MP wants law revised to curb rate of multiple abortions

George Hawkins

Labour MP George Hawkins is courting controversy with his bid to revisit abortion laws to address concerns at the number of women who have multiple abortions.

The Manurewa MP and former minister plans to draft a private member's bill to get the state more involved in providing advice on contraception and sterilisation to women who seek more than one abortion, he told Newstalk ZB yesterday.

But Labour rules require private members' bills to be approved by the caucus.

And getting the consent of his Labour caucus colleagues to revisit the 30-year old Contraception, Sterilisation and Abortion Act could be a controversial process, because the caucus includes many feminists and pro-choice MPs.

New Zealand was bitterly divided in 1977 when the legislation was last debated.

Recent figures show that 2025 women who had abortions in 2004 had had two or more abortions before; 4490 had had one and 11,696 were having their first.

United Future MP Gordon Copeland said yesterday Mr Hawkins' planned bill was redundant because he had already drafted a similar bill which was sitting among others to be drawn from the ballot.

He applauded Mr Hawkins "for having the courage to consider one of our society's most untalked-about actions" and offered to collaborate with him.

Mr Copeland said his bill emphasised the need for counselling before the abortion is approved and for the counselling to be undertaken separate from the abortion clinic. Mr Hawkins could not be reached for comment.