Right to Life New Zealand » Society Issues

Right to Life Questions Paula Bennett on DPB Contraception

Admin — Mon, 14 May 2012 08:26:19 +0000

Hon Paula Bennett,

Minister of Social Welfare,

Dear Ms Bennett

Re: Free Long Term Reversible Contraception for Women on DPB

Right to Life supports your government’s objective of reducing welfare dependency and discouraging women on the benefit from having further children while on the DPB.

Right to Life however is disappointed that your government is introducing free long term contraception for women on the DPB and their daughters over the age of 16. We are opposed to this strategy for the following reasons:

Contraception violates the natural law, is intrinsically evil and is part of a culture of death that has given us abortion the killing of an unborn child as a backup for failed contraception.
The contraception programme upholds the government’s failed Family Planning style comprehensive school sex education and its so called “safe sex”programme that promotes sexual activity outside of marriage.
Offering free contraceptives to the daughters of those on the DPB is giving the false message to young girls that being promiscuous is acceptable.
Contraception is bad and dangerous medicine. The contraceptive Depo Provera increases the risk of breast cancer and the long term effects of filling women’s bodies with powerful hormones contained in implants is unknown.

We believe that women on the DPB who are courageously raising children and women who heroically choose life for their child in the face of pressure to abort their child deserve the admiration and support of the community. The vast majority of women simply want to have a loving and faithful husband and father for their children. It is a great tragedy for women and society that today we have so many women who refuse to accept responsibility for the children that they have fathered. We believe that contraception has given many men the false belief that they can have sex without taking responsibility for the children that might result from an unplanned pregnancy. It is understood that 30 per cent of children in New Zealand are living in a home where the mother is alone. The abandonment of women and their children is a major social problem.

Our Society is also opposed to the proposal of having Income Support case managers raising the issue of contraception with clients on the DPB. This is not a matter for case managers to raise with clients as it is a breach of the clients privacy and could also be construed as intimidation. It is understood that it was the recommendation of the Welfare Working Group that the government make it a requirement for a woman applying for a DPB that she agree to accept long term contraception. This is a disturbing recommendation that raises several important questions:

What is your personal view on the recommendation?

Has the government resolved to reject the recommendation as unacceptable for this term of Parliament.

What assurance can you give that this recommendation will not be pursued by a future National government?

In view of the fact that the government proposes to have case workers at Income Support raise the issue of long term contraception with clients on the DPB, in the event of a client having an unplanned pregnancy, is the case worker expected to support the birth of the child?

Yours sincerely

Ken Orr

Secretary

Contraceptive shot linked with memory loss–From our Archives

Admin — Mon, 14 May 2012 06:45:39 +0000

Back in November 2011 we posted the following article (Italics below)…and now we read our government wants to – recommendation of the Welfare Working Group – make contraception, including Depo Provera, a compulsory requirement for women to receive the DPB.

Days after posting an article on the probable role of an injectable birth control hormone in spreading AIDS, I read this week that the same stuff may be causing memory loss in middle-aged woman. As if we didn’t have enough trouble remembering things already!

How ironic, that the recommended method for women who can’t be relied on to remember to take a pill every day should be one that may actually impair their memory.

The synthetic hormone progestin medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA) is widely used in hormone replacement therapy for menopausal women as well as in injectable contraceptives such as Depo Provera. Arizona State University researcher Heather Bimonte-Nelson and colleagues were doing a rat study on MPA when they discovered that it impaired memory in post-menopausal rodents. To read the entire article click the link at the top.

Steralisation of Women

Admin — Tue, 08 May 2012 20:14:32 +0000

Secretary,

Abortion Supervisory Committee,

Dear Ms Cole

Re: Sterilisation of Women

It is noted that at the recent hearing before the Justice and Law Reform Parliamentary Select Committee that Dame Holloway expressed concern that the number of publicly-funded tubal ligations for long term contraception was decreasing.

