She was 19 years old at the time, she did not want to be a mother, and New Zealand had not yet decriminalised abortion, she said.
However, Miss Hawthorne did not have to consider the steps she would need to take to get an abortion; her test was negative.
On Saturday, the Dunedin social work student led a rally of about 150 people in the Octagon supporting American women who have lost the right to abortion after the 50-year-old Roe v Wade decision was overturned in the United States Supreme Court last month.
"One day, I do want to have children, but I want that child to be on my own terms.
"I will decide that, I myself will decide that," Miss Hawthorne said.
The large turnout for the mostly student-aged rally showed many people viewed the United States as a global leader and feared New Zealand could follow its direction.
"It’s not a moral dilemma, it’s a health issue," Miss Hawthorne said.
New Zealand changed legislation to decriminalise abortion in 2020.
When Roe v. Wade was overturned Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said that to watch the removal of a woman's right to make decisions over her own body was "incredibly upsetting".
New Zealand removed abortion from the Crimes Act due to the "fundamental belief" it was a woman's right to choose, Ms Ardern said.
Roe v. Wade was a 1973 court case when Texas woman Norma McCorvey, under the legal pseudonym "Jane Roe", argued Texas laws criminalising abortion violated a woman’s right of privacy as set out in the US Constitution.
The landmark case confirmed the right to an abortion and set out pregnancy as occurring in three "trimesters".
During a pregnant person's first trimester, a US state could not regulate abortion other than specifying that the abortion must be done safely by a doctor.
In the second trimester, the state could create rules for abortion around the health of the pregnant person.
In the third trimester, the foetus became viable and the state's interest in protecting the potential human life outweighed the right to privacy — at that stage states could prohibit abortions, the court decided.
The 6-3 decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, included full support from three Supreme Court justices recently appointed by former US president Donald Trump: Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barret.
The Washington Post reports abortion is now banned, or largely banned, in 17 states.
It will be imminently banned in three states and likely banned in another two, it says.
In New Zealand, National leader Christopher Luxon's personal support dropped 5.6 points in a poll last week, reportedly because he struggled to clearly promise National would not change abortion laws if it were in government in New Zealand.hamish.maclean@odt.co.nz
