Right to Life New Zealand

Upholding the sanctity of Human life and Standing Up for the Vulnerable

Abortion is Not Safer than Continuing Pregnancy – Letter to ASC

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Secretary,

Abortion Supervisory Committee,

Dear Ms Cole

Standards of Care for Women Requesting Induced Abortion in New Zealand 2009

 

It is noted that Standard 23 includes at the beginning the statement:-

 

“Abortion is safer than continuing a pregnancy to term and complications are uncommon.”

 

This statement raises several important questions;

 

  • I wish to ask what evidence does the Committee have to support this statement?

 

  • Would you please confirm that this information is required to be given verbally and in writing to women seeking an abortion?

 

This is a false statement that conveys the message that your unborn child is a  threat to your life and health and that it would be in the interest of your health to kill the child in your womb.

 

We are aware that since the passing of the Contraception Sterilisation and Abortion Act in 1977  your Committee has reported that more than 500,000 children have been killed in their mother’s womb and that there have been no reported deaths of mothers. This is an extraordinary statistic that is not supported by international statistics. [Read more…]

Dr Helen Paterson – A Threat to Women and the Unborn

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Image result for Dr Helen Paterson NZMedia release  Tuesday 17th October 2017

Right to Life questions the anti-life philosophy of Dr Helen Paterson, a certifying consultant and presumed abortionist of Dunedin. Dr Paterson in a letter to the Abortion Supervisory Committee [ASC]  in July stated, ”I feel the prospect of a government body passing judgment on the reasons that a citizen might seek an abortion does violence to the dignity of that citizen and breaches her natural right to bodily autonomy and moral agency.”

This is an appalling statement from Dr Paterson who is a highly trained Obstetrician and Gynaecologist. She has been trained to provide professional care for mothers and their precious unborn children. Right to Life questions how can she provide proper professional care for women and their unborn when she embraces a flawed and dangerous philosophy that is anti-women and anti-life. In making such statements Right to Life questions how the Abortion Supervisory Committee can maintain her appointment as an Abortion Certifying Consulatant, given her statements are directly antithetical to section 30 [5] [b] of the Contraception Sterilisation & Abortion Act 1977,

[Read more…]

Abortion Supervisory Committee Acting Unlawfully

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Image result for Dr Helen Paterson NZ

Media Release 30th September 2017

The ASC has violated New Zealand abortion law by continuing the appointment of Dr Helen Paterson  a certifying consultant and presumed abortionist of Dunedin. Dr Helen Paterson (pictured left) advised the ASC in her letter of 3July 2017, that she had changed her mind on abortion and now believed, ”that the question of whether an abortion should be performed is a matter for the woman and her doctor to decide.” It was now her intention to work towards the decriminalization of abortion. This means that she believes that it is not a crime to kill an unborn child and that the child has no rights and is simply the property of the mother.

The ASC has a serious duty to uphold the abortion law as passed by Parliament in 1977, the Committee has no authority to allow Dr Paterson to continue to act as a certifying consultant and should immediately cancel her appointment. Her views are incompatible with legislation which is intended to protect the health of woman and the right to life of our unborn.

Her views are now incompatible with the Crimes Act which requires,  The AS & C Act clearly states in the title title of the act that “…abortions may be authorised after having full regard to the rights of the unborn child.”  Her views also support abortion on demand which is unlawful and prohibited by the Crimes Act section 187A.

The ASC is required by law to appoint certifying consultants whose views are not incompatible with the Contraception Sterilisation and Abortion Act, section 30 [5] [b] which reads;

‘In addition, in making such appointments, the Supervisory Committee shall have regard to the desirability of appointing medical practitioners whose assessment of cases coming before them will not be coloured by views in relation to abortion generally that are incompatible with the tenor of this Act. ’’Without otherwise limiting the discretion of the Supervisory Committee in this regard, the following views shall be considered incompatible in that sense for the purposes of this subsection: (a) that an abortion should not be performed in any circumstances:

(b) that the question of whether an abortion should or should not be performed in any case is entirely a matter for the woman and a doctor to decide.

The ASC has no authority to ignore section 30 and accept an assurance from Dr Patterson that she will not allow her personal views on abortion to colour her clinical judgment.

It is the intention of Right to Life to lay a complaint with the Justice and Electoral Select Committee and to seek legal advice on the desirability of taking a case to the High Court for a judicial review of the Committee’s decision. Right to Life believes that If the Committee is not prepared to uphold the abortion law Parliament should replace it with a new Committee that will.

