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National | Hapū (pregnant)

Abortion survey: 66% support women's right to choose

Picture credit: Newshub

New Zealand's first Gender Attitudes Survey shows that 66% of New Zealanders agree that a woman should have the right to choose whether or not she has an abortion while 14% disagreed.

A further 15% of New Zealanders were neutral and 5% didn't know.

National Council of Women chief executive and Gender Equal NZ spokesperson Gill Greer says, "So what we're seeing is that two out of three New Zealanders support women being in control of their own decisions around abortion."

This survey shows that more people support a reform in the law around abortion and the recent report from the Law Commission identifies three legal ways to make that possible.

Greer says, "All three models remove abortion from the Crimes Act, which is an absolute necessity if we are to achieve a truly gender-equal New Zealand."

She also says that by treating abortions like any other health issue as well as implement the three models it would help reduce the discrimination that surrounds abortion in New Zealand.

"Model A focuses most strongly on allowing pregnant people to be completely in control of their own decisions, lives and bodies- a basic right to which all New Zealanders should be entitled."

The National Council of Women, Gender Equal NZ's lead organisation, supports the decriminalisation of abortion- and that abortion should be treated as a standard part of healthcare- safe, legal and accessible.

"It is time we recognised women, and all pregnant people's rights to autonomy, choice and freedom."