Right to Life is committed to upholding the dignity of women and promoting their health and welfare. We are therefore opposed to the sterilisation of women by tubal ligation for the following reasons.

It undermines the nature and purpose of marriage and sexuality. It goes against the dignity of sexual relations as intended by our Creator. It prevents the total gift of self because it excludes the potential for fertility.
Tubal ligation is the mutilation of a woman’s body and a violation of her human rights. Women have a right to the protection of the State.
Tubal ligation is an assault on the integrity of a woman’s body.
It is bad medicine, pregnancy is not a disease. There is no disease for which ligation would be a treatment. It is a medical procedure which is intended to destroy healthy organs.

The female reproductive organs are not just for reproduction; they are an essential part of any woman’s body and interact with brain chemistry and other hormones. One of the most common side effects of female surgical sterilisation is Post Tubal Ligation Syndrome [PTLS] caused by a lack of blood flow to the fallopian tubes, which in turn may cause an interruption in progesterone levels . Symptoms of PTLS include loss of libido, weight gain, depression, anxiety, chronic fatigue, heavy clotting during menstrual periods, mood swings, hair loss and severe pre-menstrual syndrome.

Women who have a tubal ligation increase the risk of an ectopic pregnancy seven fold.

Our Society shares your desire to see a reduction in the number of children killed in the womb. We don’t however believe that the mutilation of a woman’s fallopian tubes is an acceptable practice. Our Society believes that your Committee’s support for tubal ligation raises several important questions:

Does the Committee believe that it has a statutory duty to encourage women to seek a tubal ligation?
What action does the Committee take to encourage women to seek a tubal ligation?

In conclusion our Society respectfully requests that your Committee, in the interest of the health and welfare of women, reconsiders its support for tubal ligation.

Yours sincerely

Ken Orr

Secretary

Green Paper for Vulnerable Children – Why is the Link Between Violence in the Womb and Violence Beyond Being Totally Ignored by Our Government?

Admin — Sat, 05 May 2012 01:50:43 +0000

Hon Paula Bennett,

Minister of Social Development and Employment.

Dear Ms Bennett

Green Paper – Child Abuse

Thank you for the invitation to contribute to this important debate on child abuse. This submission is made by Right to Life New Zealand Inc. The fundamental object of our Society is to uphold the right to life of every human being from conception to natural death. We commend you and your government for seeking solutions to the abuse of our vulnerable children. It is a cause of national shame that New Zealand has the third highest rate of child abuse in the OECD. We fully support you in the measures that will flow from this discussion document. As a nation we must succeed in protecting our children.

Our Society is disappointed that this discussion document concerns only those children who have been born. Human life commences at conception and the first nine months of the child’s life is critical for the future development of the child. Unborn children are the weakest and most defenceless members of the human family. An abortion is violence against the child. It entails the violent dismemberment of the child. The killing of the unborn child by abortion is the ultimate in child abuse. You advise that New Zealand is a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child which sets out basic rights for everyone under 18. This Convention in its preamble states; “the child because by reason of his physical and mental immaturity, needs special safeguards and care, including appropriate legal protection, before as well as after birth”. It is the view of this Society that to exclude the child before birth in this discussion paper is discrimination. It is disappointing that the violence against unborn children is sanctioned and funded by the government. Professor Philip Ney an eminent child and family psychiatrist of Canada has completed extensive research into the relationship of the violence against the unborn with abortion and the child abuse of the born child. We believe that there is an important link for the following reasons:

Abortion lessons respect for the sanctity of life

Abortion is freely available in New Zealand, it cheapens the value of children and results in a loss of respect for the right to life of unborn children. Abortion thus results in a loss of respect for the human rights of born children.

Abortion lessons the restraint on exercising violence against children

We have a natural restraint to inflict violence on children. This natural restraint is impaired when we give consent to inflicting violence against the unborn child who is the weakest and most defenceless member of the human family. As a consequence of damaging this natural restraint by consenting to violence against the unborn it is easier to lose control and fail to restrain the infliction violence against born children.

