Wall LouisaLOUISA WALL (Labour—Manurewa): Tēnā koe Madam Chair. Actually I'll pick up from where my colleague Jan Logie left off. I support Supplementary Order Paper (SOP) 455 and I think the question is why do woman" and "other person" and "pregnant woman or other pregnant person" actually matter. I managed to find like I always do a nice little definition from the European Parliament which was published in 2018. It says this: "Gender-neutral language is a generic term covering the use of non-sexist language inclusive language or gender-fair language." and the purpose of this gender-neutral language is "to avoid word choices which may be interpreted as biased discriminatory or demeaning by implying that one sex or social gender is the norm. Using gender-fair and inclusive language … helps [to] reduce gender stereotyping promotes social change and contributes to achieving gender equality." That's why this SOP matters and it's up to us whether we think it's relevant. We may say it's PC BS but actually for some people this helps them feel included in society because we've named them and acknowledged them. I want to speak and acknowledge my mate Greg O'Connor because I know that his contribution tonight is because he loves his son Michael his 27-year-old son. I also want to acknowledge Colleen and Barry Brown whose 40-year-old son Trav—he's a Down syndrome boy. So some of the issues we've had about this post - 20 weeks I'd just like to give us some statistics. I do have to thank Dr Helen Paterson who's a gynaecologist obstetrician and surgeon. She performs a lot of abortions over 20 weeks. So we know that 89 percent of abortions in New Zealand are performed before 13 weeks. In 37 percent of those abortions the women actually were using contraception and the contraception failed. Forty percent of pregnancies in New Zealand are unplanned and I guess the size of these unplanned unwanted could be encapsulated as part of the total number of abortions. From the 21st week which everybody has been talking about this evening there's actually been 56—56 of 13282 in 2018. Why? Well 75 percent were because of congenital abnormalities. Those abnormalities are trisomy-21 which is Down syndrome; they are trisomy-18 which is Edwards syndrome; and they are trisomy-13 which is Patau syndrome. Now the reality is that parents can have these tests. At 14 weeks you have a blood test and you have a scan and also at 20 weeks there's a blood test. We provide this information to parents and we have done so in New Zealand since 2004 so that parents can make a decision an informed choice about whether they want to continue with the pregnancy. In 8.3 percent it is maternal conditions and we heard from the Cavanaghs. I wasn't at the Abortion Legislation Committee but actually this is about mothers who may die. That's why they have abortions—because if they don't have them the mothers will die. The big statistic that I want to leave the committee with before I finish my contribution is that 22 abortions happen for children under the age of 15 years. For 62 fifteen-year-olds in New Zealand in 2018 74 percent of those children had parents involved in the decision about whether to have an abortion. And this is the cracker everybody: in 25 percent the father of the baby that has been aborted is the child's father. So we're actually talking about incest. So that is the reality and I will take this opportunity to share one of those case studies. It was a 12-year-old girl who presented at the 28th week and the doctors decided that actually the baby was healthy and happy but for the 12-year-old child the trauma of having a baby resulted in an abortion. So based on the statistics they're the nine outside of the 75 percent congenital abnormalities and the 8.3 percent maternal conditions. So that's what we're really talking about ladies and gentlemen. I would have thought that we would empower our medical practitioners—those who are actually performing these abortions—to do what is in the best interests of the mother the pregnant person and that we have faith and trust in them. Kia ora."