The Battle Won But Not The War

The deferral of Mr Gill's Health Amendment Bill for one year does not mean women have made any real progress in gaining the right to choose abortion. The findings of the Royal Commission on Contraception, Sterilisation and Abortion will almost certainly not guarantee that right either, and their findings will still be subject to a "conscience vote" by individual MPs!

They hope by deferring this Bill we will all go away and be thankful! Thankful that they didn't send 5,000 more women each year into the hands of back-street abortionists. What about the other women who don't find a sympathetic doctor to give them a referral to the Auckland clinic? What about the women in the South Island or poor women who can't afford to go to Auckland and then pay $80 for an abortion? What about the women who are too frightened to ask their doctor for a referral and resort to dangerous self-induced abortions?

It must be every woman's right to have a safe, legal abortion. While restrictive and unjust abortion laws remain on the law books to force women to comply with certain criteria, decided upon by male politicians, before being "allowed" an abortion, thousands of women will cruelly suffer from unwanted pregnancies. And it's not just a matter of being affected for nine months, women pay the price with the rest of their lives.

Only the repealling of all abortion laws and the setting up of abortion clinics in every major centre will guarantee all women the right to choose.

On September 19, 1893 women won the right to vote. The right to abortion is long overdue.

To commemorate Women's Suffrage Day and to demand the right of every woman to choose abortion, the Women's National Abortion Action Campaign (WONAAC) is organising a march through the streets of Wellington on Friday night, September 17. The march will assemble 7pm at the Cenotaph.

Visible public pressure stopped the Bill from becoming law, visible public action is the only means we have of forcing our parliamentarians to give every individual woman her "conscience vote".

March Friday Night September 17