Media Release 24 October 2020.

Is the government seeking to  exterminate unborn children with Down syndrome?

The Minister of Justice, Andrew Little, in response to a letter of protest from Right to Life at the removal of the prohibition of abortions for disability including Down syndrome of the child at post 20 weeks, in the Abortion Legislation Act 2020, stated in a letter dated 11 February 2020, that this was to comply with a directive in 2017 from the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

The Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities of the United Nations officially stated that abortion of children “explicitly” because of a disability violates the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, [CRPD]. (Art, 4,5,8)” The Committee is opposed to the imposition of eugenic abortion, which claims that only the perfect have a right to life.

The Minister claims that not including the 20 week restriction of the killing of the unborn diagnosed with a disability in the Abortion Legislation Act 2020 is consistent with New Zealand’s obligations under the CRPD. Right to Life challenges this claim. The Act does not explicitly mention fetal abnormality or any other grounds, however, sadly fetal abnormality is widely accepted as grounds for an abortion by his government.

The government is engaged in a campaign of eugenics with its search and destroy screening programme for Down syndrome and other disabilities. Women who are considered to be at risk of having a child with Down syndrome, are strongly encouraged and coerced to subject themselves to screening. Those women who are diagnosed as having an unborn child with Down syndrome, are subject to pressure to choose an abortion funded and provided by the government. This eugenics programme is promoted as “a woman’s right to choose.”

With the passing of the anti-life and anti-feminist Abortion Legislation Act 2020, the Ministry of Health, at the government’s direction, is ensuring that a veil of silence descends over the killing of the disabled.

The Ministry’s abortion notification form, which is to be completed by abortionists, requires no information on the reasons for abortions  including the alleged Down syndrome or other disability of the child. The government is suppressing debate on abortion by withholding this important information.

The Prime Minister said in 2017 that her government was going to be the most accountable and transparent government we had ever seen.

It is estimated that 90 per cent of children diagnosed with Down syndrome in New Zealand are killed before birth, Right to Life expects this number to increase, however, we may never know because the government is ensuring that the community will never know. Why is the media silent?

Ken Orr,

Spokesperson,

Right to Life NZ Inc.