Government to make long-anticipated abortion reform announcement tomorrow

Minister of Justice Andrew Little will make an announcement about the policy tomorrow. Photo / File

Minister of Justice Andrew Little will make an announcement on the new abortion policy tomorrow morning.

And it's understood the Government hasn't decided to take on one of the three options for reform outlined by the Law Commission in October.

The three options included:

• The woman decides with her health practitioner but no statutory test to make sure the abortion is appropriate;

• There's a test and the woman would need to prove the abortion is appropriate;

• There's only a test for later-term abortions, beyond 22 weeks.

However, it's understood the Government decided on a conservative version of the third option - a test after 20 weeks of pregnancy, Newshub reports.

In 2018, there were 13,282 abortions performed in New Zealand - around one in five of known pregnancies, Statistics NZ said in June.

The rate of abortions for women aged under 20 in 2018, around 10 per cent, continued the trend of teenage abortion rates declining.

Eleven years ago, at its peak, the rate of teenage abortions was 23 per cent.

Little will make the Government's announcement on the new abortion laws tomorrow at 11.30am.