedin Multi-disciplinary Health and Development Study, born between April 1972 and March 1973. The results of the interviews were analysed by researchers at the Otago School of Medicine.
Of the women, 173 (36%) had experienced 289 pregnancies by the time they were 25. Twenty-nine percent (142) of the men had caused 225 pregnancies by that age, and 73% had not wanted their partner to get pregnant....Read More

Women should have choice of abortion method

September 2001 Women's Health Watch

 

Women should be given a choice between surgical or medical abortion, according to the authors of a United States study. The research, published in Contraception, found surgical and medical abortion procedures were equally effective and surgical abortion cost only marginally more than a medical abortion.

However the authors found women who had medical abortion were less happy with the procedure. 92 percent of the women who had surgery were satisfied with the procedure whereas only 63 percent of women who underwent medical abortion said they would select this approach again.

The authors say their research demonstrates the two procedures are similar in terms of cost and effectiveness but the study also demonstrates the importance of thorough counselling. They say women have different preferences and should have a choice of procedure.
Ref Contraception 2000; 62:117-24

Medical abortion pill approved for NZ, but will it be used?

September 2001 Women's Health Watch

Sandra Coney discusses the approval of RU486 and problems about its use in the New Zealand setting

RU486 (Mifegyne (registered trademark) has been given the go-ahead by the Ministry of Health's Medsafe. A group of doctors formed a not-for-profit company called Istar to apply for the approval and after two-and-a-half years' negotiations, the drug will now be available for medical abortions. It is being hailed as another choice for women. But it is not that simple....Read More

RU 486 Update

July 2001 Women's Health Watch

RU486 abortion medication is not yet available in New Zealand, but various moves have taken it closer, according to Dr Margaret Sparrow. Istar, the company formed to get Mifegyne 200mg (mifepristone) on the market, gained approval in March from the Medicines Assessment Advisory Committee. Then it must be approved by the Minister of Health and gazetted before the final announcement is made.

In the meantime, another problem has arisen. The Crown Law Office has said that the meaning of Section 18 of the CS&A Act is that the foetus must be expelled on licensed premises. As many women abort some time after taking the drugs, usually at home, this would make it difficult to use RU486 for routine, early stage abortions.

Abortions increase - again

July 2001 Women's Health Watch

The number of abortions being performed in New Zealand continues to rise. There was an increase in the abortion rate of nearly four percent in the year to December 2000 compared to 1999, with a total of more than 16,000 abortions performed in the 2000 year.

The figures released by Statistics New Zealand show just over one in five known pregnancies were terminated by induced abortion. Women aged 20-24 years have the highest number of abortions, accounting for about three out of 10 abortions in any year....Read More

RU486 - the medical abortion

December 2000 Women's Health Watch

In New Zealand medical abortions are not currently available but they may be coming to town if the application for their use is approved. Julie Newell reports on the issue and a Women's Health Action seminar on the topic.

Ishtar, the ancient Goddess of love and war, has given her name to the company which is trying to introduce RU486 medical abortions to New Zealand. Love, because abortion is about sexual relations, and war because the company's founders are ready for a battle. Dr Margaret Sparrow, one of the principals of Istar Ltd, told a recent WHA seminar that the company has made an application to the New Zealand Ministry of Health to approve RU486. The seminar was attended by over 30 women's groups and workers in the area of reproductive health...

