Right to Life is concerned that the Abortion Legislation Select Committee represents a threat to the lives of the unborn, to the health and welfare of women and to the democratic process.
The Minister of Justice has established a special committee to consider this contentious and life threatening bill, an action that is highly irregular. There are twelve Select Committees in Parliament. This bill would have been expected to be referred to the Justice Select Committee, why did the Minister not do this?
Right to Life is concerned that this Committee is stacked with strong supporters of the bill. Of the seven MPs on the Committee, five are strongly in support of this bill and the “right” of women to kill their unborn children. Right to Life believes that they have been carefully chosen with the intention of stifling opposition and speedily rubber stamping this bill.
Right to Life is concerned that this Committee is chaired by the Hon Ruth Dyson, who believes that killing a child in the womb is a health service. The Chairperson of the Abortion Legislation Committee, in a media release is calling for public submissions on the Abortion Legislation Bill. She has said that, “The bill seeks to have abortion services provided like other health services. It would do this by decriminalising abortion, modernising legislation related to abortion and better aligning the regulation of abortion services with that of other health services.” This statement is alarming, the killing of the unborn is not a health service. How can Abortion be regarded as a health service when its purpose is to kill another human being?
Right to Life believes that the community should be concerned at recent statements from the Minister Andrew Little. He is reported in the media as saying that he wants this bill passed before Christmas. We ask why is this and why the urgency? This is not for the benefit of Parliament, the nation or of women, it is for the benefit of the Labour led government who do not want this contentious human rights issue causing a problem for their re-election campaign in the 2020 general election.
In introducing the bill in Parliament, Little said, “I reject the notion that abortion entailed killing another human being and I accept on legal and on moral grounds that human rights do not accrue until human life is possible.” It is of great concern that we have a Minister of Justice who believes that the unborn child is not a human being and that it should not be a crime to kill an unborn child.
It is the right of citizens in a parliamentary democracy to be given sufficient time to make submissions on important legislation. Right to Life believes that the Minister has instructed this Committee to restrict the time allowed for submissions to six weeks to discourage submissions and the right of citizens to defend life and be heard. It should be noted that the Justice Select Committee allowed twelve weeks for the community to make submissions on David Seymour’s End of Life Choice Bill.
We believe that the Minister is fearful that there is massive opposition to this bill and is afraid that there will be another 40,000 submissions defending the lives of our unborn children and the health of their mothers. We believe his action in shortening the expected public consultation timeframe is because he does not want a repetition of public opposition as was evidenced by the 39,159 submissions received by the Justice Committee on the End of Life Choice bill and the 1,350 persons who made oral submissions to it. An analysis of the submissions revealed that over 90 per cent were opposed to euthanasia. It is clear that Andrew Little wants to supress opposition to the bill in order to facilitate the Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern’s determination to make the killing of the unborn ‘a reproductive choice for women.”
Right to Life asks; Why are the media, who are at the service of the community not challenging the government on their erosion of our Parliamentary democracy?
Ken Orr
Spokesperson,
Right to Life
Well said, Ken Orr, and you are right, the NZ Mainstream Media are clearly biased in favour of liberalised abortion reform – this is a disgraceful dereliction of their duty to report neutrally. I think as New Zealanders we should be calling for televised debates on this issue, well within the hurried six weeks Mr Little has allowed for submissions. MP Chris Penk was to all intents and purposes, correct, when he stated that ‘the changes mean (the government) are, liberalising abortion right up to birth.’ And Mr Little’s response to this correct statement? ” That’s an absurd sort of statement that gets made by the fanatic anti-abortion people.” Pro Life New Zealanders deserve better than a Justice Minister who belittles them in a TVNZ interview, and indicates the response we can expect to any submissions made to the special Select Committee that he himself has set up to hear the “fanatic anti-abortion people”. . Mr Little in the same interview makes the following nonsensical statement “There’s no such thing as abortion right up to birth; you know, a foetus that leaves the womb at birth is called a birth. So let’s get that right.” Pardon?? Are we seriously trusting this person to head abortion law reform?? This reform is a complete debacle and I don’t believe there is strong enough language to describe the inadequacy of the government in handling an issue that has the potential to change the fabric of New Zealand society permanently. This government should never have begun this process without a complete review into the reasons women are desperate enough to abort their own children, and the effects this decision has on women for the rest of their lives. Measures could then have been taken to mitigate the need for this desperate action, and then, lastly, and after an appropriate trial period, a discussion going forward. Instead the government has decided to arbitrarily introduce extreme liberalised abortion. Totally unacceptable.