NZ's Taleban on the march

FROM THE LEFT - CHRIS TROTTER

It was exactly 30 years ago, in 1978, that the women of New Zealand finally won the right to a safe, legal abortion.

It had taken many years of bitter political struggle to overcome the resistance of those who saw motherhood as a woman's destiny, rather than a woman's choice.

To the young, confident woman of 21st-century New Zealand, that slogan, "A woman's right to choose", probably seems as antique as the militant suffragettes' cry of "Votes for Women". Nothing more than a quaint relic of a less enlightened age; something from the past.

But the young, confident woman of the 21st century would be wrong.

The social forces that mobilised to prevent the decriminalisation of abortion back in the 1970s have not gone away. The political reversals of 1978 may have forced them to retreat into the heartland of their support among the Catholic and evangelical churches but, as George W Bush is at present discovering in Afghanistan, just because the Taleban has retreated does not mean that the Taleban is defeated.

And if the young, confident woman of the 21st century requires proof that our own version of the Taleban is still alive and kicking, she need look no further than the judgment of Justice Forrest Miller that "there is reason to doubt the legality of many abortions" being performed in New Zealand in 2008.

Justice Miller's comments were made in the context of a judicial review granted to Right to Life New Zealand in April of the workings of the Abortion Supervisory Committee – the fig-leaf of ethical oversight won by anti-abortionists back in 1978.

The supervisory committee's legal obligation is to oversee the conduct of "certifying consultants" – the doctors whose approval is required before the termination of a woman's pregnancy, on the grounds that bearing her baby to full term would imperil the mother's mental or physical health, can proceed.

This cumbersome, ostensibly medical, procedure was the price the legislators of 1977-78 were required to pay to keep the militant anti-abortion lobby in check.

Parliament, in passing the supervisory section of the Contraception, Sterilisation and Abortion Act into law, must have known that it was essentially unenforceable, and that all of the mandated procedural hurdles – the supervisory committee, certifying consultants and patient counselling – would soon become little more than irritating formalities.

Certainly, the diehard opponents of abortion in Right to Life New Zealand knew it. Which was why they sought a judicial review of the act's operation, and why Justice Miller was forced to drop his legal bombshell.

So, all of you young, confident women of the 21st century urgently need to pause and reflect upon what is happening – especially all you young, confident women thinking of voting for the National Party.

Why? Because behind National, hidden by all those glossy placards depicting the handsome John Key, marches a much less appealing army of fanatical right-wing activists, all of whom are impatient to advance the conservative causes that nine years of Labour-led government have held in check.

You think I'm kidding? Well, just consider this. When Labour was marching to victory in 1999, what do you think all of those people who were agitating for paid parental leave, the decriminalisation of prostitution, the legalisation of civil unions, and the abolition of section 59 of the Crimes Act were thinking?

Were they saying to themselves, "Oh bother, New Zealand is about to elect a liberal woman prime minister, and a left-wing majority to the House of Representatives, there goes all hope of getting any of our cherished social reforms enacted by an MMP parliament"?

Like hell they were!

The Ken Orrs of Right to Life New Zealand and the Bob McCoskries of Family First have caught the whiff of a massive right-wing victory in November. They fervently believe that, after nine long years, their hour is at hand.

Five months out from the election, they're certainly not saying, "Oh bother, New Zealand is about to elect a socially conservative millionaire prime minister and a right-wing majority to the House of Representatives, there goes all hope of getting any of our cherished religious principles recognised by an MMP parliament."

All that stands between them, and the anti-abortionists' long- delayed revenge, are the young, confident women of 21st-century New Zealand – and their brothers – who still believe in a woman's right to choose.