Logie JanJAN LOGIE (Green): Along with others I'd like to dedicate my contribution tonight to all those fiercely determined women like Dame Margaret Sparrow who have lobbied for these reforms for decades. I really hope that at the end of this debate all of us will be a little freer tonight.I want to acknowledge and congratulate the Minister for bringing this to the House—44 years before anybody has been able to summon up the political will to do this. That should be acknowledged because this is so long overdue. I want to also acknowledge how ably it has been shepherded through.Today is I believe an important day for women in this country. It's been a really long time coming. Today I hope we will come out of the sexual and reproductive health time warp that we have been stuck in for over 40 years. It's our chance to decriminalise and ensure that our abortion care in this country catches up with Catholic Ireland and most other countries around the world. I'll just repeat that: this is our chance for Aotearoa—considered by many around the world as the feminist political Mecca of the world—to catch up with Ireland a country who in the 1970s when we passed the legislation we're updating I hope tonight made married women get a letter from their priest before they could access the pill. That is how far we have fallen behind that they have managed to get further ahead in terms of recognising women's bodily autonomy and sexual and reproductive health rights than us.I really hope that at the end of this debate that the one in four or more women in this country who have already had an abortion because it was the right thing for them and their family will see this as a clear message from this Parliament that we recognise their right to make that decision and that we are withdrawing our judgment because our existing law imposes judgment and was founded on patriarchal judgment of women. And who are we to judge? I really want to say that while I absolutely respect all of the different views in this House and in our society and those who oppose this legislation and abortion services for themselves it really is appalling to me that we have accepted the enforcement of medical practice that is at odds with best care for so long and that we have created inequality and increased harm through a lack of service provision; that we've accepted that women in low-income or rural communities have been required to see up to seven health professionals to be able to access abortion care services while some women in other suburbs—wealthier suburbs I might say—have been able to go to one place and have their care sorted in one place very quickly and easily.We have had that inequality because this House has—up to now; I hope it will change tonight—failed to update our law. It's appalling to me to be honest that we've made women continue unwanted pregnancies for more than three weeks—on average 25 days—because we've been unwilling to update our laws and remove those hoops that they have needlessly had to jump through.It's appalling to me that women have ended up having medical miscarriages while travelling home from the distant cities they were sent to to access abortion care because we had failed to update our law. It's appalling to me that we've known for years that women have been forced to lie as they jump through the hoops of our 1970s legislation. I do just want to point out some of the misinformation that we've heard from the Opposition and that was previously said that really it was life physical health and mental health that were the grounds for abortion in our legislation.Actually pre - 20 weeks the grounds for abortion are: serious danger to life; serious danger to physical health; serious danger to mental health; incest; mental subnormality—so everyone supporting this legislation supports the continuation of the use of that language—and fetal abnormality. So people who are raising concerns around the disablist potential consequences of which there is no evidence of being realised internationally are supporting the entrenchment of disablism within the existing legislation.I really want people to understand and actually recognise that and that 98 to 99 percent of pre - 20 week abortions in this country are on the grounds of serious danger to mental health where women and other pregnant people have had to prove that there was serious danger to their mental health. That's just not real. The Abortion Supervisory Committee has been telling us that doctors have been telling us that and those few women that overcame the stigma and the shame associated with abortion have been telling us that. It is time for us to enable them to tell the truth.I know a lot of this opposition to this legislation is focused on the change in the post 20 week threshold and arguments that this will result in abortion on demand and terrible horrors that I will not repeat again—because I don't think it helps anyone. But I will state again that there is no verified evidence to support those concerns. As Michael Wood pointed out previously—SPEAKER: Order! I apologise for interrupting the member. It is time for me to leave the Chair for the dinner break.Sitting suspended from 6 p.m. to 7.30 p.m.JAN LOGIE: Thank you. As I was saying many of the concerns we're hearing from those opposing the legislation when we look to other countries we find that there is no evidence to support those concerns.In the changes relating to post - 20 weeks the practitioners I've spoken to about what this will mean—the change in the legislation and what that will mean for their practice—what they've told me is that it will make no practical difference whatsoever except that they will not be required to be certifying consultants. We will as a country not have to pay them $150 on top of their doctors' fees to do their role as a certifying consultant. It's not going to change practice at all. The evidence shows us from other countries that there will not be an increase in the number of terminations that happen after 20 weeks.I really do want to caution people in this House and outside of the House who are characterising and making assumptions about the reasons that people have terminations after 20 weeks and let them know that I've spoken to some families who have been listening to this debate who have been through that situation in times where they were trying to save their own life or were in an unenviable situation around their pregnancy. The question they asked was: Why do they hate us? Why do they hate us for doing what we needed to do?" I want people to know that those comments are experienced as shaming whether that is what you intend or not those members.I really want people to know that the primary effect of this piece of legislation is that abortions that would happen anyway will happen earlier and they will be able to match best medical care. That is what this piece of legislation does. It does nothing else. I really want to say that one of the demonstrations of it it will finally allow women to access abortion care services closer to home. Organisations like Family Planning with over 80 years' experience as women's health providers will now be allowed to offer abortion care services through their network closer to home so that woman who miscarried on the way from being sent to Invercargill from Queenstown to have an abortion will hopefully be able to access care within her own community. Women will not need to lie anymore. Women will not have to have miscarriages in their cars. They will not need to visit up to seven different health practitioners. They will not need to wait weeks to be able to get an abortion. They will not need to lie. They will hear that this House and that this country trusts them believes them and supports their right to sexual and reproductive health."