The following post is a guest post by Pro-life writer Lydia Mead. Lydia sets and example to all of us by writing one of the first submissions to the Special Select Committee now set up to consider the government’s Abortion Legislation Act. The government has decided that public submissions to this act will only be for another month. This in itself is a major cause for concern given the seriousness implications of this Act, which effectively provides for abortion up to birth. Let us follow her example in speaking out in defence of our innocent unborn by making a submission as soon as possible.
Here’s the link to make your submission: https://www.parliament.nz/…/52SCA…/abortion-legislation-bill
Your submission matters. The numbers matter. Make your submission even if it’s just two sentences. Now is your time to take a stand. Lydia’s post reads…
To whom it may concern,
I strongly oppose decriminalisation of abortion, for the following reasons.
1) The Bill of Rights 1961 and The Contraception, Sterilization and Abortion Act 1977 protects the life of the unborn child. I disagree that either of these legislations are archaic and need to be updated to reflect current malpractice. The Bill of Rights and the CSA Act protect the unborn child and recognise it for what it is – a human being, and a particularly vulnerable human being with no one to speak for or defend it except for the law. When these acts were codified, the information from science and from ultrasound imaging made the fact of the unborn child being human and very much alive an incontravertible truth. In 2019, there is much more information regarding who the unborn child is – they are simply who we all have been, passing through a stage we all must go through. 3D and 4D imaging of the unborn child, and the breakthroughs in life-saving treatment in hospitals to care for babies as young as 22 weeks+ who now have a strong chance of surviving – these are developments that should cause us to reflect on what it is we are doing if we take away every single protection of the unborn child.
2) That this law would allow a baby to be aborted up to birth. I have read the information on the government website regarding this law and I understand that: Any of the 3 models as laid out in the draft abortion bill (as of 08/08/2019) is unthinkable because the unborn child is not recognised as a party that will be impacted by the decision of the mother and/or physician. Any of these 3 models will allow for abortion up to birth for any reason – the only possible provision being, that a physician may be required to first consider the mother’s physical and mental health and general wellbeing. This consideration is highly vague and gives the physician no strong legal mandate to prevent a woman procuring an abortion.
2)a The argument might be made, that only a small percentage of abortions are performed after the 22 week of pregnancy, and so there would be no increase in the occurrence of late term abortions. However, when the government takes the provision of abortion out of the Crimes Act it promotes within society the feeling that there is nothing else to be considered except how the woman feels about the pregnancy and her wellbeing. Concurrently, the Government intends to make us all feel better about abortion. If the Government says abortion is not a crime and it’s just healthcare, then increasingly we’ll adapt our thinking to match this brave new world. The reason that abortion was dealt with in the criminal code in 1961 and 1977 was because it was rightly understood that there was more than one party in an abortion, and that the abortion would end the life of the child. To treat abortion as a healthcare issue denies the existence of the unborn child as an affected party. Abortion even in early stages used to be considered unthinkable to the greater population. The more abortion is procured in the decades following these acts, and the more our friends and family have abortions, the more that we regard abortion as an unfortunate necessity.
3) Abortion always stops a beating human heart. Scientifically this is incontravertible. We now know that a medical abortion always kills a child.
4) The bill has ignored the involvement of another legitimate party in the abortion: the father. In the current bill, the unborn child has been abandoned by everyone: its mother, its father, and the law. It has absolutely no legal protection, and its father has no legal recognition as such. It is unthinkable that the father of a child can do absolutely nothing to stop his child being killed.
5) The bill seeks to discriminate against potential medical employees. If you are qualified and applying for a medical position but disagree with abortion, an employer may reject your application on the basis of your conscientious objection if they think that your objection will cause disruption to their activities.
6) The bill discriminates against anyone else with a conscientious objection to abortion who seeks to give help to women going to an abortion clinic within a 150 metre zone of the abortion facility. The unborn child is then even more abandoned – by its mother, father, legal protection and finally a last possible saviour in the form of a caring sidewalk counselor. People who gather around an abortion facility do not do so to threaten or intimidate women. They care about women, and they care about unborn children, and they extend support to women going through a difficult time. The reason the come to the abortion facilities is because they love the women and do not want them not to go through with something that will hurt them and destroy their children.
My recommendations:
Please reconsider that our abortion law needs to be reformed to meet current practice. If abortion provision is removed from the Crimes Act and transferred to the medical world, it will strip the unborn child of every legal protection and allow for our future new kiwis to be killed up to birth. Please consider that it is vital for the unborn child to have legal recognition, in the exact same way as it is vital for every New Zealander to have legal recognition and protection. For this to continue, abortion MUST be regulated by the crimes act.
Lydia is also a guest writer for Right to Life and you can see her previous posts here and here.
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