Media Release Thursday 2nd Nov 2017
Child poverty begins in the womb and the absence of marriage and the abandonment of women is the major cause of child poverty.
Right to Life commends our new Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, for making the elimination of child poverty a top priority for her government. The Prime Minister has appointed herself as the Minister for Child Poverty Reduction. We wish her well but question her qualifications for undertaking this important task given she is unmarried, has no children and is only 37 years of age. Right to Life asks why does she continue to deny that the major cause of child poverty in New Zealand is the breakdown of the traditional family as the societal norm, lack of marriage and the abandonment of women. The evidence for this is overwhelming, but there appears a refusal to accept this. Society has always known that the best prevention for child poverty was for children to be raised by their biological mother and father within a committed marriage of exclusively one man and one woman.
At the 2013 census it was found that there were 201,804 one parent families, raising 212,000 children. Many of these solo mothers have been abandoned by their husband or the father of their children. It is believed that many of these mothers long for the security of having a husband and a father for their children. It is disappointing that Ms Ardern does not support the traditional family and marriage and expresses no empathy with these solo mothers who are heroic and sacrificial.
Single parent families make up 28 percent of all families with dependent children. These families are the poorest in New Zealand. 51% of children in poverty live in single parent families. Single parents have the lowest home ownership rates and the highest debt ratios.
The ultimate poverty that can be inflicted on a child is to be deprived of one’s life while still in the womb. The Prime Minister refuses to acknowledge that the unborn are children and are the weakest and most defenceless members of the human family.
It is inconsistent for the Prime Minister to appoint herself Minister for child poverty reduction, while ignoring the plight of children in the womb. She has unwisely made a public commitment to bring a government bill to Parliament to decriminalise the killing of the unborn to make it no longer a crime to kill an unborn child. Should such a a bill be brought into law then effectively the child becomes the property of it’s mother. This is reminiscent of American slavery where the Negro was the property of the slave owner. The Prime Minister is mistaken in believing that in supporting the decriminalisation of abortion she is taking a genuine feminist position; sadly she is not. She should be aware that the early feminist movement in the United States was totally opposed to abortion which was seen as violence against women and the unborn.
Right to Life earnestly requests that the Prime Minister cease discriminating against children in the womb and become an advocate for all of our children both born and unborn.
Ken Orr
Spokesperson,
Right to Life
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