Logie JanJAN LOGIE (Green): Thank you Mr Speaker. I'm really pleased and really feel the privilege of getting to rise and speak on behalf of all of the Green Party MPs to restate our long-held position in support of the decriminalisation of abortion and to offer our unanimous support for this piece of legislation at this stage. For the Green Party all of us—we're voting on our conscience but that happens to take a shared position and that is a position of wanting pregnant people to be able to access the best possible medical care that of course trusts them to know what's best for them and their families.On one level I recognise the profound importance of this day for many New Zealanders. Around 30 percent of New Zealand women have had to jump through multiple hoops created by our abortion laws to be able to access fundamental healthcare services. Some women in this country have been denied abortions when that was their preference for their life. Too many women and people live with a sense of quiet—often—stigma created not by their choices but by the sense of social opprobrium created by our laws. Women have at times been made to feel like criminals. And there is a reason abortion rights have been so central to campaigns for women's equality.But in some ways actually today it's not such a big deal. In some ways this is really a long-delayed catch-up to ensure our legislation finally reflects the dominant values of our society and the jurisprudence. We haven't updated these laws since the 1970s—the 1970s when God Defend New Zealand" was made our second national anthem alongside "God Save the Queen" a time when almost every household got milk in a glass bottle at the end of their drive a time when it was OK to refer to people as "seriously handicapped" and "severely subnormal" as the original legislation does before the Human Rights Act before medical abortion was even available. It was a time when the law supported a man's right to sex with his wife regardless of whether she wanted it or not a time when men were also legally sanctioned to administer moderate physical correction to their wives. Despite women being able to be members of Parliament it was clear by our laws that women were not considered equal or fully trustworthy. So a law that listed conditions on when and how a woman could access healthcare made sense in that legal context. Yet the 1970s was also a time when despite that legal context polls consistently showed over 65 percent of New Zealanders favoured either the woman alone or the woman and her doctor having the right to choose—in the 1970s. The will of the people however was undermined by conservative forces in this House which only had four women present at the time.This law reform that's being I hope started rolling today will not profoundly change our society except to the extent it removes significant disparities in access to healthcare between rural and urban areas between low- and high - socio-economic communities and it may enable good medical practice. We don't expect there to be a significant—if any—increase in the number of abortions to arise from this legislation. So it's not about whether we support abortion or not. Remember that about 30 percent of women in this country have had an abortion and the numbers are tracking down as contraception options improve. When the Green Party announced our policy to decriminalise abortion over five years ago the main response we got before the Family First misinformation campaign kicked in was "What haven't we done that already?" and we're seeing that same response again. This is an issue I feel passionately about. I find the idea personally of forcing somebody to continue a pregnancy against their will actually shocking. A law that treats pregnant people and health professionals as if they're not to be trusted or are unable to make ethical decisions is anathema to me. However I want to acknowledge though that I'm really well aware that others feel differently and that there is a significant group of New Zealanders who believe that life begins at conception and they oppose the use of the emergency contraception pill. And there's a smaller group again who oppose the use of contraception altogether for similar reasons. Other New Zealanders hold different views again. I respect these people's right to hold those views although they differ profoundly from mine and I would fight strongly to protect those people against any attempt to force them to have an abortion or to take contraception against their will. And I do want to acknowledge that for some people their association with this debate reminds them of a traumatic time in their life and they associate this with their poor mental health. The evidence across the population tells us that any trauma and mental health consequences come from either the stigma or the unwanted pregnancy not the abortion itself. But I want to acknowledge that there are some deeply held feelings in this debate for many people and they are valid but the right to my belief and other people's right to their views and my willingness to fight for them to be protected from any forced action is the same instinct that has me fight to protect the bodily autonomy of pregnant people who want to end their pregnancy. I don't believe in this House I can have any sense of what is going on in their lives and the consequences of bearing a pregnancy to term against their will. It is not for me to make that decision; I believe we need in this House to trust them to do it. All the Green Party MPs while we're supporting this legislation our preference is for legislation to reflect option A as proposed by the Law Commission. We believe this would be the best way to demonstrate our trust in pregnant people to make the best decision for themselves and their families.We also believe it is an odd proposition to suggest that Parliament has a better idea of what's right for anybody in this context than they know themselves or has better medical judgment than the health professionals themselves. I would note that that option is supported by Family Planning the National Council of Women the UN Human Rights Council the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists the New Zealand Nurses Organisation the New Zealand College of Midwives the Abortion Supervisory Committee—from the medical establishment—because they want to be able to exercise their support for pregnant people according to best medical practice and that really is what option A would deliver. So in my last moments I really would ask every member to reflect on the history of this House's decision and to ask themselves whether they believe they know better than pregnant people what is best for them."