R E L I G I O N & A B O R T I O N


It is not foreign knowledge that religion has had a strong influence in the initial buildings of law structures amongst societies. Thus evident in the commandment “god spake these words and said, ‘I am the lord thy God: Thou shalt have none other gods but me.’” This religious commandment was once practiced as law within the early stages of developing society. And those whom did not adhere to this were condemned accordingly at the time, for example, the mid evil times and witch condemnation. Today this would be absurd. We now live in a time (and place) where we have the freedom of speech, right? In New Zealand it is clearly evident that we can openly practice our own choice of religion, which is also a representation of ‘freedom of choice’, yet the freedom of choice for our circumstantial decisions on abortion is not. The irony is that not every pro-choice advocate believes for themselves that abortion is the right thing; however they believe that you should have the opportunity to decide this yourself. It is undeniable to state that religion does not play a heavyweight position in the movement of pro-choice. Statistically looking, countries that have a strong religious population (particular to one specific religious group) for example, Iraq and Syrian Arab Republic tend rate between 0-2 on the abortion law chart, discussed in the beginning. However, New Zealand does not fall under the category of being a highly populated religious nation therefore comparatively should not be dominated by religious views.

Looking into various anti-abortion organizations online, it is evident that religion continues to play a role as one of the common denominators. As an example to this, a few pages had posted a verse or quote on their home page directly from a biblical verse, such as 40daysoflife.com. 


In conclusion, United States of America, Canada and Australia, are all comparatively similar to New Zealand, considered as more liberal and well-developed countries. Yet they differ to New Zealand because they do not impose an abortion restriction law policy, and yet, we do. It is time for us as a nation to also respect the judgment of our woman without inflicting belief systems and stop the ‘discretionary’ conditioning on such a personal decision.