Abortion Supervisory Committee
27 August 2018
Olivia Fairhurst
fyi‐request‐8407‐[email address]
Dear Ms Fairhurst
OFFICIAL INFORMATION ACT REQUEST
I refer to your email of 31 July 2018 to the Abortion Supervisory Committee (ASC) requesting, under
the Official Information Act 1982 (the OIA), the following information:
the number of women denied an abortion in New Zealand for the previous five years out of
the total number applied for; and
the grounds they failed to satisfy to obtain an abortion.
Under section 30 of the Contraception, Sterilisation and Abortion Act 1977 (CSA Act), the ASC is
required to set up and maintain a list of medical practitioners (certifying consultants) who may be
called upon to determine whether an abortion is justified or not justified.
In order for an abortion to be considered lawful, two certifying consultants must be satisfied that a
woman seeking an abortion meets the grounds set out in section 187A of the Crimes Act 1961.
When a certifying consultant does not believe an abortion is justified, the case is then referred to a
third certifying consultant who can consider the case.
The information recorded in tables 1 and 2 shows the number of times a certifying consultant has
deemed an abortion to be justified or not justified for the previous five calendar years, as well as the
total number of abortions performed for those years respectively. It does not, however, show the
number of times a woman has been denied an abortion because a third consultant may
subsequently agree that the abortion is justified. Making this information available would require a
substantial amount of research and collation. Therefore, your request for this information is refused
under section 18(f) of the OIA.
The ASC would like to note that, for doctors who perform mostly second consultations, it would
expect the number of ‘Not Justified’ to be low, given that by the second consultation many women
will have already been seen by a general practitioner, counsellor and first certifying consultant.
In regard to the second part of your request, there are no grounds recorded when an abortion is
considered not justified, as none of the grounds set out in section 187A of the Crimes Act have been
met. In some cases, a certifying consultant may elaborate on their decision‐making process on the
certificate. In order to review every certificate submitted to the ASC between 2013 and 2017 to
ascertain what further information may be recorded, if any, a substantial amount of research and
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collation would be required. Therefore, your request for this information is declined under section
18(f) of the OIA.
Table 1
Number of Justified and Not Justified Abortion Certificate Decisions by Certifying Consultants
Calendar years 2013‐2017
Not
Total
Year
Justified
Justified
Certificates
2013
29,614
285
29,899
2014
24,138
216
24,138
2015
29,581
265
29,846
2016
27,622
268
27,890
2017
27,332
275
27,607
Table 2
Number of Abortions Performed
Calendar Years 2015‐2017
Year
Abortions Performed
2013
14,073
2014
13,137
2015
13,155
2016
12,823
2017
13,285
Please note that the certification figures will be higher than the total number of abortions
performed for various reasons including, but not limited to:
that two certificates (justified decisions) are required for authorisation of an abortion
procedure. In some cases, a third certificate is required, from a third certifying consultant,
where the first two consultants did not agree;
women choosing to continue with their pregnancies after or during the certification
pathway (e.g after one, two or three certificates are deemed justified or not justified);
pregnancies ending by spontaneous miscarriage before an abortion procedure could be
performed.
If you are not satisfied with my response to your request, you have the right to make a complaint to
the Ombudsman under section 28(3). The Ombudsman may be contacted by writing to the Office of
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Ombudsman at PO Box 10152, Wellington 6143, by email to [email address] or by
phone to 0800 802 602.
Yours sincerely
Rachael Cole
Secretary
Abortion Supervisory Committee
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