AMAT was registered in 1974 as a Charitable Trust. Under the terms of the trust deed all
monies
received by the Trust must be applied for the purposes specified in the objects. Trustees
are
responsible in law for the operation of the Trust although an executive officer manages
the day to day
affairs.
Given the highly unsatisfactory state of affairs in the field of abortion prior to the
Trust's
establishment, an out-patient abortion service was a high priority for the Trust. Its
first clinic in Great
South Road was forced to close in 1975 with the passing of the Hospitals Amendment Bill,
so the Trust
moved its service to a private hospital in Ranfurly Road, Epsom. AMAT pioneered abortion
counselling and
the training of abortion counsellors, and made abortion available in New Zealand to all
those entitled to it.
The Trust now provides an abortion service in Dominion Road, where pregnancy counselling
and
termination is provided by the Auckland Medical Aid Centre Ltd., a charitable company
wholly owned by
AMAT.
Prior to 1997, AMAT distributed surplus funds as charitable grants to various individuals
and
organisations to support their projects. Later, AMAT supported the establishment of a new
Trust to
manage an adoption resource centre to provide counselling information and resources for
people
affected by adoption, and a research institute focusing on the publication and
dissemination of
educational literature in the field of human reproduction. The Trust is now active
in promoting and
sponsoring research and has since 1995 offered doctoral scholarships, originally through
the University
of Auckland, but now through the Universities New Zealand Te Pokai Tara. The
scholarships are to support
the development of new knowledge in the field of human reproduction.