Abortion impedes bonding with future children

It is instinctive for a mother to bond with a child in her womb. This bonding is destroyed when her child is violently destroyed by abortion. As a consequence a mother who has aborted a child could have difficulty bonding with future children, first in the womb and then when they are born. A failure to bond fully with her child, could result in the neglect of the child and make it more likely to abuse that child.

Abortion destroys a woman’s self esteem

Abortion destroys a woman’s self esteem as she may consider herself a failure as a mother that she was unable to protect and care for her child. A consequence is that with low self esteem she could consider herself as unworthy of being a mother which could lead to neglect and abuse of her born children.

Our Society’s response to the questions raised in the Green Paper are as follows:

Parents and caregivers

We support government agencies intervention when there is imminent danger of physical or psychological harm to the child.

Communities

The government is prepared to sanction and fund violence against unborn children as a core health service with freely available abortion. The government is providing the community with a very poor example of care of children. The message the government is unfortunately giving to the community is that you may kill the child in the womb but once it is born you may not smack it.

Vulnerable Children’s Action Plan

As the vast majority of cases of child abuse tragically occur within the Maori community, we believe that in partnership with Maori leadership an action plan needs to focus primarily on the protection of Maori children.

Legislation Changes

Under the Crimes Act 1961, the law does not recognise the unborn child as a human being, this is a great injustice. Human life begins at conception and every child is a unique and unrepeatable miracle of the Creator. To provide increased protection for children we request that the government amend the law to recognise that from conception the unborn child is a human being endowed with an inalienable right to life that is entitled to our respect and protection. This important action would reduce the killing of children in the womb and enhance the value of born children.

In conclusion Right to Life commends the Minister for this important public discussion about the future of our children. We trust that our submission will contribute to a better and safer future for all of our children both born and unborn.

Yours sincerely

Ken Orr

Secretary

Right to Life New Zealand Inc.

What will Decriminalizing Euthanasia Mean For You and Our Society?

Admin — Wed, 02 May 2012 11:17:46 +0000

A Public meeting organised by the Coalition for Life NZ on the above topic is being held on

Friday 11 May, 7:30pm

Lecture Theatre 2, College of Education,

Dovedale Ave, Ilam, Christchurch

Gold coin entry fee

Speaker

Paul Russell from HOPE: preventing euthanasia & assisted suicide Inc., Australia’s leading anti-euthanasia national network.

For more information email coalition4lifenz@gmail.com or phone Alexia Hoyt ph (03) 942-7833 or Chris O’Brien ph 027 3588685

About the speaker

Paul Russell is founder and director of HOPE: preventing euthanasia & assisted suicide Inc., Australia’s leading anti- euthanasia national network. He is also vice chair of the International Euthanasia Prevention Coalition based in Canada. Paul has had more than 15 years experience fighting euthanasia bills, mainly in South Australia. Paul will talk about the euthanasia situation in Australia and elsewhere but focus mainly on why euthanasia & assisted suicide is a bad idea – with special reference to the coming private member’s bill in the New Zealand Parliament.

"You matter because you are you.

You matter to the last moment of your life,

and we will do all we can,

not only to help you die peacefully,

but also to live until you die."

Dame Cicely Saunders

(founder of the world’s first purpose-built hospice)

Proof of Life

Admin — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 07:58:09 +0000

Proof of life is a term well known to kidnapping negotiators and perhaps made famous by the movie of the same title

To Pro-life advocates ‘proof of life’ has entirely different meaning. Those who deny the humanity of the unborn child are finding it more and more difficult to argue their case especially when advances in 3D and 4D techniques make it so very clear that the ‘entity’ growing within a mothers womb is a human child. For example take the video below entitled ‘Baby Steps’ from American Life League which features 4D Ultrasound.

The TED Ideas worth sharing website recently featured a talk by image-maker Alexander Tsiaras in which he shares a powerful medical visualization, showing human development from conception to birth and beyond. A YouTube video of this presentation is shown below. Again the images leave little room to believe what the so called Choice faction adamantly term ‘The Products of Conception’.

