Andersen GinnyGINNY ANDERSEN (Labour): Thank you Mr Speaker. Thank you for the opportunity to speak today on this most important piece of legislation. I stand to speak in support of this bill and I don't take it lightly to stand here today. I am incredibly grateful to be a voice for women and the women who for years before in New Zealand have gone through a lot of pain and a lot of trauma in terms of their own sexual health reproductive rights and general wellbeing. I believe strongly that this is a health issue and that our legislation is out of date. We have moved beyond what our legislation allows us and this piece of legislation—this bill—quite simply brings us up to date with where we need to be by removing abortion from the Crimes Act. I feel that it is wrong that women are forced to lie to general practitioners in order to access an abortion when they feel and they know that it is their right to access it. I would like to acknowledge all of those people who have taken the time to write to all the members of Parliament whether it be in support of or against this bill. We have all received a great number of heartfelt and very emotive pieces of writing from the general public and I think that speaks to the point that this is an incredibly important issue for New Zealand. I've read a lot of them and one of the ones that has stuck with me was appealing to me as a mother. They said Ms Andersen you are a mother. How can you support such a bill?" It's funny because my immediate thought was that it is as a mother you know the importance of bringing a child into this world and being able to provide for it all those important things that you know your baby will need whether that be a warm dry home and a loving partner who cares and respects you and your family or whether that be the financial wellbeing to provide for those around you and the child and those are the decisions that only a mother can make. I believe it is a woman's body and woman's choice to make this decision. We've heard many stories today of occasions where there's been difficult decisions to make and there can be no greater no more difficult decision than this one. My mother was admitted to hospital about two months before my brother was born with high blood pressure and was advised strongly to have an abortion because she had such high blood pressure that she would lose so much blood that she was likely to not survive the birth. It was a really difficult time. My father was still a teacher on Great Barrier Island. We had to move to Nelson and live with my grandparents in order to support her. I'd only just started school. It was an incredibly fraught decision for her to make and she decided to go ahead and have my brother. He turned out OK. The point is that it was her choice—she made that decision and that's fine. If you want to make that choice and have your child that is completely your choice but it is only the person who has that child within them that can make that decision. No other person can tell me to have a baby or not to have a baby. That's my right and that's my choice.I'm really proud to have a Prime Minister who supports forward-thinking legislation and I'm really proud that we are moving towards as a country where there is more open discussion more opening of the windows and a greater ability for counselling and talking to our young people so we encourage better sexual health so we encourage open discussions in our homes and we enable the light to be shone in those areas where currently it is not. I'm proud to be a member in this House today to witness a bill that means so much to women in New Zealand."