A sexual and reproductive health specialist says a recent rise in abortion numbers reflects improved access to care rather than an increase in demand.
Magma Healthcare director Simon Snook said the increase likely coincided with the launch of DECIDE, the National Abortion Telehealth Service.
DECIDE can arrange an early medical abortion over the phone. The service is funded by Health New Zealand and run by Magma Healthcare and Sexual Wellbeing Aotearoa.
In 2024, 67 percent of abortions were early medical, compared with 36 percent in 2020.
“I think what we are seeing now is people who previously would have wanted an abortion and couldn’t get one for their own reasons are now getting it,” Snook said. “We are getting the abortion numbers correct for the country’s need.”
Snook said that a similar number of abortions – approximately 18,000 per year – took place in the 2000s. The decline in the 2010s was likely due to better access to contraception, he said.
A longer-term form of contraception, the Jadelle implant, became government-funded in 2010, while the Mirena and Jaydess intra-uterine device (IUD) became government-funded in 2019.
Snook said better sex education also likely played a role, as there had been a decline in risky sexual behaviours.
The Contraception, Sterilisation and Abortion Act 1977 and the Crimes Act 1961 were amended most recently in March 2020.
There has been a 37 percent increase in the number of abortions since abortion was decriminalised in New Zealand – from 12,948 in 2019 to 17,785 in 2024.
SOURCE: RNZ New Zealand, by Pretoria Gordon, 3 January 2026.