Gynopedia needs your support! Please consider contributing content, translating a page, or making a donation today. With your support, we can sustain and expand the website. Gynopedia has no corporate sponsors or advertisers. Your support is crucial and deeply appreciated.
Translations:Auckland/52/en
In New Zealand, abortion is only permitted in certain circumstances, as outlined by the Crimes Act 1961. During the first twenty weeks of gestation, an abortion can be legally performed if the woman's life is seriously endangered by the pregnancy, if a woman's physical or mental health is seriously endangered by the pregnancy, if the woman can be classified as possessing "mental sub normality," if the pregnancy is due to incest of any sort, or if there is risk of fetal impairment. Factors that are not grounds for abortion (but may be taken into consideration) are sexual violation (rape) or extremes of age (either very young or very old for the pregnancy). After 20 weeks of gestation, an abortion can only be performed if the pregnancy threatens the woman's life or if the pregnancy brings risk of permanent injury to the physical or mental health of the mothers. After twenty weeks of gestation, the risk of fetal abnormality in itself is not grounds for abortion.