Why is Andrew Little Ignoring the Findings of A Royal Commission?

Media Release 1 November 2018

The Minister of Justice is not serving the best interests of women and the unborn by ignoring the learned findings of the Royal Commission on Contraception Sterilisation and Abortion which made the following conclusions in its report to Parliament in 1977.

 The Minister has a serious duty to tell the nation why he considers that his opinion, devoid of any evidence, should override the following important and authoritative conclusions of a Royal Commission established by the Right Hon Bill Rowling, Prime Minister of the third Labour government.

•          “The unborn child as one of the weakest, the most vulnerable and most defenceless forms of humanity, should receive protection.”

•          “From a biological point of view there is no argument as to when life begins. Evidence was given to us by eminent scientists from all over the world. None of them suggested that human life begins at any other time than at conception”

•          “From implantation to birth, changes which take place in the unborn child are of a developmental nature only. There are no changes of a qualitative nature. The three events suggested as being of significance, namely quickening, viability and brain development are no more than stages in that development and are not indicative of any qualitative changes in the developing fetus which would make it non-human.”

•          In rejecting the argument that some degree of development should be reached before the unborn child be accorded status the Commission said, “If some stage of physical or mental development has to be accepted as indicating whether or not human life is in being, so a stage may be reached at the other end of life where a person who has become senile or has lost consciousness may be disposed of.”

•          The Commission rejected abortion at the request of the mother, as it would then accord to the unborn child only that status which the individual woman herself choose to give it.

•          The Commission recognised that abortion was violence against women and the unborn, and supported the retention of section 182, Killing of Unborn Child in the Crimes Act, stating that it was necessary to differentiate between homicide and the crime of abortion, the killing of an unborn child.

Right to Life asks the Minister:  What evidence do you have that the findings of the Royal Commission were wrong and are not relevant in 2018?

The Minister is of the opinion that abortion should be taken out of the Crimes Act, but he can produce no evidence to substantiate his claim that the killing of an unborn child in an abortion should no longer be a crime.

Does the ill-informed opinion of the Minister now override justice?

Ken Orr

Spokesperson,

Right to Life