Why 24 Weeks?

Why 24 Weeks?

When Steve Chadwick proposed a bill decriminalising abortion in New Zealand, much of the debate focused on the issue of 24 weeks. Why? There are lots of reasons, not least of which is that abortion opponents prefer to highlight termination of pregnancy after 24 weeks, but also because the issues surrounding such terminations are complicated and often poorly understood. 

Of course, it was also because the proposed bill set 24 weeks as the cut off between abortion on request (a woman’s right to choose) and the need for a physician’s approval.

New Zealand’s abortion statistics don’t specify numbers of abortions over 24 weeks, instead the ASC report lists those over 20 weeks. That’s because under New Zealand law, 20 weeks is the cut-off for more stringent grounds.

However, Alranz obtained the 24-week and above figures from the ASC under the Official Information Act and they show that for most years, the numbers are less than 1 per thousand abortions. (In 2009, for example, there were 17,550 abortions and the number at 24 weeks and over was 14 = 0.08%)

Here’s the table:

So the debate about decriminalising abortion for more than 99 percent of all abortions became a debate about 0.08 percent of them.

Why do women seek abortions at 24 weeks?

These figures don’t tell us, but research shows many cases are due to late recognition of pregnancy, especially in very young girls; denial of pregnancy; fetal abnormality; with other reasons including serious medical conditions, poor access, slow services.

For more on the reasons why, visit the National Abortion Federation’s discussion of ‘Abortion After 12 Weeks’ or visit BPAS here and click on “Late Abortion – ‘Why do women ask for abortion above 22 weeks’”; for some of the stories told by patients of the late Dr. George Tiller, click here.

Meanwhile, in an effort to shed some light where there has been rather a lot of ill-informed darkness, Alranz has put together two discussion documents.

1. Why 24 Weeks? Discussion Document.  (A dicussion of why the proposal decriminalisation bill took the position it did on this issue that includes a look at how Victoria’s new (2008) decriminalization legislation handles it.)

2. Why 24 Weeks? Fact Sheet. (A shorter discussion summarising the various options/positions.)

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