Family Planning Association Withdraws Application for Abortion Licence to Kill Unborn Children

The New Zealand Family Planning Association has withdrawn its application to the Abortion Supervisory Committee for a licence to perform abortions at its Hamilton Clinic. This  information was released by the Committee today to Right to Life New Zealand. The Society is delighted with this information which is a victory for a culture of life and good news for the women of the Waikato and their unborn children.

The Association had made the application on 27 September 2009. The application has been vigorously opposed by Right to Life. The application was also strongly opposed by groups of concerned citizens of the Waikato who sent petitions to Parliament. This victory is an encouragement to the rest of New Zealand that the threat of a culture of death posed by Family Planning can be defeated.

The Association hoped ultimately, to provide abortions at all of its 30 clinics in New Zealand. The Associations intention  was  to provide medical abortions during the first nine weeks of pregnancy using the lethal drug RU 486. The drug acts by killing the tiny human being by starvation.

Hamilton was the battleground that the Association chose and they have lost. It is time for New Zealand to awaken from its sleep. We are engaged in a war against our own children. It is hoped that we have heard the last of Family Planning in its objective to provide our community with 30 killing centres for the unborn.

It is shameful that the Waikato District Health Board enthusiastically supported Family Planning’s application and were prepared to provide the Association with taxpayer funding  for the abortions that they would have performed.

Right to Life believed that it would be unlawful for the Committee to issue an abortion licence to the Association. Our Society had recently instructed counsel to make application to the High Court in Wellington for a case stated to seek the opinion of the Court on the meaning of the  relevant section of the Contraception Sterilisation and Abortion Act. This action is now being withheld.

Family Planning falsely claim that chemical abortions are safe and that they are offering women a choice. A study published in Finland found that women who underwent chemical abortions were four times more likely to suffer physical complications compared to women who underwent surgical abortions. Twenty percent of women suffered complications after chemical abortions compared to 5.6 percent of women who had surgical abortions. The most common complications were haemorrhage (which occurred among 15.6 percent of women having chemical abortions compared to 2.1 percent of women having surgical abortions) and incomplete abortion (6.7 percent compared with 1.2 percent). There have been twelve maternal deaths worldwide from chemical abortions. There is believed to be considerable under-reporting of complications and maternal deaths.

Ken Orr

Spokesperson.