National MP Alred Ngaro says no woman has ever been made to feel like a criminal for having an abortion in New Zealand - despite abortion being illegal here.
Ngaro is considering setting up his own conservative Christian party, and his latest comments come after he shared a post on Facebook likening abortion to the Holocaust.
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Kate, who doesn't want us to use her last name, was refused an abortion in New Zealand, and says she was "left quite traumatised by the experience".
"I felt like I was on trial and I felt like it was a trial where I had no legal representation," she told Newshub. "I felt like I was treated worse than a criminal."
But according to Ngaro, no woman has ever felt like that.
"Has any woman actually ever been made to feel like a criminal? Absolutely not."
In response, Kate said: "He obviously, as a man, has never had to go through the system so it's quite easy for him to make a sweeping judgment like that."
Abortion in New Zealand is a crime dealt with under the Crimes Act. In practice, women use a legal loophole: two doctors must agree pregnancy would put the woman in physical or mental danger.
The Government is now considering reform around the issue.
Ngaro has already come under fire for his views on abortion, after sharing a post Jesus for NZ made on Facebook promoting an anti-abortion rally.
It said: "Abortion is not an 'issue'. It is a travesty of justice and has become an unholy holocaust in our nation."
"I regret that," Ngaro said. "What I would put in place of the word holocaust, I would put 'tragedy'."
While Ngaro backpedalled, his leader Simon Bridges refused to call him out.
"Freedom of speech does ultimately mean the right to say stuff - the right, actually, to offend sometimes."
Bridges added: "There are many thousands of New Zealanders that have views that are pretty similar to Alfred Ngaro's, actually."
When Newshub asked if it was wrong of him to compare abortion to the Holocaust, Bridges said: "I wouldn't have done it but I wouldn't go as far as to say it was wrong."
Newshub.
