The Ministry of Health has published the 2025 Abortion Services Annual Report.
The Ministry plays an important role in ensuring that abortion services are accessible, equitable, person-centred, high-quality and timely. This also aligns with the priorities set out by the Women’s Health Strategy 2023: improving healthcare for issues specific to women.
The 2025 report shows that access to abortion services has increased overall since 2023, with more services provided in 2024 compared to previous years.
There has also been an increase in both the number and rate of early medical abortions. In 2024 more women on average were able to access services earlier in their pregnancies, both in person and through telehealth services, than in 2023. This is important because early access is associated with lower risk to the woman accessing services.
Further findings include:
- The number of abortions performed in 2024 (17,785) was higher than the number performed in previous years. Similarly, the abortion rate (16.6 abortions per 1,000 females aged 15–44 years) and ratio of abortions (232 per 1,000 known pregnancies) were higher in 2024 compared to 2023.
- Length of gestation, measured as duration of pregnancy in weeks, decreased in 2024 compared to 2023 for all ethnic groups. However, similar to prior years, Māori and Pacific peoples on average accessed abortion procedures at later gestations compared with the non-Māori, non-Pacific groups.
- The general rate of early medical abortions (EMAs), at 67% of all abortions, has increased from earlier years and the highest rate of early medical abortions (EMA) access reported since this rate has been measured (including prior to law reform). The proportion of EMAs increased by 5% while surgical abortions decreased by 5% from 2023.
- The majority of both surgical (62%) and medical (97%) abortions were provided at 10 weeks’ gestation or earlier. This reflects 86% of abortions overall.
- Surgical abortion care is an important option for ensuring timely, equitable and accessible options for care, which supports patient choice and safety. In New Zealand, 83% of abortions occurring at 10 weeks’ gestation or greater are surgical. The percentage of those who have to travel out of their district for access to a surgical abortion increases as gestation increases.
- In 2024, 40% of individuals accessing a surgical abortion had to travel out of their district of domicile for service, compared with 29% of those accessing a medical abortion.
- The rate of EMA access within each age group is not impacted by the channel of EMA service provision: in-person, regional telehealth and national telehealth services.
- When accessing an EMA, telehealth was the most frequently used service (as compared to in-person services) across all ethnicities. However, groups differed in which channels (regional telehealth, national telehealth, in-person) they used more.
- Individuals living rurally relied more heavily on telehealth services.
- Some key indicators for better accessibility and equity noted in the report are:
- a continued increase in EMA access. Continuing the trend from 2022, EMA represented the majority of abortion procedures accessed in 2024
- continued decrease in average gestation at the time of abortion
- 86% of abortions occurring at 10 weeks gestation or fewer
- greater access to telehealth services for those in rural areas.
