By Thaddeus M. Baklinski
WELLINGTON, December 8, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – New Zealand's Abortion Supervisory Committee (ASC) reported today that 17,940 abortions were performed last year, a drop of 892 from the 18,832 unborn babies that were killed in 2007.
The ASC's report did not make any comment or offer an explanation for the fall in abortion rates but did note that New Zealand has a “high abortion rate in comparison to other countries.”
According to the ASC statistics, the women of New Zealand have three times as many abortions as those in the Netherlands and Germany.
However, the ratio of abortions per 1000 known pregnancies fell on an annual basis from 222 to 217 while the abortion rate per 1000 women aged between 15 and 44 fell slightly from 20.1 to 19.7.
Of all abortions in 2008, 5396 of the mothers were aged between 20 and 24 and 4097 between 15 and 19.
The report said the main grounds for abortion was danger to mental health of the mother (98.7 percent) with the next most common reason being a handicapped child (0.6 percent).
However, a recent study conducted by Professor David Fergusson and a research team at New Zealand's University of Otago has found that, contrary to the reasoning behind justifying abortion for the mental health of the mother, having an abortion will likely increase a woman's chance of developing mental health problems.
The study revealed that unwanted pregnancy leading to abortion is likely to be a risk factor for mental-health problems that include depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation, alcohol dependence, and illicit drug dependence, while unwanted pregnancy that ends in the birth of the baby does not carry the same risk factor.
Even though Planned Parenthood International claims that New Zealand is a country where the contraceptive message has been heard and that “despite an active anti-abortion, anti-choice lobby, there is general acceptance of family planning services,” the ASC said in its report that over fifty percent of abortions are committed as a form of birth control and wants a wider availability of long-acting contraceptives and the abortion inducing drug Mifegyne.
“Of the abortions 53.4 percent of the women had not been using any contraception,” the report states, and “less than 6 percent of abortions were non-surgical.”
The ASC said it would like more research on why women were not using contraception and not availing themselves of abortion-causing chemicals.
“We would suggest, in light of New Zealand's high abortion rate in comparison to other countries where these methods are freely available, and have been for some time, that consideration be given to reducing financial barriers to their use,” the ASC report concludes.
See related LSN articles:
NEW ZEALAND RELEASES ABORTION STATS – 16,103 KILLED IN 2000
New Zealand Abortion Rate Rises: Birth Rate Steadily Dropping
New Zealand Study Finds Abortion Increases Risk of Mental Health Problems