 

Ken Orr,

Spokesperson,

Right to Life

Letter from Right to Life to ASC

Lyndhurst Abortion Mill Gains Licence to Perform Abortions Up to Birth

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unborn child beige Right to Life has under the Official Information Act obtained copies of minutes of the Abortion Supervisory Committee’s (ASC) meetings since February 2017. Disturbingly we have discovered that in April the Canterbury District Health Board [CDHB] applied to the ASC for a full licence to perform abortions  at the Lyndhurst abortion clinic.

The clinic has now been granted  a licence to do abortions at this clinic up to birth.

This is in addition to the full licence the  CDHB holds at the Christchurch Women’s Hospital.

Previously Lyndhurst had a limited licence allowing abortions up to 12 weeks. The Lyndhurst Clinic is located in the Riverside building of Christchurch Women’s Hospital on the 4th floor.

Right to Life is seeking additional information from the CDHB for the reasons for the granting of this licence. We make that information public when it becomes available.

 

 

Certifying Consultant Challenges Abortion Law Intended to Protect Mothers and Their Precious Unborn

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Dr Gwyneth PatersonMedia Release 11th July 2017

Right to Life is disappointed that Doctor Helen Paterson (pictured left), an Abortion Certifying Consultant of Dunedin has repudiated her commitment to uphold New Zealand’s abortion law which is intended to protect the health and welfare of women and protect the right to life of the unborn child. When Doctor Paterson applied for appointment as a certifying consultant to the Abortion Supervisory Committee, she made a commitment to uphold the law and to give full consideration to the rights of the unborn child before authorising an abortion.

Dr Paterson believes that abortion should be a matter for a woman and a doctor. Dr Paterson in advising the Abortion Supervisory Committee that she challenges the provisions of Section 30 of the CS & A Act 1977 and in our view holds the law in contempt and has now violated the terms of her appointment.

This is totally incompatible with the signed  declaration she made when applying to become an Abortion Certifying Consultant.  Right to Life calls on her to resign immediately and if she does not do so we will call on the Abortion Supervisory Committee to terminate her appointment.  Certifying Consultants do not dictate the terms upon which they are employed and must uphold the law.

The Royal Commission on Contraception Sterilisation and Abortion in its report to Parliament in 1977 stated that the Commission opposed the proposal that abortion should be a matter for a woman and her doctor. The Commission recognised that this proposal was not in the interest of women, as it left the status of the unborn child to the woman and the doctor. It would also lead to abortion on demand.

Dr Paterson is a specialist in Obstetrics and Gynaecology. She is a senior lecturer at the University of Otago in the Department of Women and Children’s Health.  Her training has equipped her to recognise that the unborn child is her patient and the weakest and most defenceless member of the human family. As a doctor she knows that human life begins at conception. At that moment this life is endowed with human rights, the foundation right being a right to life. Every child is a unique and unrepeatable miracle of God’s loving creation. Doctor Paterson should know that all her patients needs loving care and protection. In our view Dr Paterson is violating the ethics of her profession and is engaged in a violence against women and unborn children. [Read more…]

Stop Pretending that the Abortion Law is Protecting Mothers and Their Unborn

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Image result for abortion is killingMedia Release Sunday 26th March 2016

The killing of our children is an intolerable burden on the conscience of the nation.

Dame Linda Holloway, chairperson of the Abortion Supervisory Committee advised the Justice and Electoral Select Committee that, referring to certifying consultants and operating surgeons “those practicing in the field were operating within the law.” Right to Life challenges this claim, what evidence has the Committee presented to Parliament and to the community to justify this claim? Right to Life believes that the vast majority of abortions performed in New Zealand are unlawful. Since 1978 more than 500,000 children in the womb have been killed. Why is our Parliament reduced to a shameful silence?

As early as 1988 the Abortion Supervisory Committee in its annual report to Parliament revealed the unlawfulness of many abortions when they alluded to “the current unwieldy system of the termination of potentially normal pregnancies on pseudo legal grounds.” The Committee has frequently advised Parliament in its annual reports that certifying consultants are applying the law more liberally than Parliament intended. On the 5th November, 2000, Dr Christine Forster chairperson of the ASC stated in the Sunday Star Times; “The vast majority, 98% are approved on the grounds that proceeding with the pregnancy would result in serious danger to the mental health of a woman.” Dr Forster said that she did not believe that all these women were in serious danger. Right to Life knows that the test for the lawfulness of an abortion is the honest belief of the certifying consultant. If the consultant does not genuinely believe in the serious danger to the woman’s mental health then that abortion is unlawful. [Read more…]

Abortion Supervisory Committee Presents Parliament with a Trojan Horse

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Image result for trojan horse Media Release Friday 3rd February 2017

Right to Life welcomes the Abortion Supervisory Committee’s annual report for 2016 which has been tabled in Parliament.

