Elspeth Preddey

Elspeth Preddey

Praised Dame Margaret Sparrow

In a special feature in the May 2011 newsletter of the Abortion Law Reform Association of New Zealand entitled "Honouring Dame Margaret Sparrow", Elspeth Preddey made the following statement honouring the former abortionist and president of ALRANZ:

"Dame Margaret has been not only an enduring influence on my feminist development ever since the REPEAL campaign of the late 1970s, but has also become a mentor and a cherished friend. I have highly valued reading the ALRANZ newsletter and attending the AGMs, generally in Margaret’s own home. What a blow that New Zealand abortion law was not framed as fairly as in England in the late 1960s. In spite of that there can be few families in our land who have not had members use the safe, legal services available over the last thirty years. Most willingly Margaret assisted me with my wording on the Women’s Electoral Lobby advocacy for repeal

of the CS&A act for The WEL Herstory (Fraser Books, 2003). Her own book,Abortion Then and Now - New Zealand abortion stories from 1940 to 1980 shares many heartrending situations, including one described by my own mother. As the badge Margaret gave me recently proclaims, we assert that “abortion is a basic right.”"