Dear Sir

Re: New Zealand Family Planning Association – Application for Abortion Licence – Official Information Act Request

Thank you for your letter of 25 September 2009. Our Society is opposed to the application from the New Zealand Family Planning Association for a licence to perform medical abortions at its Hamilton clinic. We have many members living in the Waikato. Our grounds for this opposition are as follows.

Right to Life knows that the Family Planning Association is strongly pro-abortion and unsuitable to be granted a licence to terminate the lives of unborn children.

• The Association is the major abortion referral agency in New Zealand and believes that abortion is needed as a back up for so called failed contraceptives.
• It supports girls under the age of 16 being able to have an abortion without the knowledge or consent of parents.
• It has an employment policy to employ only doctors who believe that abortion is for a woman to choose in consultation with a doctor of her choice. This is abortion on demand which is unlawful in New Zealand.

In the event of the Association being granted a licence to perform abortions, our Society would have serious concerns about the lawfulness of these abortions. As you know Justice Miller in the High Court Judicial Review of the performance of the Abortion Supervisory Committee, stated in his judgment in June 2008, that abortion on demand was unlawful and that “there is reason to doubt the lawfulness of many abortions authorised by certifying consultants.”

• Many doctors employed by Family Planning are certifying consultants. As employees these consultants would feel obliged to comply with the employers wishes.
• The Association is an ardent advocate for the decriminalisation of abortion in New Zealand.
• The Association believes that unborn children are not endowed with inalienable human rights that the killing of an unborn child is not a crime and that abortion should be a health matter for a woman to choose.
• The Association is a vocal advocate of a “woman’s right to choose to terminate the life of her child” There is no such right.

A licence should not be issued against the wishes of the local community. We are all called to defend life; a community has a duty and the right to defend the right to life of its unborn children and to protect the health and welfare of its women. From information received from members in the Hamilton community there is considerable opposition to the issuing of an abortion licence for the Hamilton clinic.

The issuing of a licence would be in contravention of the Contraception Sterilisation and Abortion Act 1977, s 21 [2] [a] Grant of licences, which states, “There is a need for another licensed institution in the area in which the institution to which the application relates is situated. There are three Public Hospitals administered by the Waikato District Health Board that are licensed to perform abortions, Hamilton, Thames and Tokoroa. In 2007 there were 2172 abortions performed at these Hospitals. There is no need to provide a further licensed facility in Hamilton.

The application by the Family Planning Association for an abortion licence for its Hamilton clinic is but the first of 30 applications for its other clinics throughout New Zealand. It was the wish of Parliament in passing the Contraception Sterilisation and Abortion Act 1977 that there be accountability to the public for the performance of abortion in New Zealand by having abortions performed in Public Hospitals that are accountable to the communities which they serve. Accountability is also protected as Public Hospitals are subject to public scrutiny through law and the Official Information Act.

• In the event that an abortion licence is issued to the Family Planning Association this accountability and scrutiny will cease.

• It is believed that issuing an abortion licence to Family Planning will result in an increase in abortions in the Waikato.

Our Society requests under the Official Information Act a response to the following questions.

Should their application for a licence be granted, is it the intention of the Association

to apply to the Minister of Health for government funding of abortions at the Hamilton clinic?

In the event of your Committee approving the application of the Association would the Committee support government funding for the provision of abortions at the Hamilton clinic?

We request a copy of the correspondence from the Association to the Committee in support of its application for a licence and the correspondence from the Committee to the Association on this subject?

Because of the bias of the Family Planning Association they would be unsuitable holders of an abortion licence. A nation that kills its own children has no future; we therefore request that in the interest of unborn children and their mothers that you decline this and future applications for abortion licences from the Association.

Yours sincerely

Ken Orr

Secretary