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When Dr Lesley Rothwell was 16 and an aspiring GP she started as a nurse aide. It was the 1960s and the job was an eye-opener. The former chair of the Abortion Supervisory Committee nursed someone she will never forget, a girl younger than her who died a
horrible death from blood loss and overwhelming infection.
The girl had fallen pregnant. Abortion was not legal then and in desperation she turned to an illegal back-street abortionist, who operated "literally with a crochet hook".
"It was horrendous," says Rothwell. This botched abortion was how the now-veteran doctor learned women could become pregnant outside marriage. "You know, we were very naive back then. To see this poor lass just vanish really, and to learn why, was totally shocking."
It took until 1977 for the abortion law to be liberalised with the passing of the Contraception, Sterilisation and Abortion Act amid heated protest and bitter divisions inside Parliament.
Under the act, abortions are performed safely within the public health system. Women have stopped dying but the controversy has not died.
The law is 30 years old and appears to satisfy no one. New Zealand's abortion rate hovers around 18,000 a year, among the highest in the Western world. Often under the gun from all sides is the three-person Abortion Supervisory Committee set up in 1977 to administer the law.
The committee takes the flak for the high abortion rate and faces accusations that New Zealand now has abortion on demand. Successive committees have begged politicians for a review of the law and year after year, politicians have refused.
The committee has said its role is clearly defined by the act and by case law and it is limited in what it can do. Among its tasks is the licensing and relicensing of where abortions may be performed, and the appointment and licensing of certified consultants.
To do this, committee members must visit institutions around the country to make sure standards are high. It's a huge job for three people, the controversy is endless, and earlier this year the committee fell apart.
One member had stepped down in 2005 and the other two , Rothwell and Dr Papaarangi Reid, struggled on until officially resigning four months ago.
It was not until last month that Parliament approved replacements amid the usual fiery debate over who should go on the committee. The three newcomers are still to be officially appointed by the Governor-General.
Ken Orr, spokesman for the anti-abortion group Right to Life, disapproves of the committee but is appalled by the delays over getting new members.
He says it has meant the licences of some facilities that perform abortions have lapsed, along with those of a number of certifying consultants.
But a spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice said all certifying consultants' certificates are now in force.
Although a number had lapsed before the new appointments to the committee were made, during this time there were sufficient numbers of certified consultants and licensed institutions to carry out services.
Orr is also critical of the committee's performance and is awaiting the outcome of a judicial review his group has taken regarding the way the committee operates.
It wants the committee to recognise the act states abortions may be authorised only after full regard to the rights of unborn children.
He argues abortions are supposed to be granted for mental health grounds, yet 98 per cent of women who ask for one get one. Abortions are performed for "social and economic reasons masquerading as psychiatric," he says.
For Rothwell, Orr's criticisms are typical of what committee members are constantly up against. She says being on the committee was probably the most difficult job she has ever had.
The committee was set up with good intent but its hands are tied, she says. In 1982 the Court of Appeal instructed the committee it could not interfere with doctors' individual clinical decisions and once that judgment was in place, the committee had no real authority in law.
"So the individual values and opinions of the ASC are irrelevant. What it does and how it operates must at every level be consistent with the law. This is poorly understood, even by MPs. Members of the public and MPs often have impossible expectations of what the ASC can do."
Orr and Rothwell share one opinion. Politicians have been dodging the abortion debate for years.
Rothwell says it is hard enough for the committee to balance the needs and wants of the 18,000 or so women seeking abortion services each year against the needs and wants of a vocal number of anti-abortionists.
She says it is equally hard that Parliament does not want to know. Any discussion of the abortion law polarises New Zealand and is seen as "political suicide".
Weekend Review asked Justice Minister Mark Burton if the reason the law has not been reviewed was because the abortion debate was a vote loser.
He replied, via a spokesperson, only that there were no plans for a review.
Labour has contemplated reviewing the law. In 1999, then-Justice Minister Phil Goff announced he would recommend such a review to Cabinet. Nothing happened.
Orr suspects the Government has long held an agenda to further liberalise abortion but has been reluctant to risk the political fall-out. He also warns that if the Government tries this, Right to Life will be more vocal than ever.
Labour MP Steve Chadwick, who formerly chaired the Health Select Committee, says the law does not fit any more and needs review.
Labour has been on the verge of reviewing the act for some time, but the timing is not right, Chadwick says. It comes down to numbers in the House and now any change would probably not be passed.
"For myself as a midwife and from a women's health manager background, I feel it does need review but the pragmatism is that if you don't have the numbers in the House, you're not going to get there."
Chadwick sees a major flaw in the number of steps women have to go through to get an abortion.
"When women decide they need a termination - and it's not a means of contraception - it's a matter between a woman and her doctor," she says. "You shouldn't have to go through the second step where you get another consultant to verify the GP's decision."
The time taken to get approval for an abortion can end up as a safety issue. Chadwick says by the time a woman has found out she is pregnant, goes for counselling and sees two doctors she can be in the second trimester.
Yet technology has advanced and now there can be much earlier, less-traumatic and less-complicated first trimester abortions.
She is pleased Parliament has finally appointed new committee members "but I just think they are now caught with an out-dated act. They will have a tough job."
Chadwick says she has been working on drafting a change to the act but it will have to wait. "I feel strongly about it as a woman MP, but if we're going to get it through and have it successful for women, I think we need to wait until after the election."
National MP Paul Hutchison also thinks the law should be reviewed. Hutchison is a former gynaecologist - and a former member of the Abortion Supervisory Committee.
He has called for years for a better strategy to combat New Zealand's high abortion rate. "What we need first and foremost is to get our reproductive strategy right."
The Netherlands has a much lower abortion rate, than ours, he says. "They spent a whole year with literally thousands of people involved in the discussion trying to sort out ways to minimise the problem."
Although he can understand why the Government might shy away from reviewing the abortion law, he cannot understand why it is not prepared to get a reproductive health and education programme which is as robust as possible.
New Zealand has to "maturely and honestly" face the reality of our high abortion rate, high sexually transmitted disease rate, and high teenage pregnancy rate.
Surely, with those problems, both sides of the argument should be prepared to give a little, he says.
Rothwell says no one likes abortion. It is always a "decision of despair" made by desperate women - just like the girl she once nursed.
But abortion has been with us since before ancient Egyptian times and abortion will always be with us, she says.
Don't turn the clock back, she urges. "Women are going to need abortions, full stop. For goodness sake let us have them safely."
