Media Release 14 October 2022
Right to Life has made a formal complaint to the Health and Disability Commissioner against the Ministry of Health for violating the Code of Health Rights, specifically the right to be fully informed and the right to refuse or stop medical treatment.
Right to Life believes that the government is violating the human rights of pregnant women and unborn children, by refusing to allow them the right to save their unborn child’s life by stopping a medical abortion with mifepristone, by denying women the abortion pill reversal protocol with progesterone.
In a medical abortion, a woman takes mifepristone, followed by misoprostol, but the process can be reversed if, after taking mifepristone, the pregnant woman takes the progesterone pill. This reversal protocol has saved the lives of 2,500 unborn babies internationally.
Right to Life believes that the Ministry is misleading vulnerable women with misinformation that could result in the killing of an innocent and defenceless unborn child and a lifetime of grief and sorrow for the mother.
The Abortion Clinical Guidelines claim that abortions cannot be reversed and that this practice is not supported in New Zealand.
This incorrect information is also on the Ministry’s web site for the Decide National Abortion Telehealth Service. “You can change your mind about having an abortion at any time before it takes place, if you are having an early medical abortion. Once you have taken the medication you cannot stop or reverse the abortion”.
Right to Life wrote to Dr Diana Sarfati, Acting Director General of Health on 22nd September and asked her the following questions:-
- What evidence do you have that the abortion pill reversal protocol with progesterone does not reverse an early medical abortion?
- Why are women seeking an early medical abortion being advised that after taking mifepristone that an abortion cannot be stopped?
The Deputy Director General of Health, Clare Perry, responsible for promoting abortion, responded on 7th October:-
“Manatu Hauora is committed to providing system-level, strategic leadership for health research and innovation in collaboration with our colleagues at Te Whatu Ora and Te Aka Whai Ora. Our goal is to enable the health system to become an evidence-driven, Te Tiriti-led, learning health system with a thriving research and innovation environment. We work hard to ensure strategy, policy, regulation, legislation, and system monitoring and performance are informed by evidence-based clinical expertise, lived experience, and health system experience.
This framework also applies to abortion reversal. The New Zealand Abortion Clinical Guideline (the Guideline) has current and up to date clinical information based on safe, evidence-based clinical practice across Aotearoa. We provide updates to practitioners.”
Right to Life believes that this extraordinary statement is driven not by care of women, but by an ideology that seeks to make lies respectable and the murder of the unborn acceptable.
Right to Life is disappointed that our important questions have not been addressed. Right to Life believes that it may be assumed that the Ministry has no evidence that the abortion pill reversal protocol does not work to save the lives of unborn children, nor can the Ministry justify informing women that an early medical abortion cannot be stopped.
Ken Orr,
Spokesperson,
Right to Life NZ Inc.
What happened to their philosophy of giving choice? As usual they only want to push abortion and not give any other choice. 🙁
Ken, are there any pro-life medical practitioners here in Aotearoa/New Zealand who could assist women who want to reverse chemical abortions?