Abortion demand highlights concern

Concern has been raised about the accessibility of long-term contraceptive procedures for young mothers who do not want more children, but end up pregnant and want then to have an abortion.

In its annual report, the Abortion Supervisory Committee said it had learned from meetings with district health boards there was a need for better access to the procedures. Some boards had long waiting times for sterilisation operations.

"There are many young women who have completed their families but are not considered suitable for tubal ligation," the report said.

"There are others who have completed their families and while waiting for sterilisation, become pregnant and seek a termination."

Long-lasting intra-uterine contraceptive devices (that is, those lasting five years), which had failure rates equivalent to sterilisation, were subsidised by Government funding agency Pharmac only for women who had heavy menstrual bleeding.

"The cost of the device is prohibitive to most middle-to-low income families and women." The committee said it was time something was done to address the problem.

It was working on that and other contraceptive issues with the Health Ministry to reduce inequality of access to effective contraceptive services.

"Since 1993, the supervisory committee has urged the Government to implement a co-ordinated prevention strategy to combat New Zealand's alarmingly high rate of sexually transmitted infections, unintended pregnancies and abortions," the report said.

Last year 17,380 abortions were performed in New Zealand, up from 16,410 in 2001.

About 33.3 per cent of abortions performed nationwide last year were done at the Epsom Day clinic in Auckland, which carried out 5781.

A total of 2922 were done in Wellington, and 2103 at Lyndhurst in Christchurch.

The abortion rate increased between 2001 and 2002 in almost all age groups - it remained the same among 11-14-year-olds, 35-39-year-olds and in the 45 and over age group. The greatest number of abortions were performed in the 20-24 age group.

Almost half of all abortions were carried out on European women and 49 per cent of abortions were performed on women who had no children.

Most of the women (65.9 per cent) had never had an abortion. In 24 per cent of cases, the women involved had had one previous abortion.

Ten women had had six previous abortions, the report showed.

In 98.6 per cent of cases, the abortion was authorised on the grounds of serious danger to mental health.

In 9102 cases, no contraception had been used. About 2368 women were using oral contraceptives and 4911 were using condoms when they had their abortions.

- NZPA