Media Release 30th September 2017
The ASC has violated New Zealand abortion law by continuing the appointment of Dr Helen Paterson a certifying consultant and presumed abortionist of Dunedin. Dr Helen Paterson (pictured left) advised the ASC in her letter of 3July 2017, that she had changed her mind on abortion and now believed, ”that the question of whether an abortion should be performed is a matter for the woman and her doctor to decide.” It was now her intention to work towards the decriminalization of abortion. This means that she believes that it is not a crime to kill an unborn child and that the child has no rights and is simply the property of the mother.
The ASC has a serious duty to uphold the abortion law as passed by Parliament in 1977, the Committee has no authority to allow Dr Paterson to continue to act as a certifying consultant and should immediately cancel her appointment. Her views are incompatible with legislation which is intended to protect the health of woman and the right to life of our unborn.
Her views are now incompatible with the Crimes Act which requires, The AS & C Act clearly states in the title title of the act that “…abortions may be authorised after having full regard to the rights of the unborn child.” Her views also support abortion on demand which is unlawful and prohibited by the Crimes Act section 187A.
The ASC is required by law to appoint certifying consultants whose views are not incompatible with the Contraception Sterilisation and Abortion Act, section 30 [5] [b] which reads;
‘In addition, in making such appointments, the Supervisory Committee shall have regard to the desirability of appointing medical practitioners whose assessment of cases coming before them will not be coloured by views in relation to abortion generally that are incompatible with the tenor of this Act. ’’Without otherwise limiting the discretion of the Supervisory Committee in this regard, the following views shall be considered incompatible in that sense for the purposes of this subsection: (a) that an abortion should not be performed in any circumstances:
(b) that the question of whether an abortion should or should not be performed in any case is entirely a matter for the woman and a doctor to decide.
The ASC has no authority to ignore section 30 and accept an assurance from Dr Patterson that she will not allow her personal views on abortion to colour her clinical judgment.
It is the intention of Right to Life to lay a complaint with the Justice and Electoral Select Committee and to seek legal advice on the desirability of taking a case to the High Court for a judicial review of the Committee’s decision. Right to Life believes that If the Committee is not prepared to uphold the abortion law Parliament should replace it with a new Committee that will.
Ken Orr,
Spokesperson,
Right to Life
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