Pro-choice protest at Court of Appeal

File photo / NZ Herald

About 50 pro-choice campaigners protested outside the Court of Appeal in Wellington this afternoon, calling for women to have easier access to abortion.

Carrying hoops, which symbolise the hurdles they say women have to jump through to gain access to abortion, the groups demanded an abortion law change.

"Hey mister, mister keep your laws off my sister," they chanted.

Abortion Law Reform Association president Dame Margaret Sparrow told NZPA she hopes Parliament will consider whether the law needs to be reviewed.

"Abortion has always been controversial. But I think Parliament needs to understand that a lot has happened in the last three decades. It is out of date and it really is time to look at it," she said.

Right to Life spokesman Ken Orr was at the protest and spoke with pro-choice campaigners.

"I fully support their rights to be heard, but I don't support what you are saying because it's not in the best interest of women and their babies.

"What those young people don't recognise is that an international study showed 60 per cent of women who have an abortion are not having it because it's their choice.

"Someone else is choosing for them," he said.

Inside the court the latest battle between the anti-abortion group Right to Life and the Abortion Supervisory Committee was proceeding.

Both groups are appealing an historic 2008 High Court ruling that found the law was being interpreted more liberally than Parliament intended and there was "reason to doubt the lawfulness of many abortions".

Emily Mountier, from Action for Abortion Rights, a Victoria University club which organised the protest, told NZPA her group wants abortion to be accessed on demand safely and legally.

"We are here demonstrating because New Zealand abortion laws are over 30-years-old.

"We feel that what New Zealand needs is for Parliament to take action to give women what should have been ours all along - the right to make decisions about our own bodies. "

Ally Garrett, also from Action for Abortion Rights, said Parliament would not touch abortion because it was seen as political suicide.

"But the Government needs to address this. They've designed these laws for the women of New Zealand. The women of New Zealand are saying these don't work.

"They need to step up and have a discussion about it," she said.

Right to Life spokesman Andy Moore, in a statement, said the demonstration was disappointing and it was the court's function to interpret legislation made by Parliament.

"It is outrageous and wrong for this misguided group to be seeking to exert pressure on the court," he said.

"It is appropriate that the demonstrators are wearing red. The colour reminds us of the spilt blood of unborn children when they are dismembered in their mother's womb."

Mr Moore said that for every three births in New Zealand one child is destroyed in its mother's womb.

"They would be serving the common good if they sought stop the violence against women and their unborn by promoting a culture of life and opposing a culture of death."

- NZPA