New Zealand widens ability of abortionists to dispense abortion pills

Just one year after decriminalizing abortion and passing the most permissive abortion legislation in the world, New Zealand has now dramatically expanded prescribing powers for chemical abortions, at the urging of abortionists. Previously, only doctors employed by “family planning clinics” or public hospitals could prescribe the abortion pills; now, general practitioners, nurse practitioners, and midwives will be able to write the scripts.

The change was announced last week by Dr. Ayesha Verrall, the country’s Associate Minister of Health. “By lifting some restrictions on the funded medications used for early medical abortions, more health practitioners can prescribe them at low cost. This improves New Zealanders’ access to safe, quality abortion services,” she said in a statement. “While overall the number of abortions has been falling in recent years, it’s important to ensure people who need this health service can go to a medical professional they know and trust.”

The New Zealand College of Sexual and Reproductive Health will provide training to interested practitioners later this year. “Growing the skills and size of our abortion workforce is a key part of improving services,” Verrall said.

READ: Pro-life doctors in New Zealand sue to regain conscience protection rights

The country’s newly updated clinical guidelines for abortion were also released this month. Interestingly, the introduction to the updated guidelines on the government’s Ministry of Health website makes explicitly clear that abortionists were the ones who called the shots on changes to the document, despite their obvious conflict of interest. The website reads:

This New Zealand Aotearoa Abortion Clinical Guideline outlines the recommendations that have been developed by experts currently working in abortion care and aided by rigorous research and analysis of international best practice examples.

Page three of the clinical guidelines reads, “We would like to thank members of the Abortion Providers Group Aotearoa New Zealand who have helped to inform the development of the guideline,” while a foreword written by Verrall clarifies her unequivocal support for abortion.

“I’d also like to acknowledge all abortion care providers across the system, including district health boards, primary care providers, public health organisations and private clinics,” she wrote. “Together, you deliver a vital service and help us to continually improve that service for people in Aotearoa.”

Among the clinical guideline changes, ultrasounds will no longer be routinely performed to accurately date pregnancies before abortion pills are administered, even though accurate pregnancy dating is a must, as abortion pills are only approved through nine weeks gestation. Though New Zealand’s medical powers-that-be are apparently nonchalant about the administration of abortion pills, New Zealand women considering a chemical abortion have every reason to be concerned. In the 21 years since the abortion pill regimen was approved in the United States, thousands of users have reported serious adverse effects, and some have died. Women who take the abortion pills have a four times higher rate of complications compared to those who have surgical abortions.

Additionally, a court ruled this month that another change to the guideline that will make conscientious objectors essentially complicit in abortions is allowable under New Zealand law.

New Zealand’s latest move is perhaps no surprise following the shocking scope of its 2020 legislation, which legalized abortion on demand for any reason — including discriminatory sex-selection — up until birth, and failed to provide any type of protection for babies born alive after botched abortions. This past May, Right to Life UK noted that New Zealand’s late term abortion numbers have increased 43% in the last year. And in June, a horrifying report emerged of a completely healthy 21-week-gestation baby born alive after an abortion, and abandoned to die an agonizingly slow death in a New Zealand hospital.

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