Mifepristone, known as RU486 or Mifregyne(UK) or Mifeprex (USA) was developed in 1980 by a research team at Roussel Uclaf. In Europe, over 620,000 women have used mifepristone as an early option pill in combination with various prostaglandins which are needed to complete the abortion process in many cases....Read More

Making mifepristone available in New Zealand

December 2000 Women's Health Watch

  • 1990 - FPA invites Prof Balieu to speak in Auckland
  • 1992 - FPA invited by WHO to participate in postcoital research
  • 1995 - method discussed at !st abortion providers conference
  • 1997 - Prof David Healy, Melbourne speaks at 2nd Abortion providers conference
  • 1997 - Prof David Baird, Edinburgh invited by RNZCOG
  • Feb1999 - Istar Limited incorporated as a company
  • March 2000 - Minister of Health, Annette King obtains legal opinion from Crown Law Office
  • May 2000 - Istar signs agreement with Exelgyn for Mifegyn
  • June 2000 - Istar makes application to Medsafe
  • Sept 2000 - Istar receives licence to sell medicine by wholesale

Medical Abortion- Quick check

December 2000 Women's Health Watch

Definition - Medical abortion is defined as the taking of medication as an alternative to a surgical procedure. It is currently used early in the pregnancy, although researchers are extending the time in which the method is used.

Surgical Abortion - The surgical procedure used to terminate pregnancy up to 13 weeks is referred to as a vacuum aspiration abortion or suction curettage abortion. It involves the dilation of the women's cervix and suctioning out the contents of the uterus. Surgical abortion has been acknowledged as one of the most scrutinised surgical procedures and one of the safest with a 0.5% failure rate. The chance of a complication occurring from the procedure is less than 1%....Read More

RU 486 (medical abortion) Seminar

October 2000 WHA Seminar

Women's Health Action held a seminar on RU 486 (medical abortion) in 2000 shortly before the drug was approved for use in 2001. The seminar included presentations by Margaret Sparrow and Sandra Coney and was attended by over 30 women's groups and workers in the area of reproductive health. Read the following presentations and discussion notes below:

Abortion and ectopic pregnancy

April 1998 Women's Health Watch

French researchers recently published research which suggests that women who have had induced abortions have a greater rate of subsequent ectopic pregnancies. The case control studied compared 570 women with ectopic pregnancies with 1385 controls who delivered babies at the same hospital.

After controlling for the main risk factors associated with ectopic preg-nancy, the French team found that a prior history of induced abortion increased the risk of ectopic pregnancy to 1.4 for one prior induced abortion and 1.9 for two or more compared to no history of prior abortion. The authors stressed that the increased risk was confined to women with no prior history of ectopics and that the findings relate to surgical, rather than medical, abortion.
Ref: Am J Public Health 1998; 88: 401-405

Abortion booklet ditched

April 1998 Women's Health Watch

The Abortion Supervisory Committee has decided to abandon a controversial booklet on abortion: Considering an Abortion What Are Your Options? The draft booklet was criticised by women's organisations as having been unduly influenced by anti-abortion groups. It emphasised negative outcomes of abortion and the back-up services mentioned contained a preponderance of anti-abortion groups. The ASC says it received 96 responses to the draft booklet, and had considerable difficulty reconciling the different points of view expressed about the booklet'.

While the Justice and Law Reform Committee, which reviewed the ASC as a result of criticism from anti-abortion members of government, said that the ASC should develop such resources, the government said later that it was not part of the ASC's role. The ASC said that in visiting clinics and hospitals providing abortion it has viewed many resources which adequately performed the function of informing women about abortion. It said that the issue of consent was covered by the Code of Health and Disability Services Consumers' Rights.

Speaking out about abortion

December 1997 Women's Health Watch

Dr Christine Forster, Chair of the Abortion Supervisory Committee (ASC), spoke at a recent Women's Health Action seminar on abortion held in December 1997.

1997 marks 20 years since the passing of the Contraception, Sterilisation and Abortion Act which liberalised abortion. In that time no woman has died from a termination of pregnancy (TOP). In international terms, this is very unusual and demonstrates New Zealand's excellent safety record.

Christine Forster argues that the profile of abortion should be raised or problems in services for women will be difficult to address. 'We still carry the legacy from the early days where it was best to leave well alone and not jeopardise what has been hard won.'

Dr Forster believes that abortion should be seen as a health service - as part of sexual health services. 'We should encourage women to speak out about the quality of services,' she said....Read More

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