The Endowment for Human Development website whose motto is “Improving lifelong health one pregnancy at a time”, shows high quality photos and videos of the developing child. The graphic below is just one of hundreds which can be viewed online or downloaded

Inspite of all the evidence to the contrary, there a people in New Zealand actively seeking to make the procuring of an abortion even easier than it is today. They seek the complete decriminalisation of abortion.

Go figure New Zealand.

British Writer: Childless at 42 and Haunted by the Baby She Aborted as a Teen

Admin — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 02:18:12 +0000

The following article by Kirsty BurtonBrown is from Live Action News.

Daily Mail has published an article, written by U.K. author Kate Spicer, who tells her tragic story of abortion, regret, and childlessness. Her story haunts me as well because her baby would have been born in 1987, my own birth year. Though Spicer has still not come to the full realization of what her abortion did to her child (in one paragraph she talks about her “fetus” whom she did not allow to become a “child,” and in another paragraph she refers to her baby as her “son”), her story illustrates how many women come to regret their choice of abortion once they see the full picture, years later.

Even more tragic, Spicer writes that “sensible girls” got abortions back then and that she would advise her 17-year-old god-daughter to get one today if she became pregnant. Even all the years of wondering what could have been, the years of empty arms, the years of sad infertility have not fully convinced Spicer that abortion is a choice that will come to haunt every woman one day. Regardless, Spicer shares the details of her own dilemma, caused by abortion, and how she thinks of her loss each day. Her story serves as a warning for teenage girls – or anyone – who believe that abortion is an easy choice, free of the haunting death of an innocent child. It is anything but…

Picture shows an unborn child at 9-10 weeks, the age of Spicer’s baby at abortion.

In 1987, Spicer found out she was pregnant at the age of 18. After trying two “home remedies” (neat gin and falling down the stairs), she scheduled an abortion. The doctor, in a possible attempt to give her more time to think about her choice, told Spicer she would have to wait two months – until her second trimester – to have the abortion. Once her parents found out she was pregnant, though, they hurried the procedure, and Spicer had her abortion at nine weeks. (A nine-week-old baby, by the way can wriggle, shift, and dance. He has fingerprints and can grasp objects in his hands. Apparently, babies at this age love to feel anything they can touch.)

Now Spicer is 42, and this baby has been her only child. Even when she went off contraceptives, she has still been unable to get pregnant. Spicer writes that it is good that she was not forced to keep her baby’s father in her life, but she admits that he was not the only answer to her keeping her child:

Yet if someone had told me then: ‘This is your only chance to be a mother — it’s now or never’, I suspect that between us, my mother and I would have made a fair fist of raising the child. Now, at the age of 42, it is the ‘if only I had known’ that haunts me. The idea that I passed up my only chance to have a child. If I dwell on this thought, it is disturbing, so I try to avoid it.

Spicer writes that the year she had an abortion, she “became a statistic, one of the 174,000 women who had a termination that year.” Furthermore, she dispels the myth that the immediate relief some women feel after an abortion is lasting:

The euphoria far outweighed any physical discomfort when I left hospital. Any shame had gone, together with the nine-week old foetus: I was free again, I could breathe.

In fact, and rather alarmingly, I felt incredibly grown up. To my mind, the abortion was almost a rite of passage to being a proper woman.

Terminating a pregnancy seemed far cleverer than pushing double buggies in small-town Devon, which is what some of my peers were doing after their O-levels.

Today, I feel more emotional, guilty almost, about that bundle of cells I got rid of. In the bitterest of ironies, that terminated pregnancy remains the sum total of my reproductive history.

Spicer reveals that, years later, when she felt her maternal instinct, she was shocked at its force. She relates an “overwhelming desire” she had to protect and care for a street boy she met in Brazil. And she tells how her tough attitude was merely a façade to cover the regret she held inside:

The family unit … looked dull, claustrophobic and suburban. I was in denial, but every now and again my real feelings would break through the tough-girl rationale. …

I began imagining what he might have been like — a tall and sandy-haired boy, who would have been 17 at the time. I was 35, the age when the experts say your eggs and fertility start declining.

