March 31 is International Abortion Action Day, 1979. It is three years since the concerted attacks on a woman's right to choose began here, and New Zealand now has one of the most repressive abortion laws in the world.

Attacks on our then 'liberal' abortion laws began in 1976 with the closing of the Remuera Abortion Clinic, which later re-opened as the Aotea Clinic. The Gill Bill entered the house with the design of closing the Aotea Clinic, by making it illegal to perform abortions in private hospitals. This was shelved in anticipation of the Report of the Royal Commission on Contraception, Sterilisation and Abortion. At the time it seemed that the pro-choice lobby had gained a victory, if a minor strategic one. But with the publishing of the Report of the Royal Commission, this was shown to be no victory at all. The Report of the Royal Commission read like a SPUC publication with continual reference to the rights of the "unborn child' and a "women who play must pay" attitude to women and sex.. The members of the Royal Commission had been chosen for their anti-abortion views and the only doctor was Catholic.

In November 1977, the recommendations of the Royal Commission were enacted with the passing of the Contraception, Sterilisation and Abortion Act. An indication of the MP's determination to stop women from having abortions was the Wall amendment which ensured that physical or mental harm are only grounds for abortion if the danger can not be averted by any other means, an amendment making rape grounds was decisively lost, and a clause ensuring that foetal abnormality could not be grounds for abortion was included in the Act. The law was passed in haste and confusion. The Prime Minister admitted the next day that he did not know which way he had voted on some amendments.

Since then the Aotea Clinic has been closed down. Hundreds of women have been forced to fly to Australia and back street abortionists have reappeared in New Zealand. The effects of this repressive law can only worsen as time goes on.