Right to Life New Zealand

Upholding the sanctity of life in New Zealand and Standing Against the Killing

Newshub’s Jessie Mulligan “Surely not all those who (oppose oppose abortion decriminalisation) are “hard core religious types and weirdos”

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Jessie Mulligan

The Manager Media Works,

Dear Sir

Formal complaint.

I wish to lodge a formal complaint on behalf of Right to Life against an item on the decriminalisation of abortion that featured on the Project at 7 PM on 13 March, 2019. Note: Facebook link

My complaint is that the item breached the Broadcasting Standards Authority’s standards Standard 6 Discrimination and Denigration, Standard 8 Balance and Standard 9 Accuracy.

Standard 6 Discrimination. The presenter, Jessie Mulligan, made a statement and asked “surely not all those ‘who were opposed to the decriminalisation of abortion’ were “hard core religious types and weirdos.”

This statement denigrates those who are opposed to the killing of the unborn who are the weakest and most defenceless members of the human family. Why is it weird to defend the right to life of the voiceless? Why is it weird to recognise abortion as violence against women? There are many women who have had an abortion and who are now living a life of grief, sorrow and regret and who now seek to protect other women from the violence of abortion. The statement was discriminatory as it seeks to silence and deny the right of those who are opposed to abortion to be heard. Opposition to the violence of abortion is not a religious issue, one does not have to be religious to be opposed to violence against women and their unborn.

I believe that justice demands that Mr Mulligan now makes a public apology on the Project programme to the thousands of viewers who he has offended and insulted.

The most dangerous place for a New Zealander today is in the mother’s womb.The item confirms and perpetuates the ultimate discrimination against the unborn that only those who are wanted have a right to life and those who are classified as “unwanted”, may be killed.  

Standard 8 Balance. The item lacked balance as it was evident that the proposal to decriminalise abortion had the open support of all the presenters. It is contended that the ethics of the journalism profession requires that journalists adopt a neutral stance on contentious social issues.

A female presenter stated that she had terminated the life of her second child because it was unwanted and supported the decriminalisation of abortion. There are many women in our community who have had an abortion who regret it and are opposed to the decriminalisation of abortion. To achieve balance why was such a woman not interviewed?

The Minister of Justice, Andrew Little, was interviewed on his plans to present a bill to decriminalise abortion. To achieve balance, why was there no interview of an opposition MP to present a case to oppose decriminalisation?

The CEO of Family Planning, Jacki Edmund, was interviewed for 2 minutes and 14 seconds making claims that the current legislation violated human rights and should be taken out of the Crimes Act. Abortion is in the Crimes Act, Crimes against the person Part VIII. Section 182 Killing unborn child and is a crime to kill an unborn child. To achieve balance, why was there no person from the pro-life movement  interviewed to challenge the false statements made by Edmund? Why too did the presenters fail to ask Edmund to justify her contention that abortion should be taken out of the Crimes Act and for the killing of an unborn child to no longer be a crime? There is no United Nations convention or law in New Zealand that supports abortion as a human right. Why did the presenter fail to challenge Edmund on the accuracy of her statements?

The item lacked balance as the introduction to the item showed a small number of abortion supporters holding placards in support of abortion. To show balance why were there no shots showing the more that 1,200 people, young and old, who joyfully and peacefully marched on Parliament on Saturday 8th December 2018, defending life, supporting women and opposing the decriminalisation of abortion?

Standard 9 Accuracy. The item was misleading in that it promoted the proposition that abortion should not be in the Crimes Act without addressing why abortion is in the Crimes Act. The law recognises that the state has an interest and a duty to protect the lives of its future citizens. It also recognises in sections 182 and 183 that the unborn child has a right to be born. This protection has been there since 1856. The Crimes Act declares that it is a serious crime to kill an unborn child. There was no attempt in this programme to produce evidence to support the claim made by the Prime Minister and the Minister of Justice that abortion should not be a crime ie that it is no longer a crime to kill an unborn child. It should be known that the Prime Minister and the Minister of Justice when asked recently by Right to Life under the Official Information Act what evidence they had to support their claim that it was not a crime to kill an unborn child replied that they had no evidence and that it was just their opinion. 

The Project team are commended  for producing a quality current affairs programme, it is disappointing that this item did not reach their normal high standard.

