Right to Life New Zealand

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

Many District health authorities refuse to terminate normal post twenty week pregnancies!

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Media Release 30 November 2022

The Ministry of Health in response to an Official Information Act request from Right to Life advised on 30th November 2022 that there are seven abortion providers, previously District Health Boards in New Zealand that had refused to provide an abortion post 20 weeks in 2021 for a viable ongoing pregnancy. They had also refused to refer them to another abortion provider.

Right to Life commends the abortion providers for upholding the right to life of these unborn children and recognising that these pregnancies were normal and healthy. We are reminded that it was the Abortion Supervisory Committee that advised Parliament in its report in 1988 that the majority of abortions were being performed on women with potentially normal healthy pregnancies on pseudo-legal grounds.

Right to Life asks the Prime Minister why her government is funding the war against women and their potentially normal and healthy unborn children. Our children are our nation’s future. You are passionate about your concern for children.

As the Minister for Child Poverty Reduction how can you countenance the violent destruction of more than 13 000 unborn children every year? To be deprived of your life before you are born is the ultimate in child abuse and the ultimate in child poverty.

The extremist Abortion Legislation Act designed by the Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, imposes a tyrannical imposition on abortion providers. A woman with a pregnancy of less than 20 weeks seeking an abortion is not required to give a reason and is legally entitled to demand the killing of her child. The abortion provider may not refuse her request. After 20 weeks a medical practitioner is required to believe that the abortion is “appropriate”.

Right to Life believes that it is always wrong to violently kill an innocent and defenceless unborn child. We believe that the Abortion Legislation Act 2020 should be repealed, however as an incremental improvement it should be urgently amended to permit abortion providers to refuse to kill normal and healthy unborn children at any gestational age when they consider that it is inappropriate.

Right to Life believes that there is no other medical procedure available on demand in public hospitals without having the approval of medical practitioners.

Right to Life believes that the vast majority of medical practitioners are committed to the ethics of their profession and know that when they are caring for a pregnant woman, they are caring for two vulnerable patients, the mother and her unborn child.

It is appalling that the government has imposed on the medical profession extremist abortion laws that demands that they be state funded killers.

Ken Orr,

Spokesperson,

Right to Life New Zealand Inc.

Government imposes veil of silence over killing of vulnerable people

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Media Release 8 September 2022

Right to Life believes that it is an appalling scandal that it is necessary to have cake stalls and raffles to fund hospices providing an essential health service.

 Right to Life believes that the government of Jacinda Ardern wishes to promote assisted suicide or a lethal injection as the preferred option for the terminally ill.

It achieves this objective by making the killing of patients a core health service and fully funded. On the other hand Hospices that provide palliative care are in a financial crisis. Palliative care is not a core health service, nor is it fully funded.

The government provides $88 million per year and it is scandalous that a further $87 million is raised with opportunity shops, cake stalls, raffles and donations. The government is aware that it is cheaper to provide a lethal injection to a patient or assist in their suicide than provide expensive palliative care. 

Right to Life is disappointed in the response of the Ministry of Health to an Official Information Act request of 26th July.

Right to Life believes that the community have a right to know why vulnerable patients who were given a lethal injection or assisted in suicide chose not to receive or did not have access to palliative care.

The first annual report of the Registrar of Assisted Dying, Dr Kristin Good revealed that 80% of patients who were killed by their doctor were receiving palliative care.

In our Official Information Act request Right to Life asked:-

There were 20% of patients who did not have palliative care. How many patients did not request this care?

How many patients wanted palliative care, however it was not available?

With respect to the 80% of patients who were receiving palliative care at the time of their application for “Assisted dying” what was their reason for discontinuing with palliative care?

The Ministry advised that they do not collect this information. Right to Life believes that the requested information could easily be requested. It is critically important to confirm that palliative care is not available to some New Zealanders because they live in rural areas.

Right to Life believes that the government is not concerned that palliative care may not be available because of lack of funding or because of where the patient lives.

Right to Life believes that palliative care should be available for every New Zealander when they need it and has written to the Minister of Health requesting that hospices providing palliative care be fully funded and that these vital statistics be collected.

Ken Orr,

Spokesperson,

Right to Life NZ Inc.

