Abortion bill first vote: by the numbers

If all votes had been counted, the overall result would have been 96 votes for and 24 against. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Legislation changing New Zealand's 42-year-old abortion laws passed its first reading 94 votes to 23 on Thursday.

Here's some things we learned from that vote.

A few votes were missing but we know where they would have gone

Three National MPs didn't get the votes counted. Alfred Ngaro, who strongly opposed the legislation, was overseas and his proxy appears to have been missed.

Hamish Walker voted yes, but left the debating chamber early, nullifying his vote. Jian Yang missed the vote but said he would have voted in favour.

Counting their votes, the outcome would have been 96 votes for and 24 against.

Men and women voted almost the same

Some commentators had this week suggested men shouldn't be able to vote on the issue.

Of those who opposed the bill on Thursday, 14 were men and 10 were women.

Parliament is currently made up of 49 women and 71 men.

Taking into account that difference, the support rate between genders was very similar, with roughly 20 per cent against.

Party lines were a significantly stronger indicator of voting.

Opposition came almost entirely from National

The Green Party's eight members all voted for the bill. NZ First's nine also backed it, as a block. Act Leader David Seymour was an aye.

Of the 24 MPs who voted "no" or intended to, 20 were from the National Party, the remaining four from Labour.

That means the split in National was 36 votes for and 20 against and in Labour it was 42-4.

The odds look good for another vote

By comparison, Seymour's End of Life Choice legislation passed its first reading with a significantly tighter 76 votes to 44.

The bill, which legalises assisted dying, saw its margin whittled down to 70-50 at its second reading in June.

Every MP that voted - or intended to - against the abortion bill on Thursday also voted against the assisted dying legislation at second reading.

There's 23 that opposed End of Life Choice that backed the abortion bill.

A comparison of individual votes with the euthanasia bill's first reading is a bit harder because five National MPs have since left.

But of the 21 who intended to vote "no" on Thursday AND were there for the first reading, two voted for End of Life the first time around.

Like the assisted dying reforms, the abortion legislation is expected to receive a large number of submissions at Select Committee and a number of MPs have suggested they might only support it further if there are more safeguards put in.

At least 36 MPs would have to swing against the abortion legislation for it to fail at its next reading.

That looks unlikely, given the End of Life Choice Bill faced a fraught Select Committee process that failed to produced major fixes MPs were looking for, but only lost six votes at second reading.