Wall LouisaLOUISA WALL (Labour—Manurewa): Tēnā koe e Te Māngai o Te Whare. Tēnā koutou katoa. Firstly can I acknowledge Dame Margaret Sparrow. I'm not sure if she's here today but she has been a pioneer in this field and I want to acknowledge the book that she wrote Abortion Then and Now: New Zealand Abortion Stories from 1940 to 1980. I also want to acknowledge the leadership of our Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and congratulate Ministers Little and Martin and the New Zealand Green Party for bringing this kaupapa to the House. It is a long time coming.I want to acknowledge all of the contributions this afternoon; they've actually been outstanding but I particularly want to focus on the contributions from Minister Sio Jonathan Young and Agnes Loheni. The reason I've chosen those three is because they focused on life and the celebration of pregnancy which actually is the outcome of love. It's about children and how children add to family. That's a fundamental and that's the ideal. I wish we lived in that world but therein begs the question about why people have sex. Let's get real now. Not everyone has sex for procreation. People have sex for recreation; it's pleasurable.But I just want to highlight something that Ian McKelvie just said because unfortunately and as espoused in our Crimes Act sex also occurs because of incest sexual relations with a guardian or rape and sexual violation which is the abuse of women and unfortunately girls which is why there is no age limit about who can have an abortion. So pregnancy actually is a concrete outcome for the pregnant person only and what I respect about this piece of legislation is that it defines abortion as a medical procedure to end pregnancy. Just like any other health service that we provide if you are the person who is pregnant it should be your choice about whether you have an abortion.So how many abortions do we have in New Zealand? Based on the 2018 statistics we had 13282 abortions; 60 percent were performed before 10 weeks; 57 or 0.4 percent were post 20 weeks; and on average over the last 10 years 250 women have been denied the right to access an abortion. Why? Because they were deemed to be not justified—that is that continuing with the pregnancy would cause serious danger to the women's mental health. So I guess my contention is that there's serious danger to the women's mental health if they want to access a service—that is abortion—and they're denied it.A lot of people have spoken today about why 20 weeks. Well 20 weeks actually is relevant because in our Births Deaths Marriages and Relationships Registration Act 1995 by definition if you have a miscarriage—and I quote—the issue from its mother before the 21st week of pregnancy of a dead foetus weighing less than 400 g." In that same piece of legislation from the 21st week the issue from its mother is actually classified as a stillbirth and we are legally required if you have a stillbirth to register that child within 42 days. So the State actually has an interest from the 21st week of that child and I think that it's not arbitrary; actually our law's been very clear.In my last minute I just want to highlight what the Law Commission recommended in terms of the law aligning with a health approach to abortion: that we must repeal the current grounds for abortion in the Crimes Act which is what this piece of legislation does; remove the requirement for abortions to be authorised by two specifically appropriate doctors called certifying consultants; and allow women to access abortion services directly under 20 weeks. It is a woman's right—actually it's a pregnant person's right to access abortion as a health service. Then I can understand from the 21st week why you would need a health practitioner to determine whether the abortion is appropriate. That is when the State has an interest in whether or not someone who is pregnant should have access to the health service of abortion. Kia ora."