The Committee has requested that Parliament make four ‘minor amendments’ to the Contraception Sterilisation and Abortion Act 1977 to remove ‘minor’ anomalies. Right to Life notes that the Committee in its 39 previous annual reports to Parliament has never requested Parliament to amend the legislation to address these ‘minor matters’. Right to Life also notes that the Committee has over many years made repeated requests for abortion to be decriminalised, taken out of the Crimes Act and made a ‘health matter’. As the Committee stated in its report for 2005, “the Committee reiterates its annual request for a revision of the law.”

It is noteworthy that the Committee while seeking ‘minor amendments’ to the CS &A Act 1977, has chosen to be silent about its rejected requests for the decriminalisation of abortion. Right to Life believes that the Committee is presenting its ostensibly reasonable requests for ‘minor amendments’ as a Trojan horse. The Committee is aware that there are Labour and Green Members of Parliament who would be delighted to have the opportunity to present to the House, Supplementary Order papers seeking the decriminalisation of abortion. They must not be given this opportunity. [Read more…]

Letter to ASC Re abortion link to preterm babies

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Image result for abortion and preterm babiesAbortion Supervisory Committee,

Wellington

25th November 2016

Dear Ms Cole

Preterm Birth – Perinatal Mortality

Preterm birth is the leading cause of perinatal mortality in the U.S. and is emotionally and financially costly for families even when it does not prove fatal to the child.

Approximately eight per cent of babies born in New Zealand are preterm and born before thirty-seven weeks. This is the second leading cause of death for children under five. There has been a 2.1 per cent increase in preterms within the last twenty years. There are about 5,000 babies born preterm in New Zealand each year. 

The World Health Organisation lists a number of reasons, but not abortion for preterm deliveries. Because of the increase in preterm birth in the U.S. in the last forty to fifty years it has made researchers curious as to whether there might be a connection to abortion, legalized in 1973. One reason to conduct the study is that the incidence of preterm births has been rising, and falling, in parallel to popularity of abortion, the vast majority of which, until late, have been surgical.”

In the last several years, researchers have published multiple studies appearing to demonstrate such a link, [Read more…]

Why Impose A Death Penalty On A Child Conceived in Rape?

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Media Release Wed 16th March 2016

Right to Life Asks, Why Impose A Death Penalty On A Child Conceived In Rape?

Why do many citizens who are opposed to abortion make rape an exception? Rape elicits feelings of sympathy and horror. We are asked, how could you be so unfeeling as to force a woman to carry the child of a brutal rapist? A United States Gallop poll conducted in 2015 revealed that 55 per cent of those opposed to abortion made rape an exception. Rape as an exception has been used by the abortion industry to promote abortion on demand. Many people believe that it is compassionate to allow abortion for rape. It is actually misplaced compassion because it victimises the woman again. The violence of abortion does not undo the violence of rape.

We don’t punish the brutal rapist with the death penalty, nor should we impose a death penalty on the innocent child. [Read more…]

United Nations Human Rights Day 10th December 2015

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access to abortionsThe United Nations calls upon the nations of the world to commemorate Human Rights Day 10 December  which commemorates the signing by the United Nations General Assembly of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on 10 December 1948.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) clearly states that everyone has the right to life, and that what is meant by everyone is ‘every member of the human family’ – that is all human beings, including the unborn child.

The United Nations Declaration of Human Rights Article 3 states, everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person. The preamble states, “Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world.”

Additionally, the Convention on the Rights of the Child states in its Preamble that the Child ‘needs special safeguards and care, including appropriate legal protection, before as well as after birth’.”

Right to Life acknowledges that our human rights are conferred on us at conception by our Creator. These rights are universal and inalienable. The foundation right is our right to life. It is disappointing that the United Nations is at the forefront of promoting the killing of the unborn as a human right under the guise of promoting safe abortions. It is never safe for the child.

[Read more…]

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