If you want to get an abortion in New Zealand, “the condom broke” is not a good enough reason. Neither is, “having a baby isn’t my life choice right now.” Not even, ” I was raped” will do it. What you need is two medical practitioners certifying you are either physically or mentally unwell under the Crimes Act. Most times, it’s the latter. About one in four New Zealand women have had an abortion. Practically all of them, more than 98 per cent, have got one on mental health grounds.

Like many New Zealanders, Jodie Molloy had no idea abortions were criminalised when she started writing a play during her masters of studies in creative writing at Cambridge University. She just thought abortion was a topic with rich dramatic potential. In bringing The Voice in My Head to the Basement Theatre in Auckland, her play opened up a discussion politicians are too afraid to have.

“Art is where we hide behind our fears and experience things and talk about things. The show gives us a license to start throwing about these concepts,” says Jodie, who went into the work with no particular political agenda but now feels it’s time to seriously look at updating the law.

“The way the law sits is a moral presumption that you’ve done something wrong, you have to perjure yourself and say you’re mentally unwell and then get signed off by two consultants,” says Jodie. “It’s asking women to lie simply because it’s easier that way and you can pretty much get the abortion you want.”

Campaigners for abortion reform advocate removing abortion from the Crimes Act and making it a health issue, saying that as it stands, the law disempowers women and adds to the stigma around abortions.

Considering abortion is something so many women have to deal with, yet it’s resoundingly not ok to talk about publicly. An interview Jodie did on Radio New Zealand’s arts programme about her play came with a rare warning: “This interview may be upsetting for some listeners and unsuitable for children. We advise discretion.”

A political hot potato, the Green Party is the only political party willing to take on abortion as a policy issue. In the lead up to the 2014 general election the Greens released their plan to decriminalise abortion and allow women to access abortions in the first 20 weeks of pregnancy, bringing New Zealand law more in line with that of the state of Victoria where women can access abortion on demand up to 24 weeks.

“The Green Party believes the time has come for New Zealand to take an honest approach to abortion, to treat it as the health issue it is, and remove it from the crime statutes,” said MP Jan Logie.

At the same time Prime Minister John Key came out against changing the law, saying “the balance is about right”.

Since then the issue has withered from the headlines. In fact, the next conversation likely to happen in Parliament on abortion will be about putting more restrictions in the law, not fewer.

A year ago, National MP Chester Burrows presented a petition by Taranaki mother Hillary Kieft to Parliament calling for the law to be changed so that parents are informed if their under-age daughters seek an abortion. Hillary’s daughter was 15 when she was taken for an abortion in Hawera in 2010 that was arranged by her school. She was dropped home afterwards and her parents told she had a counselling appointment.

The Justice and Electoral Select Committee is expected to report back soon.

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