Spicer publicly analyzes her life after abortion and her feelings. She wonders if she chose some of her romantic relationships because she believed she never deserved to have another child. She introduces her niece and nephews, who “have brought into even sharper relief the phenomenal love and caring instinct inside the average woman.” Simply put, you could say that Spicer seems to believe that every woman was cut out to be a mother – at least the mother of any child she conceives. It is against a woman’s nature to kill her child. And oh, the pain when the one child you kill turns out to be the only child you ever have.

Spicer left me with two compelling thoughts…one that should cause us all to question how we talk to the women and girls around us, and one that should cause us to question the schizophrenia of the society we live in.

May we be bold enough to help others live with no regrets. Photo credit: quinn.anya on Flickr

First, Spicer shares the story of a successful author who kept her child, even in an inconvenient pregnancy, and admits to wondering what she would have done if someone had urged her not to have an abortion. Indeed, what would she have chosen? What would the women and girls around us choose if we would have the courage to urge them to choose life – even if it causes us to lose friendships? Undoubtedly, some would choose life and not have to live with the pain and regret of death.

Finally, Spicer quotes her father. His words should give us all pause:

More than 40 years in medicine have left me with a disgust for the absurdity of terminating perfectly viable life in the obstetrics department while down the corridor, in reproductive medicine, life is being forced into the bodies of women who are past their child-bearing prime.

Indeed, lost life always has its own consequences.

To see this article on the Life Action New website follow this link.

Women’s Rights? Why every woman should oppose abortion

Admin — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 11:15:55 +0000

The following article is from a post by’ MaryAnne’ of the Irish Youth Defence website.

I am a young, independent woman. I can vote, go to college, drive a car, even run for President if I want (once I’m over 35)! I can do anything that my male colleagues can do. But there is one thing that I can become that’s denied to my male friends…a mother. Motherhood is the most amazing thing that a woman can do in this world. Just think about it: we can nurture and protect another human life. Every single person in the world had a mother; we all spent nine months in the comfort and safety of our mothers’ womb.

So you can see why I am disgusted when I hear of abortion being propagated as a’ woman’s right’. Abortion is an unnatural act; it goes against every protective instinct a mother has towards her child. Abortion is also the most horrendous violence that can ever be perpetrated on a woman. If you described the methods to a person who had never heard of abortion before – who hadn’t been fooled by all the pro-abortion propaganda and brainwashing -, they would think that abortion was some kind of primeval torture. Imagine, having your own child violently torn apart and sucked out of your womb, or feeling your child struggling and kicking as he or she is poisoned and burned and then delivering the dead, scalded little body. Imagine having your own child, while still alive, dismembered limb by limb inside your womb, your child’s spine cracked and skull crushed in order to remove them, and then a nurse putting each piece of the body back together on a counter to make sure no part of your child is left inside of you. It’s hardly surprising that all the evidence shows abortion is hurting women so badly, as well as killing their babies.

Think about it: if newborn infants were being tortured with brutal punishments such as these, there would be uproar!

But the abortion industry is a multi-million dollar one, and, right from the beginning, they had a pretty good marketing idea: to sell abortion by convincing women that they were simply making a choice, and that abortion gives them freedom. It was a good tactic…but they haven’t fooled me or millions of other women around the world.

Women will never truly have equal rights to men in a world where abortion exists. Abortion is often used to cover up cases of abuse and under-age prostitution. Live Action in the US has uncovered cases of abortion clinic workers in Planned Parenthood helping pimps to cover up the abuse of underage sex slaves. Girls as young as thirteen and fourteen years old are being exploited, and abortion clinic workers are only too happy to “rearrange” the paperwork to make it all look “legit” and help the pimp to run his business.

