Plain language law

New Zealand law explained for everyone

Crimes Act 1961

Crimes against the person - Abortion services

183: Abortion procured by person other than health practitioner

You could also call this:

“It's against the law for someone who is not a doctor to try to give or perform an abortion.”

If you are not a health practitioner, you can get in trouble with the law if you try to perform an abortion or help someone get an abortion. This is a serious offence, and you could go to prison for up to 5 years if you do this.

It’s important to know that the woman who wants or gets the abortion is not breaking the law in this situation. The law is only about people who are not health practitioners trying to do abortions.

In this law, an ‘abortion’ means what it says in section 2 of the Contraception, Sterilisation, and Abortion Act 1977. A ‘health practitioner’ is defined in section 5(1) of the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003.

Remember, only health practitioners are allowed to perform abortions or help women get abortions. If you’re not a health practitioner, you should not try to do this, as it’s against the law.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM329356.

Topics:
Crime and justice > Criminal law
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184: Procuring abortion by other means, or

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Part 8 Crimes against the person
Abortion services

183Abortion procured by person other than health practitioner

  1. A person commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a term of imprisonment not exceeding 5 years if the person is not a health practitioner and—

  2. procures, or attempts to procure, an abortion for a woman; or
    1. performs, or attempts to perform, an abortion on a woman.

      1. The woman is not guilty of an offence under this section.

      2. In this section,—

        abortion has the meaning given to it by section 2 of the Contraception, Sterilisation, and Abortion Act 1977

          health practitioner has the meaning given to it by section 5(1) of the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003.

          Notes
          • Section 183: replaced, on , by section 13 of the Abortion Legislation Act 2020 (2020 No 6).