Yours sincerely

Ken Orr

Secretary

ken @righttolife.org.nz    

Abortion Violence is Not a Health Issue Jacinda Ardern

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The state has a duty to protect women and their unborn from violence. In 1856 the New Zealand Parliament recognised that abortion was violence against both women and the unborn and made abortion unlawful under the Crimes Act, Part VIII Crimes against the Person. Abortion was recognised as a serious crime in the Common Law of England. 

The Labour led government of Jacinda Ardern under the guise of empowering women is proposing to decriminalise abortion and disguise the violence by calling it a “health service” this is not empowerment but slavery. 

Abortion is not health care. The government’s proposal is a shameful abandonment of women and will expose women to increased violence. This cruel deception of women perpetrated by the government is deceiving women into believing that their unborn child has no value and that the state has no interest in protecting her or her defenceless unborn. Their claim is that, when we kill an unborn child, we do no harm as it is not a human being and it therefore has no rights.

Vulnerable women will be exposed to increased coercion, physical and sexual violence from the father of their children who will be empowered to impose pressure on women to terminate the life of their children. This is because for the many women who are facing coercion to abort their child against their will, they will, if abortion is no longer a crime, have even less power to resist the coercion of the father or those pushing them in the direction of killing. Arguments such as “it’s only a health issue”, will be used against the mother. [Read more…]

Andrew Little “ Abortion Should Not be a Crime”

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The Minister of Justice in a letter to Right to Life dated 16 March 2018 stated that “this government believes that abortion is a health issue, that is a reproductive choice” and “the government and I do not believe that abortion should be a crime.”  

The inconvenient truth for Andrew Little is that human life begins at conception and the child is endowed with an inalienable right to life and is entitled to the protection of the law.

Protection for the right to life of the unborn child has been in the Crimes Act since 1856. Abortion entails the killing of the weakest and most defenceless member of the human family. It has always been a crime to kill an unborn child. Right to Life believes that the Minister of Justice has a duty to explain to the community why he and his government now believe that it should no longer a crime to kill an unborn child.

The Minister claims that “New Zealand generally adheres to the born alive rule and thus prior to birth a foetus does not hold status as a legal person.” The Minister would be aware that section 159 of the Crimes Act  Killing of a child, states, “A child becomes a human being within the meaning of this Act when it has completely proceeded in a living state from the body of its mother, whether it has breathed or not  and whether the naval string is severed or not.”

While this is what the law states it should be recognised that this is a legal fiction used to differentiate homicide from the killing of an unborn child. When formulating this law it was never the intention of Parliament to deny the personhood of the unborn child. It is noteworthy that this section refers to the child in utero as a child, not a fetus as quoted by the Minister which is the language of the Family Planning Association. This association seeks to dehumanise the child by refusing to call the unborn a child or a baby. It would be a grave injustice for the Minister to now seek to exploit this section in order to deny the humanity of the unborn child and claim that we do no harm when we kill an unborn child and that it is not a crime because the child has no rights. [Read more…]

The honouring of Catherine Healy with Knighthood offensive to women  

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Right to Life believes that the honouring of Catherine Healy, National co-ordinator of the NZ Prostitutes Collective with a knighthood, “for services to the rights of sex workers”, is deeply offensive to the women of New Zealand.

The award was made by Her Majesty the Queen on the recommendation of the Cabinet Appointments and Honours Committee chaired by the Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. The Right Hon Winston Peters also sits on this Committee. 

Right to Life asks the Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern how she is promoting the dignity and equality of women by honouring the woman who assisted in drafting the Prostitution Reform Act, which has inflicted violence, degradation and exploitation on women? 

It is making a public statement that our women are for sale and signifies that the government approves and supports young women selling their bodies to men to be sexually assaulted for their sexual satisfaction; this is slavery. It supports men living off the earnings of prostitutes and women prostituting themselves on the streets. It supports paid sexual attacks on women as work. There have been at least four young women prostitutes brutally murdered since the passing of the infamous Prostitution Reform Act in 2003. Prostitution and abortion both come from a culture of death, they both inflict violence on innocent women. Women deserve to be respected as the bearers of new life and the mothers of the next generation. 