And let’s not forget that half of all aborted children are female. In fact, in countries such as China and India, where male children are preferred to females, this figure is much higher. This practice of sex-selection abortion is now so pervasive that it has been described as gendercide by the The Economist (which is a self proclaimed supporter of abortion), while the research of one award-winning author, Mara Hvistendahl, showed that 163 million girls are missing from the world. So much for women’s rights.

A few weeks ago Bryan Kemper, an American pro-life leader, said that “Abortion enslaves women to a world where men can dominate and control them so the men can be free.” I couldn’t agree more. Countless women have been made to think that they have no other option but abortion; that they are not capable of being good mothers. They have been coerced by cowardly, weak men, who want to avoid stepping up to their responsibilities and make women think that this “is the best choice”. Abortion is never a “choice”. It is an invasive, destructive, violent and agonising act against womanhood.

Women are designed to become mothers, the womb is meant to be a safe haven for us in the earliest stages of our life, but it is sadly becoming one of the most dangerous places in the world to live. I am a twenty-first century woman who enjoys all the rights and responsibilities that men enjoy. I am happy to say that I am equal to any man in this country, because, according to the UN, Ireland without abortion is the safest country in the world to become a mother. A woman becomes a mother the moment she conceives a child. We need to celebrate motherhood. Every child and every mother is a gift. Women who are frightened and anxious need our love and support. Every woman needs know that she is a life giver, that she can nurture and love her child, that she is doing the most important job in the world. I will continue to stand for every woman, every mother and every child. We must unite against this barbaric and archaic practice. We can eliminate the crisis, not the child.

For the article on youth defence website click here.

Euthanasia–Threat to the vunerable

Admin — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 11:06:56 +0000

Editor

Nelson Mail.

Dear Sir

Euthanasia, a threat to the vulnerable

It is encouraging that the Salvation Army and the InterChurch Bioethics Council, representing the Anglican, Presbyterian and Methodist Churches have spoken out against the proposed Private Members Bill of Maryan Street.The Catholic Church has been opposed to euthanasia for 2000 years and is totally opposed to the Bill. The Bill would enable doctors to kill their patients or assist in their suicide. The principled stand of the Churches should be an encouragement to every member of the community especially Christians to speak up in the defence of life and oppose the proposed euthanasia bill. The proposed Bill is also opposed by the New Zealand Medical Association, the disability sector and by the Hospice movement. Euthanasia is not about pain control. Oregon reported 114 assisted suicides in 2011, only a third of patients cited inadequate pain control. The most commonly expressed concern of those dying was being a burden on family, friends or caregivers, being less able to engage in activities and losing autonomy. As in previous years there was no formal evaluation or treatment for underlying depression, often the reason for requests for euthanasia. Death by euthanasia thus becomes not an act of personal autonomy, but an act of desperation.

Yours faithfully

Ken Orr

Spokesperson,

Right to Life ,

“Dignity” Episode of TV Programme ‘Law and Order’

Admin — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 12:40:33 +0000

Late last night (Tuesday 3rd April 2010) on TV 3 the programme ‘Law and Order’ featured an episode titled “Dignity” that featured the topic of abortion. This programme was screened in the US in October 2009.

Father Frank Pavone of Priests for Life commented at the time of the US screening..”If you are tired about how the secular media and entertainment industry always slant anything that has to do with abortion in a pro-abortion direction (and Right to Life comments here that ‘Law and Oder’ normally is no exception to this trend), take 42 minutes and click on the link below”. Unfortunately the link provided is not available.

The pro-abortion blogs (at the time) immediately went berserk. Here is just one example. The title “ The "Law and Order" Abortion Disaster and The Wasteland of TV, gives some example of the outrage that this episode elicited. How extraordinary, given the almost exclusively ‘one way street’ way in which TV has presented this issue over the last decades.

To read Fr Frank Pavone on his pro-life website Priests for Life, comments click here

Note: Although fiction, Right to Life agrees with the verdict of the US Court found in this TV programme story.