2020 has seen New Zealand’s lowest birth rate on record according to latest statistics.
New Zealand’s total fertility rate fell in 2020 down to 1.61 births per woman compared to 1.72 in 2019. This rate is well below the population replacement rate of 2.1.
In 2020, there were 57,753 live births registered in New Zealand, down 2,064 (3 percent) from the previous year.
Extreme abortion law introduced to New Zealand
In 2020, New Zealand MPs voted to introduce the world’s most extreme abortion law in the world. The new law allows abortion de facto on-demand , up to birth.
Additionally, there is now no requirement that doctors must be involved with an abortion ‘procedure’ and andthe new law has also legalised sex-selective abortion. This new abortion law came into effect at the end of March 2020.
Figures obtained by news outlet Newshub show that between the end of March and the start of August, “just over 4,900” abortions took place within 21 weeks of pregnancy. Newshub reports that, compared to the same window of time over the previous three years, this amounts to a rise of about nine percent.
Right To Life UK spokesperson, Catherine Robinson, said: “The consequences of an overall decline in fertility are likely to be severe in the long run, because, for example, lower birth rates create a skewed population pyramid with an ever-increasing elderly population and fewer young people to support them. The serious economic consequences of this are not hard to imagine”.
“The overall reduction in fertility is yet another negative side effect of the widespread availability of abortion, and it is a side effect whose consequences will be felt for years to come”.
