Media Release Friday 22nd July 2016
Right to Life challenges Jackie Edmond, CEO of the Family Planning Association [FPA], which claims to represent women in New Zealand. The FPA is not representing the interests of women by once more calling upon the government to decriminalise abortion. This call is in response to the demands of the United Nations Committee for the Convention for the Elimination of all Discrimination Against Women.{CEDAW]. The FPA falsely claims that abortion is a health issue and not a justice issue. The FPA is the major abortion referral agency in New Zealand and believes that we need abortion as a backup for failed contraception. Right to Life believes that on the contrary our abortion laws are not broken but they do need to be upheld. Safeguards in the CS & A Act 1977 were legislated for in order to protect the rights of the unborn child. These safeguards are being blatantly abused but this does not mean that the law should be changed to allow ‘open season’ on the unborn child.
Right to Life commends the Minister of Justice Amy Adams, for rejecting the demand of the CEDAW Committee to decriminalise abortion in New Zealand.
The FPA is confused, it claims, “1960s law unacceptable for 21st century women of New Zealand” Right to Life asks if they have read the law which was passed not in the 1960s but in December 1977. We also ask have they read the report of the Royal Commission which advocated protection for both mother and child.
Abortion is certainly a justice issue. The abortion laws are in the Crimes Act precisely because the killing of an unborn child is a serious crime under section 183, “Procuring abortion by any means.” On conviction, the offender may be imprisoned for up to 14 years. It was the recommendation of the Royal Commission in its report to Parliament in 1977, that the abortion laws should be in the Crimes Act.
The long title of the Contraception Sterilisation and Abortion Act states “to provide for the circumstances and procedures under which abortions may be authorised after having full regard to the rights of the unborn child.” (our emphasis)
Right to Life believes that it is imperative that the community does not forget the very important conclusions reached by the Commission on Contraception, Sterilisation and Abortion. It is disappointing that the FPA wishes to ignore the recommendations of the Royal Commission which stated in its report to Parliament that “the unborn child as one of the weakest, the most vulnerable and most defenceless forms of humanity should receive protection.” The Commission “accepted the biological evidence establishing that life begins at conception.” The Commission stated “ the child from implantation has a status which entitles it to preservation and protection.” The Commission also said, ”the right to life is a sacred principle of civilization, It is an indispensable guarantee of the individual worth of the persons within it.
The denial of this implicit in FPA’s call for decriminalisation, rather than being some sort of move towards enlightenment as suggested by Jackie Edmund is in fact the very antithesis of this. It implies by some sort of twisted Machiavellian thinking that between the time of passing of this legislation in the late 1970’s and today, that the killing of our unborn children has somehow become acceptable because, (in her words), “we have, become a country that is accepting, tolerant, innovative and forward thinking”.
There is no known pathology that the killing of an unborn child will remedy. Pregnancy is not a disease and abortion is not a health service. Ninety-eight per cent of abortions are authorised on what is widely believed to be for socio-economic reasons masquerading as psychiatric.
The FPA seeks to have abortion decriminalised, with abortion being a private matter between a woman and a doctor of her choosing. If this eventuated then a woman could then obtain an abortion for any reason or no reason. New Zealand needs to think very carefully about what is being proposed here. Is this the sort of just society we are seeking?
It should be known that there is nothing in the Convention to include abortion. Since 1995 the 23-member CEDAW Committee has repeatedly exceeded and violated the actual language of CEDAW when declaring that Party Nations must make abortion legal in order to be in compliance with the Covenant. In addition, the Committee has acted unlawfully by pressuring nations to comply with the 1995 Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action which were not part of the 1979 CEDAW documents. The Committee has imposed pressure on 83 nations to legalize abortion from 1995 to 2009. The push for abortion as a ‘human right’ is one of the most pivotal injustice issues facing our world.
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