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Abortion
Then and Now
Dame Margaret Sparrow's book: "Abortion Then & Now: New Zealand Abortion Stories From 1940 to 1980" was launched November 2010.
Read reviews in The Listener and at Scoop Review of Books. Purchase a copy from Victoria University Press.
Background to the book: Abortions in New Zealand women before 1978
There are many untold stories of New Zealand women having abortions and ALRANZ has been collecting those experiences.
Until the 1970s abortion stories were mainly hidden. From time to time the story of an illegal abortion would receive publicity but mostly abortions were clandestine events. They had to be, because abortion was regarded as a crime, unless carried out to save the life of the mother. Both the abortionist and the woman could be prosecuted. Self abortion was also a crime.
Some New Zealand women travelled to Australia after court rulings there in 1969 (Melbourne) and 1971 (Sydney).
The law in New Zealand (or the interpretation of it) was challenged, by the opening of the Auckland Medical Aid Centre in Auckland in May 1974. This resulted in the Woolnough trial in 1975. This was followed by a Royal Commission and then Parliament amended the Crimes Act and passed the Contraception Sterilisation and Abortion Act which came into effect on 1 April 1978.
Initially the law was very restrictive, in fact so restrictive that the Auckland Medical Aid Centre closed. Support services to help women having to travel to Australia were quickly formed such as SOS (Sisters Overseas Service). The situation improved somewhat with amendments to the Act in July 1978, but the Auckland Medical Aid Centre remained closed for another year until licence problems were resolved. It reopened in August 1979. Since then illegal abortion has been rare in New Zealand and the travel to Australia also diminished at this point.
More than five years' work went into gathering and editing the collection of stories that make up "Abortion Then & Now".
Further Reading
Bradshaw J. Birth Secrets: Breaking the Silence of Hidden Pregnancies Auckland: Penguin Books; 1997 Case histories focusing on the psychological after effects of abortion by a psychologist who was pressured into having an illegal abortion at 19 yrs.
Ryan L, Ripper M, Butterfield B. We Women Decide: Women's Experience of Seeking Abortion in Queensland, South Australia and Tasmania Adelaide: Flinders University;1994.
Messer E, May K. Back Rooms: Voices from the Illegal Abortion Era New York: Prometheus Books; 1994. ISBN 0-87975-876-7 Reprint of first edition published 1988 with 1994 prologue.
Baird B. "I had one too..": An oral History of Abortion in South Australia before 1970 Adelaide; Flinders University 1990. ISBN 0-7258-0481-5
Brookes B. Abortion in England 1900-1967 London: Croom Helm; 1988. ISBN 0-7099-5046-2 This book began as a PhD thesis by Dunedin historian Barbara Brookes.