Dame Margaret Sparrow has had a long career in general and reproductive health. She was awarded an MBE in 1987, the New Zealand Suffrage Centennial Medal in 1993, and the DCNZM for services to medicine and the community in 2002, which in 2009 became a DNZM.
The women who had abortions in 19th century New Zealand are all long dead and little is known of their shortened lives. Most of what we know about them comes from coroners’ reports and newspaper accounts, and in many cases we know more about the abortionists than the women themselves. Those who survived had engaged in criminal activity so they were unlikely to talk about it. Abortion was not written about or mentioned in their correspondence to family and friends.
The information we have is biased towards events with a tragic ending but even this gives us some insight into the lives of ordinary women. At a time when contraception was frowned upon by the medical profession women obtained abortions by whatever means they could, despite the dangers of poisoning, haemorrhage and infection. Abortionists did their work despite the threat of long prison sentences.
Recorded at the Ministry for Culture and Heritage, 1 April 2015. Introduction by Neil Atkinson of the Ministry for Culture and Heritage
Imelda Bargas and Tim Shoebridge: New Zealand’s First World War Heritage
’I am the island of Niue, a small child that stands up to help the Kingdom of King George - Niue Island involvement in World War I’
Aroha Harris: New Perspectives on Māori History
Coal- the Rise and Fall of King Coal in New Zealand
Kate Hunter and Kirstie Ross: Holding On To Home
New Zealand English: is there more here than meets the eye and ear?
Judgments of all Kinds: Economic Policymaking in New Zealand 1945-84
'Captain Kindheart’s Crusade'
A Tasman tale?: New Zealand's Depression and Australia, 1930-39
The History of Gangs in New Zealand
The White Ships: New Zealand's First World War Hospital Ships
The Great Strike of 1913: ‘Industrial War’ in ‘the Workers’ Paradise’
Tramping in New Zealand, a History
The Red Cross Lens on New Zealand Social History
Writing fiction as a non-fiction writer
Friendly Fire: What happens when allies quarrel
The Present and the Future
The Eighties – A Retrospective View
The “Old” Public Service
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Irish Songs with Ken Murray
History Obscura
Historycal: Words that Shaped the World
The Rest Is History
American Scandal