The Supreme Court withdrew the Roe v. Wade ruling, which overturned the 50-year-old ruling that legalized abortion on a federal basis. This means that individual states can now ban procedures.
Since then, one of the two major government websites has recorded a 443% increase in visits from the United States.
The New Zealand Immigration Service (INZ) said it recorded 45,235 visits to New Zealand from the United States last week, compared to 8319 visits from April 19th to 25th.
The number of views on the website reached 77,000, including the number of views of the New Zealand Immigration Department itself, almost four times the number compared in April.
“The New Zealand Now website is a government website managed by INZ that focuses on providing information to those who are interested in moving to New Zealand to work or invest,” said Customer Engagement. Said Stephanie Greathead, General Manager of Education.
The search term Immigration NewZealand came to the United States on Saturday night as the analysis by Google digested the news that the overturning of the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973 made access to abortion almost impossible in at least 18 states. It shows that it has reached its peak.
However, it is still below the number of “Move to New Zealand” tracks registered when Donald Trump was elected president.
Following that surge in interest, US investors and immigrants surged. INZ points out that the number of websites has increased this week and not only has won repeaters, but does not reflect the visa applications made or the people who actually moved here.
However, following the 2016 Trump and Brexit votes, the number of work and residence visa applications has increased.
After the 2016 presidential vote, the United Kingdom and the United States accounted for more access to immigrant websites than the following 13 countries combined, including China and India.
Recruiters told RNZ this week that they were flooded with inquiries from US doctors, especially GPs and obstetricians and gynecologists, who wanted to come here after being sentenced to an abortion.