Abortion statistics : 13,236 children killed before birth in 2020

Abortion statistics : 13,236 children killed before birth in 2020

Media Release 19 October 2021

The Ministry of Health, that presides over the abortion industry in New Zealand has produced its first annual report after taking over responsibility for the oversight of the abortion industry from the Abortion Supervisory Committee in March 2020.

 Right to Life grieves with those women who have lost their precious child through abortion, they and their child deserved better than abortion. Right to Life also commends those courageous women who chose life for their child in 2020. Every one of these children was a unique and unrepeatable miracle of God’s loving creation endowed by its Creator with an inalienable right to life.

With the passing of the Abortion Legislation Act 2020 designed by the Prime Minister, the killing of the unborn has been taken out of the Crimes Act and has been made a health issue.

It is no longer a crime to kill an unborn child as the government upholds the legal fiction that the unborn child is not a human being and does not have a right to life until it is born.

The government recognises that this fiction is necessary to allow women to kill their children before they are born. The government authorises the killing and provides the funding for the state funded abortion industry which is an essential service, with no waiting list and unlimited funding.

The abortion industry poisons, suctions or violently dismembers an estimated 36 unborn children each day, their earthly remains being disposed of as medical waste at the local landfill. Children  may now be killed up to 20 weeks gestation for any reason and up to birth if a doctor considers it is  “appropriate”.

Key facts on the killing:

• 13,236 children were killed before birth in 2020, up from 12,857 killed in 2019.
• The general abortion rate was 13 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15-44 years, down slightly from 12.2 per 1,000 in 2019.
• 18.6% of known pregnancies ended in an abortion in 2020, compared with 17.7% in 2019 (this percentage excludes miscarried pregnancies).
• The mean age of those having an abortion in 2020 was 28 years.
• 40% of all abortions were for those aged 30 years and over, up from 34 percent in 2015.

• Most abortions in 2020 (64%) were a first abortion, the same as in 2019
• 21.7% of all abortions were for those identifying as Maori in 2020, a decrease from 23.1% in 2019.
• 8% of all abortions were for those identifying as Pacific peoples in 2020, a decrease from 9.8% in 2019
• In 2020, 45% of abortions were accessed before eight weeks’ gestation, compared with only 27% in 2019.
• The rate of early medical abortion increased significantly: 36% (4,774) had an EMA up to nine weeks’ gestation in 2020 compared with only 22% in 2019.
• Conversely surgical abortion decreased substantially, accounting for 59% (7,802) of total abortions compared with 72% in 2019.

Ken Orr,

Spokesperson,

Right to Life N.Z. Inc.