Ministry of Health Falsely Claims Women don’t Die from Abortion – Safer than Birth

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Media Release 6 February 2022

Right to Life challenges the claims of Clare Perry, Deputy Director General of Health that abortion is safer than birth and that there is no record of women dying from an abortion in New Zealand since 1977.

 The claim that abortion is safer than birth is false and demonstrably untrue. The objective of this cruel lie is to deceive women into choosing to kill their unborn child on the pretext that they are endangering their lives by allowing their child to be born. We will never know how many women died in an abortion, because to avoid shame and humiliation, the death of the woman will be attributed to another cause.

Right to Life wrote to the Minister of Health in January, to express our concerns at the injustice of abortion being publicly funded. In response he directed Clare Perry to reply.

Abortion is never safe for either mother or child. The sole objective of abortion is the violent killing of a defenceless child. Since 1977 there have been more than 546 000  children killed before birth. More than 270 000 of these babies killed were female and future women who died in an abortion. Why don’t these unborn future women count? Abortion is also never safe for the mother as it wounds her physically, mentally and spiritually.

A maternal death is that of a woman who dies in child birth or from any cause related to, or aggravated by pregnancy or its management (excluding accidental or incidental causes) during pregnancy and childbirth or within 42 days of termination of pregnancy, irrespective of the duration and site of the pregnancy.

The Health Quality & Safety Commission NZ advised RTL that there were 28 maternal deaths reported in New Zealand between 2006 and 2016. Seven of these deaths were the result of suicide within 42 days of having an abortion. These tragic deaths are irrefutable evidence that women are dying from the grief and remorse of abortion.

 Every maternal death is a terrible tragedy, that the death is suicide following the appalling grief of losing your precious child in an abortion is heart rendering.

Right to Life acknowledges that the circumstances around suicide are complex and that there may be other contributing factors such as mental ill health. Right to Life believes that these seven suicides are just the tip of the iceberg as it is believed that many women commit suicide many years later as a direct result of an abortion.

These findings concurred with a large record-based study of 600,000 women conducted in Finland in 1997 which found that women who chose abortion over birth were six times more likely to die by suicide in the year following the pregnancy.

Right to Life estimates that as a consequence of the more than 546,000 abortions performed since 1978, there have been more than 25 maternal deaths by suicide following an abortion.

These statistics dispel the myth propagated by Family Planning and the pro-abortion movement that abortion is safe and that since 1977 no woman has died as a result of having an abortion. Every abortion kills a defenceless and innocent child in the womb, and wounds and sadly sometimes kills a grieving mother. Both abortion and suicide are cries for help from women in despair. Stop saying that abortion does not hurt women.

Ken Orr,

Spokesperson,

Right to Life N.Z. Inc.

Minister of Justice cannot justify the murder of the innocent !

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Minister of Justice cannot justify the murder of the innocent!

Media Release 16 October 2021

To justify the murder of more than 13,000 innocent and defenceless unborn children each year the government of Jacinda Ardern has to sustain the fiction that they are not human beings.

 The Minister of Justice, Hon Kris Faafoi, advised Right to Life that he had no scientific or other evidence or it could not be found to support section 159 of the Crimes Act, which states that the unborn child does not become a human being until it is born.

This response was made by the Minister on 23rd August, 2021 in reply to an Official Information Act request made by Right to Life on 5th August, 2021.

Right to Life wrote again on 26th August, asking the Minister under the Official Information Act:-

•         Is it your policy to recognise that the unborn child is a human being at conception, at implantation or some other point before birth, or at birth?

•         Is it your policy to believe that the unborn child has a right to life?

•         Is it your policy to believe that the Crimes Act should recognise the humanity of the unborn child and its right to life?

The Minister replied on 24th September, 2021 “As you are aware, the “born alive” principle sets the legal standard for when an unborn child is recognised as a human being and has a “right to life”. The established jurisprudence in New Zealand is that human rights do not accrue until human life is possible and that the widely accepted human rights that we all understand, apply when they are capable of being exercised”.

It is absolutely appalling that the Minister, who admits that he has no evidence to support the legal fiction that the unborn child is not a human being from the moment of conception, continues to seek justification for the murder of more than 13,000 unborn children each year on the grounds that they are not human.

