An important study conducted in the United States in 2004 found that 64 per cent of those women surveyed reported that they were pressured by others to have an abortion. Many abortions are the result of pressure, emotional blackmail, coercion, threats, or violence from boyfriends, parents, employers, doctors, counsellors or from other people of influence in the woman’s lives. Right to Life believes that a similar situation prevails in New Zealand.

Having abortion on demand has made it easy for others to bring pressure and even force women and girls into having an abortion they do not want. The great majority of women if provided with real support, options, and resources to allow their children to be born will continue with their pregnancy. In some cases women have been assaulted and even murdered by the father of their child. In the United States murder is the leading cause of death among pregnant women. A 22 year old male is currently before the High Court in Auckland charged with procuring an abortion after violently assaulting a 17 year old girl with the objective of causing a miscarriage.

Inadequate, inaccurate or deceptive counselling can also act as a form of coercion. A woman’s right to choose is touted as a woman’s right. This is a monumental lie. For many men who wish to escape their responsibilities towards the mother and the child that he has fathered, abortion becomes their choice. This is a violation of the human rights of the vulnerable woman and her child in the womb. Women deserve better, they deserve to have the law protect their right of women not to be pressured, coerced, or even violently forced into unwanted and dangerous abortions.

Right to Life recognises the right of women to receive the full protection of the law from being coerced into an unwanted abortion. Our Society will now lobby Parliament to promote the necessary law change. A petition has been prepared to present to Parliament. Citizens concerned about the coercion imposed on women are invited to sign a petition displayed under the abortion link on our Society’s web site at www.right-to-life.org