1 Oct 2015
RIGHT TO LIFE NEW ZEALAND INC v THE ABORTION SUPERVISORY COMMITTEE [2015] NZHC 2393
- Citation
- [2015] NZHC 2393
- Court
- High Court
The Court held RTL had standing to seek declarations. The word 'or' in the definition of abortion in the CSA Act is disjunctive so the Committee may lawfully grant limited licences authorising medical abortions only where the licence and application so provide and safety requirements are met. However s 19(3)'s mandatory phrase 'only during the first 12 weeks of the pregnancy' prescribes 12 weeks as the legally correct temporal limit for limited licences and the Committee acted ultra vires in renewing licences using a nine week formulation; those nine-week words are severable and the correct l…