Margaret Sparrow

Guest writer

Dame Margaret Sparrow is past President of the Abortion Law Reform Association of New Zealand and a Director of Istar Ltd, a not-for-profit company that imports the abortion pill mifepristone. She was awarded an MBE in 1987, the NZ Suffrage Centennial Medal in 1993, and the DCNZM for services to medicine and the community in 2002, which in 2009 became a DNZM.

Main photo: An abortion rights demonstration on Manners St, Wellington, June 23, 1976. Inset: Abortion rights protesters denounce the US Supreme Court’s decision to end federal abortion rights, June 26, 2022. (Photos: Evening Post, Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images).

Dame Margaret Sparrow on what the US abortion decision means for NZ

I remember the day in 1973 when Roe v Wade gave all US women the right to an abortion. How envious we in New Zealand were.

By Margaret Sparrow | 28th June, 2022

Abortion is not a crime: 16 reasons to change the law

Abortion is not a crime: 16 reasons to change the law

The landslide victory for abortion legalisation in Ireland has reignited calls for abortion to be removed from the Crimes Act here. In this post first published in September 2017, long-time reproductive health campaigner Dame Margaret Sparrow gives 16 reasons the laws need to change.

By Margaret Sparrow | 7th September, 2017