The history of abortion in Aotearoa New Zealand
Felicity Goodyear-Smith
RRP: $39.95, publishing 9 February 2023
ISBN: 978-0-473-66306-03
Format: 229 x 152 mm (portrait), 254 pages, paperback
12 pages of black & white images (insert)
For interviews, extracts and review copies
please contact publicist Margaret Samuels, Lighthouse PR
margaret@lighthousepr.co.nz, tel: 027 417 7211
The book is now available for pre-order:
Description
- From Crime to Care has wide general appeal to all those interested in the fight for women to have choice.
- The abortion struggle in New Zealand serves as an illustration of our changing political and social landscape, with a public move from conservative towards more liberal values.
- The book gives a chronological history of abortion in Aotearoa New Zealand from pre-colonial times to the present, including the state of play since the 2020 law change.
- Stories and experiences from many courageous people on both sides of the debate are presented.
- New Zealand elections have been fought on this issue. This year the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade and now a number of states are enacting laws that ban abortions.
From Crime to Care presents the history of abortion in Aotearoa New Zealand from pre-colonial times to the present, weaving in stories and experiences from key people on both sides of the debate. After the first abortion clinic opened in 1974 there were protests and pickets, and the issue shaped our politics in the 1970s. Moral crusaders, activists, legislators, abortion-providers and many others put their reputations and sometimes their lives on the line to do what they thought was right.
The abortion struggle serves as an illustration of our changing political and social landscape, with a public move from conservative towards more liberal values. Finally, after 180 years, abortion in Aotearoa is a health rather than a criminal concern. However, the issue continues to divide people, and events in the United States have shown how quickly change can occur, with their Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade and several states banning abortions.
Felicity grew up in Campbells Bay on Auckland’s North Shore, initially a remote part of Auckland and remembers walking over the Harbour Bridge when it was opened in 1959. She went to school on the North Shore and then to medical school at the University of Auckland. She practised medicine in the Hokianga and Whangarei before going to the UK, and was a GP in a village in South Wales and then Kingston, Jamaica, before returning to New Zealand to be GP in Freemans Bay (then a very deprived part of Auckland). Felicity worked as abortion certifying consultant from 1981 to 2020.