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Salient. Victoria University Student Newspaper. Vol. 37, No. 7. April, 17 1974

What must be done in New Zealand?

What must be done in New Zealand?

We have in this country a history of innovation in social legislation. New Zealand women won the right to vote 27 years before their counterparts in the United States and 35 years before the women in Britain. We have since lost ground steadily in the field of women's rights, and this is particularly true of our record on the right of women to control their reproductive lives.

To correct the injustice of restrictions on this right, the government must implement the following programme as an urgent priority.

1) All laws restricting women's right to abortion must be repealed. No woman wanting an abortion should be refused. This may require the selling up of special clinics and hauling programmes for providing the qualified stall for them. Such clinics should be part of the free medical service.

2) All laws restricting access to contraceptives and advice on contraception must be repeated, Contraception must he readily obtainable and free on social security. Public educational campaigns to combat ignorance of effective contraceptive techniques should be launched by the government. These should be of an informational nature only and must not be directed against any particular social group because of its economic status of racial origin. Special efforts must be made to improve birth control methods, [unclear: mcluding aportion] and temporary sterilisation, so that there are entirely satisfactory methods for all women at all times.

3) All legal or other impediments on the right of a person, married of single, to voluntary sterilisation at their own request must be removed. Forced sterilisation, or attempt to impose sterilisation as pre-condition for abortion must be outlawed.

4) Sex education must be widely extended throughout the state education system and must include education on the means of preventing conception. Sex education must be on a factual basis and attempts to impose a particular moral view must not be allowed.

The curtain of hypocritical secrecy which has smothered the whole subject of birth control, particularly in regard to abortion, is beginning to bit. The second wave of feminism is encouraging women to speak out against the intrusion of the state into their own personal affairs, and against the paternalistic manipulation of their lives.

Women all over the world are demanding the right to control then own bodies, and here in New Zealand there is a growing number of women who are prepared to take a public stand for this right. It is our intention to coutinue to encourage this trend, to mobilise women into a vigorous campaign aimed at impressing upon the government the extent of concern over this issue and the urgent need for positive action.

We will not be bought off. We will not be satisfied until the right to choose has been won for every woman.