Right to Life has been advised that the Abortion Supervisory Committee on the 20th August filed an appeal with the Court of Appeal against several important findings of the judgment of the High Court. In effect it has renewed the appeal that was brought earlier and which the Court of Appeal did not allow to proceed at that stage. The hearing in the Court of Appeal is likely to be in the first half of 2010 unless court time was available later this year. Justice Miller had found that “there is reason to doubt the lawfulness of many abortions authorised by certifying consultants.”

In my opinion, the statistics and the Committee’s comments over the years since the Court of Appeal made that observation tend to confirm Dr Forster’s view that New Zealand essentially has abortion on request. Justice Miller also concluded that. “The Abortion Supervisory Committee has misinterpreted its functions and powers under the abortion laws reasoning incorrectly that Wall v Livingston 1982, precludes the Committee from reviewing or scrutinising decisions of certifying consultants.”

Right to Life will now renew its cross appeal with the Court of Appeal. This is an opportunity for our Society to represent our case for the legal recognition of the unborn child from conception as a human being, endowed by its creator with human rights and entitled to the protection of the New Zealand Bill of Rights. Right to Life contends that this is the justice issue of our era. The Royal Commission on Contraception, Sterilisation and Abortion, in its report to Parliament in 1977, stated that “the unborn child as one of the weakest and most vulnerable forms of humanity should receive protection.”

Justice Miller, in his judgment of 9 June 2008, stated that “the rule according human rights only at birth is founded on convenience rather that medical or moral grounds.”

Right to Life will also represent its case for the independence of abortion counsellors from abortion providers. At present counsellors are generally employed by abortion providers.

Ken Orr

Spokesperson,

Right to Life New Zealand Inc.