How many women must be murdered before Parliament repeals this appalling Act? [Read more…]

Family Planning’s Continuing War on Women

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The Family Planning Association [FPA] in its submission to the Law Commission support the proposal of the Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to take abortion out of the Crimes Act and to treat abortion as a health issue that is a reproductive choice for women, rather than as a criminal issue. The unborn child has no human rights until it is born. It should no longer be a crime to kill an unborn child. 

The FPA with the requested law change intends, “to further develop abortion services to meet the needs of the community”. It would be a catastrophe for women and their defenceless unborn if the FPA developed its 29 clinics in New Zealand into killing centres. 

The FPA claim that the current abortion legislation, “is no longer fit for purpose from both a health and human rights perspective. Women’s lives and status in society have changed since the 1970s.”

Right to Life obtained their submission from the Law Commission under the Official Information Act.  The FPA submit that it is no longer necessary to have abortions authorised by two certifying consultants or for abortions to be performed in licensed hospitals or clinics. The Association believes that most surgical and medical abortions can be performed in community and primary care clinics including FPA clinics, with no specialised facilities required.

The FPA in its submission have:-

  • Rejected the duty of the State to protect the lives of the unborn, its future citizens.
  • Believes that life begins at birth and accepts the killing of the unborn up to birth for any reason including that the child was the wrong sex.
  • Accepted the killing of those those with Down syndrome, up to birth.
  • Accepted abortion up to birth for socio-economic reasons.

Right to Life asks the FPA how do you reconcile your claim to be advocates for women when you support the killing of women in the womb ? [Read more…]

Mother’s Day Painful for Mothers who have lost a child through Abortion or Miscarriage

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Media Release Sunday May 13th 2018

On this day that we celebrate motherhood let us remember those mothers who have tragically lost a child through abortion or miscarriage. For many, Mother’s day can be a day of great sadness. Mothers never ever forget their child lost in abortion and often experience a lifetime of regret, grief and sorrow. We should acknowledge their pain and share their grief. We should mourn with those who weep.

Since 1978 there have been more than 500,000 New Zealand children killed in the womb. There are in our community, tens of thousands of women who have been deeply wounded by the loss of their child in abortion.  Many grieve in silence, because unlike for those who lose a child stillborn, society does not recognise the right to grieve over children lost to abortion. There are few who realise their pain.  Many of these women, perhaps the majority have been coerced into having an abortion, that they did not want. Many too have been abandoned by the father of their child. Those who promote abortion, like Family Planning, tell women that they are imagining grief and that there are no adverse psychological consequences.

Today motherhood is under attack as never before with our Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, proposing to decriminalise abortion. [Read more…]

Is Prime Minister Really Serious About Condemning Chemical Attack in Syria?

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Media Release 18 April 2018

The Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern rightly deplores the Syrian civil war and the recent chemical gas attack in Damascus where an estimated 80 civilians including 20 children were killed.  The prime minister has expressed “the strongest condemnation” of the chemical attack in eastern Ghouta, Syria, while the foreign minister has labelled it a war crime. On Tuesday, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Foreign Minister Winston Peters condemned the attack, and said those behind it needed to be held to account. “This is an appalling use of a weapon against a population who are innocent; a civilian population. We should be condemning it, and are.” However while these sentiments may be admirable the fact is the New Zealand government is conducting its own chemical warfare programme against our own children, which is a crime against humanity.

.It is totally inconsistent for the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister to denounce the Syrian crimes against humanity while at the same time giving approval for the use of weapons of mass destruction by chemical warfare in New Zealand. We are conducting our own bloody civil war against our own children. The Abortion Supervisory Committee reported to Parliament in 2017 that 1,970 pre-born children were killed in their mother’s womb with the lethal chemical poison Mifegyne RU 486. This chemical was approved for the killing of children by the Minister of Health Annette King, in August 2001. The Minister in her media release on 30 August 2001 stated that,

“Mifegyne RU486 meets the international standards of safety and effectiveness required for medicines”.

Mifegyne RU 486, is not a medicine and pregnancy is not a disease. The lethal drug is not safe for the unborn child, nor is it safe for women. It is however, as the Minister claims, highly effective in killing the unborn. Since the introduction of this new chemical warfare against the unborn there have been nearly 20,000 unborn killed in New Zealand by this drug. This chemical war is also violence against women who are the second victims of this war.

