ASC Committee pictured at the review of the ASC by the Justice Select Committee March 2018
Right to Life calls upon the Minister of Justice to dismiss the Abortion Supervisory Committee [ASC], that presides over the abortion industry. We call for it to be replaced with a Committee that will fulfil its statutory duties as laid out in section 14 of the Contraception Sterilisation Act 1977. [1] [a] To keep under review all the provisions of the abortion law, and the operation and effect of those provisions in practice.
Right to Life contends that the ASC is not fulfilling those duties. The Committee, which comprises, three persons two of whom are required to be medical practitioners should, in the opinion of Right to Life, be persons who actually recognise that the unborn child has a right to life as was legislated for in the long title of the Contraception, Steralisation and Abortion Act 1977. The long title of the Act states …
ASC Committee pictured at the review of the ASC by the Justice Select Committee March 2018.
“to provide for the circumstances and procedures under which abortions may be authorised after having full regard to the rights of the unborn child.”
The ASC has failed to act in the best interest of vulnerable women and their precious unborn. Right to Life believes they have failed to uphold the legislative statutes and do not recognise the unborn child as a human being or the harm being done to women. The ASC comprises, Professor Dame Linda Holloway, Dr Tangimoana Habib who were reappointed by the Governor General on 2 October 2015. Ms Carolyn Mcilrath, the third member, was also appointed on that day. The CS & A Act stipulates that the appointment is for a term of three years. Their term is now complete, yet the Minister of Justice has failed to initiate the process to replace these members.
Right to Life should not have to be the watchdog to ensure this happens and we now request that the Minister of Justice begin this process. We also call for these members to be replaced by persons who recognise the humanity of the unborn and their right to life. Could the reason the Minister has not already made appointments be that he hopes that Jacinda Ardern’s proposal to remove Abortion from the Crimes Act will obviate the need for even having an Abortion Supervisory Committee?
The ASC which believes that, ” we should have legislation that enables women to make choices about their own bodies,” responded to an Official Information Act request from Right to Life on 25 February and advised that the Committee did not have a policy to;-
- Recognise that the unborn child had a right to life and a right to be born.
- Recognise that the unborn child had a right to life and a right to be born.
- Accept that it was a crime to kill an unborn child in contravention of the Crimes Act section 182 and 183.
Right to Life believes that it is totally unacceptable to have a Committee that does not recognise the humanity of the unborn child and its inalienable right to life and that its killing is a crime against humanity.
Why did we condemn Nazi Germany for its “final solution” for exterminating the Jews when we are now following its example with our state funded “final solution” to exterminate “unwanted” unborn children.
Ken Orr
Spokesperson,
Right to Life
But isn’t it within the pro-abortionist game plan to get rid of the Abortion Supervisory Committee per se so that its potential regulatory retardant to open slather abortion access would be abandoned? I think we need to be very, very careful about steps like this. Perhaps amend the media release slightly and state that while we don’t think the current ASC is appropriately staffed, we nevertheless support the existence of the institution itself?
Hi Rhona,
Yes but we are not calling for the end to the ASC. As we said in our post “We also call for these members to be replaced by persons who recognise the humanity of the unborn and their right to life”, simply that it be replaced by those who uphold the orginal intent of the law.