At least one organisation has come out in support of Labour MP Steve Chadwick's plans to liberalise laws around abortion.
The list MP who lost her seat in Rotorua during the last election is proposing a new law to legalise abortion on request up to 24 weeks into a pregnancy. The need for two doctors to give their consent would be lifted, while abortions after 24 weeks would need medical support.
Chadwick says she wants to start raising awareness and have it as a human rights issue, as well as a women's health issue.
The call has prompted a swift response from anti-abortion groups but Abortion Law Reform Association president Dame Margaret Sparrow says the current law is out of date.
Sparrow says women are quite capable of making a decision about abortion, but are forced into a hypocritical situation by outdated laws. She says doctors would still have the right to refuse an abortion in cases where they felt it was unsafe or unsound.
And she says the change would save the country $5 million a year.
But Voice For Life Auckland president Bernard Moran is vowing to fight any move to change the law. He says decriminalising abortion is like saying a human baby is just a piece of rubbish which can be disposed of.
And Family Life International NZ says it is greatly alarmed at the proposed bill which it says would be an absolute disaster.
"If successful, Chadwick's bill would simply result in an increase in the number of abortions performed in New Zealand every year," says spokesperson Brendan Malone.
"Any person with commonsense knows that when you make access to abortion easier, the incidence of abortion simply increases as more people use it without giving any thought whatsoever to the consequences and risks they are exposing themselves to."
"The end result of this will simply be more damaged women, and more dead unborn human beings."
Family Life says other policies should be explored such as independent crisis-pregnancy counselling, and a mandatory cooling off period before any decision is made.
"Chadwick is proposing we simply remove all safeguards whatsoever," says Malone.
He says research shows a link between abortion and serious psychological and physical risks.
Profile New Zealand says the bill ignores science, with babies able to survive outside the womb from around 20 weeks into a pregnancy.
Acting president Sargia Harrison says the UK is planning to reduce the legal abortion age from 24 weeks to 22 or 20 weeks and it goes against commonsense to be moving in the opposite direction in NZ.
"New Zealand should be ashamed of its abortion numbers rather than taking moves to liberalise our laws even further."
Harrison says the latest abortion statistics show that 529 teenage girls who had abortions in 2009 had had multiple abortions with one girl as young as 11.
"This change to abortion laws will only mean that more pre-born children are needlessly killed. As a society we should be supporting these young women through difficult situations, and facing the fact that taking innocent life is not the answer."