Mifegyne acts by depriving the endometrium of a hormone that the human embryo requires to flourish, the embryo thus dies of starvation. This highly effective chemical warfare is approved and funded as a core health service by the government and is used in a number of Public Hospitals. The Family Planning Association is also an ardent supporter of chemical warfare against the unborn with Mifegyne and in April 2013 commenced killing unborn children at its Tauranga clinic.

It is hypocritical for our government to condemn crimes against humanity in other countries while actively waging a war against our own children, which is approved and funded by the government.

Right to Life asks when is the government going to stop this insane civil war against our own children? There will be no peace in New Zealand until this devastating war against our nation’s children in the womb is stopped.

Ken Orr

Spokesperson,

Right to Life

Family Planning’s war against women exposed

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Family Planning have decreed in recent advice to journalists, editors and media outlets that an unborn child should never be referred to as an unborn baby or child. In the first ten weeks of gestation it should be referred to as an embryo. From ten weeks to birth it should be referred to as a fetus. 

Family Planning [FPA] claims that “the term unborn child is a recent anti-abortion invention and a contradiction in terms. It claims that the unborn child does not become a baby until it is born and that human rights begin only at birth.” It is implicitly denying that the child has a right to be born. The FPA reveals that it is the enemy of women in denying the dignity of women, motherhood and the status of the unborn child as a human being, a person and a member of our human family.

The FPA is at the forefront of the anti -feminist movement in New Zealand. It is incredible that the FPA are in denial about the humanity of the unborn child. Never before in the history of mankind have we with the aid of three dimensional scans been able to witness and marvel with awe at the miracle of God’s creation unfolding in the womb.

Why does the FPA have family in their name when they are the enemy of the natural family? 

To promote the killing of the unborn child as a reproductive health service the FPA are committed to promoting the falsehood that the child is a clump of cells and not a human being.

Language is important and Family Planning is using language to dehumanise the unborn, to undermine the status of women and to denigrate the pro-family and pro-life movement. The FPA is denying that human life begins at conception and that the child is endowed at conception with human rights, the foundation right being an inalienable right to life.

The FPA decrees that the terms pro-life, pro-family and pro-abortion should never be used. The terms that the FPA are promoting are anti-abortion, anti-choice and abortion right’s advocates.The FPA also warns that a pregnant woman should never be called a mother or parent.

The FPA claim that the woman has a right to life and health and that the unborn child has no rights. The FPA support sex selection abortions and the killing of children with a disability. The FPA claim that it is wrong to use the term female feticide and”abort disabled children.” The FPA claims that “the right to life and discrimination on grounds of sex or disability apply only after birth”. The FPA claims that the unborn child has no rights therefore it is not possible to discriminate against the child.

Right to Life is campaigning for the government defunding of the FPA and its exclusion from our nation’s schools. They promote a false sexuality which separates sexual intercourse from pro-creation and promiscuity which results in teen age pregnancies, STIs and abortions as a back up for failed contraceptives. The FPA does not promote chastity nor does it promote the natural family of exclusively one man and one women.

Ken Orr

Spokesperson,

Right to Life

Where Have All Our Children Gone?

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where have all the children goneMedia Release Wednesday 31st January 2018

This week our nation should be in mourning for our missing children who will never go through the school gates. They have been deprived of their lives in the ‘sanctuary’ of their mother’s womb.

”I will never know the tides of time; For I was coming but unloved, and that my only crime. Nameless am I, a grain of sand One of the countless dead, but the deed that make me ashen grey, floats on seas of red.” [Ballad of the Unborn Child]

Nearly 10,000 5 year olds will commence their schooling  this week, happy and laughing, full of the joy of life. A total of 50,000 5 year olds are expected during the four terms of 2018. Sadly around 13,170 who would have been the same age are missing. What would have been there joy and laughter replaced by a deathly silence. This represents nearly 526 empty class rooms. What a loss to our nation. They join the ranks of the 500,000 children who have been murdered in their mother’s womb since 1977. These are the children who were considered of little worth and whose lives were terminated by abortion. These are the nameless and whose only record of existence is a cold statistic in the Abortion Supervisory Committee’s annual report to Parliament of 2014.

