The Women's Abortion Rights Conference was held in Auckland over the weekend of March 18—19 at the university. It was attended by 183 women who presented a variety of views. However the overall tone of the conference was set in the opening speech given by Kay McVey from the organising committee.

Ms. McVey emphasised the importance of two demands: a) Abortion is a woman's right to choose, and b) There must be total repeal of anti-abortion laws. In doing this, she stressed that the abortion campaign must be concentrated around "A woman's right to choose". It must not be sidetracked to peripheral demands as happened last year when the parliamentary debaters became enmeshed in a debate over the number of doctors involved in each amendment, i.e., two under Gair's amendment, three under Birch's amendment and four under the McLay amendment.

Ms McVey then moved onto discussion of the various methods which the campaign could use. In this she came down heavily for the use of mass protests and demonstrations, using the example of the SIS protests. In order to mobilise the largest number of people possible, as many different groups and individuals as possible would have to be united.

The first day of the conference was devoted mainly to workshops and the second to an open plenary. The workshops were divided into action proposal workshops and area workshops. All proposals made in the former were taken to the open plenary the next day.

The area workshops were arranged so that each woman would attend a workshop in which she felt a particular interest and take part in discussion on abortion action specifically within this area. A few of the workshops were Women in Trade Unions, Campus women, Solo Mothers, lesbian women.

In the Women In Trade Unions workshop, much emphasis was placed on the importance of involving women in their unions and on the importance of trade union support for the abortion campaign. Ways in which this could be done would be be circulating articles on abortion to the trade union papers; carrying out more extensive leafletting at factories to involve working class women and men; using the Working Women's Council which could coordinate the abortion campaign within the trade unions; actively working for repeal decisions in individual unions and support for a woman's right to choose.

Democratic Rights

The Contraception, Sterilisation and Abortion Act is part of a long list of attacks on the rights of working women and men. This aspect of the Act was brought brought out by the trade union women who saw it as an attack on the democratic right to abortion. The right to abortion is particularly essential for working women who often can least afford the fare to Australia. Many families cannot survive without two incomes but cannot afford the high cost of childcare either.

Direct action was seen to be difficult for solo mothers. The main ideas to come out were the setting up of creches by women's groups and, in areas which do not have established women's groups, placing notices in the local paper. These could invite women to a discussion on abortion, perhaps at an individual's home.

In the Campus Women's workshop, participants shared their experiences on their own campuses and ways in which th they had promoted the abortion campaign Some methods of action to come out of this were the use of student newspapers; leafletting; setting up women's notice- boards; speaking at lectures; holding forums with both pro- and anti-abortion speakers since these stimulate lively debate. At VUWSA a system has been set up whereby if a student needs an abortion and and is referred by Student Health, she may may be able to obtain an Assoc. Trust loan to go to Australia.

Men in the Movement

The role of men in the abortion movement was one of the major points of discussion. The proposals came out of the Lesbian Workshop to urge women to withdraw their personal support from men in any way possible, i.e., don't pick up their dirty socks, don't have sex with them, don't cook their dinner.

This was lost as a succession of speakers explained that it is not the men of New Zealand that are denying women their right to abortion but Parliament and therefore Parliament is the enemy that we must fight.

There was also debate as to how hard we should try to involve men. In the proposal by the Conference Organising Committee, the major guiding principle was taken as, "The need to involve the largest possible number of women to campaign on their own behalf for the right to abortion." Some of the other women present felt that this should include men and thus read, "the need to involve the largest possible number of women and men to campaign for the right to abortion."

The arguments for this position were again that it is not men by virtue of their "maleness", but the sexist society that oppresses women. Many men support "abortion a woman's right" and if we are t to mobilise the largest possible number of people against the abortion laws then we must include the male half of the New Zealand population.

When it came to the vote however, it was only just decided to keep the original wording.

Action Dates

The other major point of debate was a suggested amendment to the proposal of the Conference Organising Committee. This was put forward by the March 8 Committee who organised the more than 1500 strong march for safe legal abortion in Wellington on International Women's Day. On the basis of their experience in organising March 8th, the Committee proposed that there be a national mobilisation for safe, legal abortion on the eveing of Friday 2nd June.

The Committee felt that to build a successful march it is essential to allow plenty of time for organising and publicity. Notice of the Opening of Parliament could be given only three weeks in advance which would not leave enough time for proper organising. Also the opening of Parliament could fall at an inconvenient time i.e. when all the universities are on holiday. (In fact this is what has happened as the opening of Parliament is scheduled for May 11th).

The main argument against the proposal was that June 2nd does not provide a focal point for the demonstrations whereas the Opening of Parliament receives national coverage anyway. This was arguable however since, as stated before, some women felt that the Opening of Parliament does not provide much of a focus outside of Wellington anyway. In the end, the amendment was lost.

Conclusion

So, what did come out in the end? It has been decided to have national days of action on abortion on the following dates' April 1st (when the legislation comes into effect), the Opening of Parliament and September 15th Women's Sufferage Day. A natioanl publicity committee has been set up, based in Auckland. It has been decided to have another national meeting in July, to evaluate progress up till then and to plan action for the rest of the year. This meeting will be held in Wellington.

Personally I am unhappy that the publicity committee is to be based in Auckland. This reinforces the already strong Auckland influence on a national movement which could tend to make women outside Auckland feel isolated from the national decision making in the campaign. It's not helped either by the fact that a suggestion that publicity be sent out for comments before publication was rejected. I regret also that the Conference policy does not include specific involvement of men. Men make up half the population of New Zealand and their support is as necessary as that of women. Overall however, I feel that the Conference was a success. It provided a national forum for discussion (although being in Auckland, many people were unable to attend) and has provided direction for the abortion campaign this year. The battle will be hard fought.

Lamorna Rogers