Kaye NikkiHon NIKKI KAYE (National—Auckland Central): I am pleased to support the Abortion Legislation Bill to this House. Can I take a moment to acknowledge all of the members of the special committee: Jan David Agnes Amy Ruth—SPEAKER: Order! Order! Hon NIKKI KAYE: —just to acknowledge all of your work. I do want to acknowledge that there are some very strongly held views in this Chamber. I don't want to diminish those views. I have extraordinary respect for freedom of speech and freedom of religion. But I support this bill for a few very fundamental and simple reasons. The first is I believe that every woman in New Zealand has the right to control her body. It's very simple. It's very simple; in fact it's so simple that we are one of the most archaic countries in the world—even Catholic Ireland has more liberal abortion laws than New Zealand. That's right we were the first country to give women the vote and we've had extraordinary female leaders that have come over generations on different sides of the House but we are less liberal on abortion laws than Ireland. I want to take a moment to acknowledge Dame Margaret Sparrow. You are an extraordinary New Zealander. For half of your life—more than 40 years—you have fought for abortion reform and I want to acknowledge how hard that has been at times. I do acknowledge there have been 25000 submissions in this House of which a majority are opposed. But we cannot consider those submissions without considering the many silent voices: the many women who email me who come up to me in airports and who come up to us in constituency clinics who are too afraid to speak up publicly for which the leading lights like Dame Margaret Sparrow have put their bodies literally on the line to fight for what I consider are basic equality and women's rights. I want to acknowledge what the committee has said in terms of many members in this House supporting the basic view that we want to see less unwanted pregnancies in New Zealand and less abortions in this country. We support this view. Fundamentally there are a couple of other reasons why it is crucial in my view that we have this law change. Again I want to quote Dame Margaret Sparrow who really effectively said a number of years ago that it is an absolute farce in this country that 98 percent—I think it was at the time—of the abortions were on the grounds of mental health. That is a farce that is wrong that is archaic and it is time that as a country we changed that and we faced up to the fact that it is archaic and outdated and wrong to have a law on the books that effectively says that. I also want to stand up and acknowledge our Minister of Justice Andrew Little. It is wrong to have this law reform under the framework of the Crimes Act and I want to put on record that I think that that is unacceptable and that is why I am supporting this bill to the House. I do want to acknowledge the real concerns that we have had from across New Zealand around this issue of post - 20 weeks which we've just heard some of our parliamentary colleagues talk about. But look I am supporting this law because I've looked at the facts. I've actually looked at the reality of the practice in New Zealand. The reality of the practice in New Zealand is that of the 13000 abortions in New Zealand each year there was a small number—it was tiny—that were post - 20 weeks. Why? Because any member in this House who has sat next to someone who has had to go through an abortion and held their hand who has hugged their partner who has gone and been with someone through this process knows that for pretty much all of the women in New Zealand and the men who go through this alongside their partners it is the hardest process that anyone could go through.So I do not buy the arguments of some of the people in this House who have suddenly said that this will lead to a whole lot more women deciding that they are not going to go through what is a carefully considered traumatic process for them. In fact this bill is about strengthening and improving the support for those women and those families with a right to counselling. I want to acknowledge the committee for the real issues that the committee has covered around inequity in terms of access to services. We cannot just pass this legislation without ensuring that actually we have decent access to services right across New Zealand.I want to cover a couple of other issues. I want to acknowledge conscientious objection which is covered in this bill. The Minister of Justice also outlined the amendment which I see as an improvement around ensuring that where there is a conscientious objection women know of other services available. I also want to acknowledge the issue that people have raised around sex selection and I want to put on the record as many other members of this House have that I am completely opposed to this; and that the select committee overwhelmingly heard that there is no evidence of this happening but there are amendments in the bill to improve the law in this area.Finally I want to say to all members of this House—and it really reiterates what my colleague the Hon Amy Adams has said—I completely respect all members of this House in terms of their religious freedom. I completely respect all members of this House who may have a view that they don't want any abortions. But what I will not accept in this House is what I consider a lack of factual analysis about what happens in New Zealand—the numbers of abortions the process that most women go through the horrific experiences that they have had the delays that they are experiencing which is clearly articulated in the report. I think there was a 2010 study which indicated that many women were experiencing a delay of over 25 days. I will not accept arguments put up by members that are not factually accurate and I would ask members in this House to be open and honest about their lens and the view that they are coming from—if it is religious if it is about the fact that they just don't want any abortions—because I do believe that New Zealanders have a right to know.I do believe as well that many women in New Zealand basically fundamentally want equality. They want the ability to have control over their body. They don't want to have to be in these situations but if they are they ultimately want respect and equality. I believe that this bill is timely. It's progressive. It's important. It will lead to less suffering. I commend this bill to the House.