[Read more…]

A Jacinda Ardern Government Poses a Threat to the Vulnerable

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Media Release 6th August 2017

The appointment of Jacinda Ardern as the new leader of the Labour Party has been the subject of much media coverage.  While Ardern is being presented as the fresh new face of Labour leadership we should also be aware that if she is elected as our Prime Minister, then this will result in a significant threat to vulnerable members of our community. A society can be judged according to how it treats the most vulnerable. If we use this as a criterion then Jacinda Ardern gaining power would be very bad news indeed.

A nation that kills its own children is a nation without a future

On Friday 4th August the Dominion Post featured an article in which journalist Hendry Cook asked Jacinda Ardern the following question: “What is your stance on the current abortion laws?” Her reply is extremely revealing: “I am on record on this one – I feel very strongly that abortion needs to be removed from the Crimes Act, and our current legislation is due for review.”  Such a statement by one who stands as a possible leader of New Zealand is disturbing.

Like many young pro-abortion feminists who see abortion on demand as a non-negotiable, Ardern grew up in the decades following the passing of New Zealand’s Contraception, Sterilization and Abortion Act in 1977. During her youth, abortion rates were at their highest level and she was exposed to the lie that abortion was all about disposing of the ‘products of conception’ and a human right. This view has been proselytised  around the world by forces hostile to life. Such a stance has the embedded assumption that the rights of a women to abort the growing human within her, trumps the child’s right to life.

Ardern has now in fact become the de facto spokesperson for the Abortion Law Reform Association and New Zealand Family Planning. These strong abortion advocates, have been feeding the public misinformation about our abortion laws criminalising women. This is a lie, as it is the abortionist who is liable for prosecution under the Crimes Act. Right to Life believes that it is ALRANZ who is behind an online petition currently mustering support for decriminalisation.

Under Andrew Little, Labour’s official policy with regard to abortion was that if elected, a Labour government would refer the matter to the Law Commission for review and recommendations. However now that Ardern has become leader, she has committed Labour to a policy of decriminalization. Right to Life must point out that this is the official policy of the Green’s party too. A Labour/Greens government would spell the death-knell for more of our unborn children at a time when their humanity has never been more un-contested. Not only would the 20 week gestation cut go, (allowing open slather on the unborn child right up until birth), but it would see abortion allowed for any reason or for that matter, for no reason at all. Is that what we want for New Zealand? The hypocrisy of Labour and the Greens is glaringly obvious. Purporting to care about the marginalised and the weak, both parties are in effect, denying the human rights of those who cannot defend themselves.

Decriminalisation would see abortion numbers going back up at a time when they have been steadily dropping. This would be a denial of the humanity of  the unborn child  and its human rights. The foundational right, being an inalienable right to life. The child would become the property of the mother. Again we have to ask; is this the future New Zealanders want, a future that for many, denies any future at all.

Not only is Labour under Ardern a threat to the unborn; both they and the Greens are campaigning on a policy that threatens life at the other end of the spectrum too. They also support the decriminalization of Euthanasia, which would allow doctors to kill their patients or assist in their suicide. This would  unquestionably put the elderly, the disabled and the unwell at risk. We are increasingly seeing abuses in overseas jurisdictions who have gone down this dark path. The myth of safeguards in any proposed legislation has been clearly exposed.

Right to Life believes that respect for life is the major issue of this election. The economy, health, housing and education policies may come and go, but once we as a country, legislates for killing as a solution to a perceived problem, then there will is no turning back. Abortion and euthanasia are in fact intrinsic evils and we have a duty to not vote for any political party or candidate who support(s) such evils. Under a Jacinda Ardern led government, the Labour party and the Greens would constitute the most anti-life government New Zealand has ever seen.

The Labour party was founded to protect the family and the right to life of every member of the community. The great Labour Prime Ministers of the past, Michael Joseph Savage, Peter Fraser, Walter Nash, and David Lange all promoted a culture of life and opposed the killing of the vulnerable. It is a tragedy for New Zealand that Jacinda Ardern is at best, unwittingly promoting a culture of death.

Right to Life believes that it is untenable for anyone who supports a culture of life to vote for Jacinda Ardern as our Prime Minister. We call on all those who hold a pro-life ethic, to ensure that they vote for a party that has a pro-life stance.

Ken Orr

Spokesperson,

Right to Life

 

Related

https://www.churchmilitant.com/news/article/u.n.-to-exclude-the-unborn-from-the-right-to-life

This is the website of Right to Life NZ Inc.
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