Why are women not encouraged to receive pre abortion counselling?

Media Release 24 February 2026

In response to an OIA request, Right to Life was advised by the Ministry of Health that only 1,840 women, 10% of the women who had an abortion in 2024, sought pre-abortion counselling. Right to Life believes that many of these women who are coerced to kill their child before it is born, are discouraged by those intimidating the women not to seek counselling.

The Ministry of Health claim that they strongly encourage women to receive pre abortion counselling. In view of the fact that 90% of women are NOT receiving pre-abortion counselling, Right to Life asks what action is the Ministry of Health taking to encourage more women to receive counselling?

Right to Life is appalled and saddened that 90% of women who had an abortion in 2024, were deprived of the opportunity of being provided with information on the development of their unborn child. They were also denied any opportunity to explore life-saving alternatives to abortion, such as adoption, fostering and parenting.

Right to Life believes that pre-abortion counselling provides an important opportunity for counsellors to learn if a woman is being abused by her spouse or is being coerced against her will to have an abortion which she does not want.

Research conducted by Women’s Refuge in New Zealand reveal reproductive coercion: A 2018 report found that over one-quarter of surveyed women who experienced reproductive coercion reported their partner attempted to pressure them into terminating a pregnancy.

Methods of Coercion: Partners of pregnant women have been known to use violence, intimidation, or threats of harm to force women to terminate pregnancies, with some reports detailing attempts to cause miscarriages.

The abortion law in New Zealand does not require mandatory counselling, which is required in many other jurisdictions. The law requires only that abortion providers advise women that pre-abortion counselling is available if requested. There is no obligation imposed on the abortion provider to encourage women to request pre-abortion counselling.

• In the United States, a peer-reviewed study by the Charlotte Lozier Institute found that nearly 70% of women who had abortions reported feeling some level of pressure or coercion from others. Another analysis indicated that approximately 15% of abortions were on pregnancies that were originally wanted.

• In the United Kingdom, a BBC poll of over 1,000 women found that 15% of all women in the UK have experienced pressure to undergo an unwanted abortion.

• In Scandinavia, research has indicated that between 20% and 25% of women experienced pressure to terminate their pregnancies. A Swedish study noted that decisions were "strongly influenced" by social norms and negative attitudes from family and friends.

Right to Life is disappointed that legislation prohibits pregnancy counsellors from counselling women, when the counsellors believe that unborn children are human beings from conception, and endowed by their Creator with an inalienable right to life.

The current policies insist that counsellors are required to be registered social workers, who must believe the fiction that women have a right to kill their children before they are born.

Ken Orr,

Spokesperson,

Right to Life New Zealand Inc.