This is a crime against humanity. Right to Life believes that the blood of the innocent is on his hands. How can the Minister claim that we have a just society when the government of Jacinda Ardern authorises and funds the murder of the innocent as a core health service?

Justice Miller, in the High Court Wellington in Right to Life v. The Abortion Supervisory Committee, stated in his judgement of 8th June 2009 in respect to section 159 of the Crimes Act, Killing of a child:-

 “The rule according human rights only at birth is founded on convenience rather than medical or moral grounds.”

 “A legal right to life would be incongruous in such a law, for it would treat the unborn child as a separate legal person, possessing a status fundamentally incompatible with induced abortion. Far from modifying the born alive rule, the abortion law rests on it”.

Right to Life is passionate in pledging to the community that we will not rest until this iniquitous legal fiction is repealed and replaced with legislation that recognises the unborn child as a human being from conception and endowed with an inalienable right to life.

Ken Orr,

Secretary,

Right to Life

Born alive rule – a legal fiction exposed

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Media Release 28 August 2021

Right to Life requests that the Prime Minister direct the Minister of Justice to urgently draft a bill to repeal section 159, of the Crimes Act and introduce legislation that will recognise the humanity of the unborn child from conception endowed with an inalienable right to life.

The Minister of Justice, Hon Chris Faafoi, in a response to Right to Life under the Official Information Act has advised that he does not have any scientific or other evidence which states that the unborn child does not become a human being until it is born.

The question presented to the Minister was:-

“What scientific or other evidence do you have to support section 159, Killing Unborn Child, in the Crimes Act 1961, which states that the unborn child does not become a human being until it is born”?

Medical science confirms that human life begins at conception and that up to birth there is no other stage of development at which the human child becomes a human being.

This fundamental truth was confirmed by the Royal Commission on Contraception Sterilisation and Abortion in its report to Parliament in 1977.

The child has a mother and a father, it is a member of the human race. Every child is a unique and unrepeatable miracle of God’s creation deserving of our respect and protection. Today a great deal is known about the amazing life and development of the child in the womb.

Justice Forest Miller, in the High Court, Wellington in the case Right to Life v. the Abortion Supervisory Committee stated in his judgement of 8th June 2009 in respect to section 159 of the Crimes Act, Killing an unborn child:- “The rule according human rights only at birth is founded on convenience rather than medical or moral grounds.”

“A legal right to life would be incongruous in such a law, for it would treat the unborn child as a separate legal person, possessing a status fundamentally incompatible with induced abortion. Far from modifying the born alive rule, the abortion law rests on it”.

The Hon Andrew Little, as Minister of Justice, presented the Abortion Legislation bill to Parliament, designed by the Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern At its first reading he said,

”I accept on legal and moral grounds the established jurisprudence in New Zealand that human rights do not accrue until human life is possible, and that the widely accepted human rights that we all understand apply when they are capable of being exercised, which is to say I accept the “born alive” principle that guides our courts today”.

Since 1978 more than 540,000 unborn children have been killed before birth under the pretext that they were not human beings. This is equivalent to the population of Christchurch and Dunedin.

This is a violation of their human rights, violence against women and their precious unborn children.

Right to Life believes that because of the important admission of the Minister of Justice, this contentious anti-life Abortion Legislation Act has lost its legitimacy and should be urgently repealed. Abortion should be in the Crimes Act. The unborn child is a human being. It is the foundation of the law that it is always a crime to kill an innocent human being.

Ken Orr,

Spokesperson,

Right to Life

NZ Government has no evidence to support Section 159 of the Crimes Act

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A stunning response from the Minister of Justice Kris Faafoi to our OI Act request. If the Minister and the government have no evidence to support section 159 of the Crimes Act then Parliament should support our campaign to repeal this legal fiction. We encourage the whole pro-life movement to support our campaign.

Section 159 Crimes Act

Andrew Little refuses to answer OIA Request – Complaint to Ombudsman

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16 October 2020

Ombudsman,

Office of the Ombudsman,

Dear Sir,

I wish to lay a complaint against the Minister of Justice, Hon. Andrew Little for declining to provide the following information under the Official Information Act:-

  • What statistical evidence do you have to support your claim that there is no such thing as a full-term abortion?
  • What evidence do you have to support your claim that abortions after 20 weeks are performed to protect the women’s life or health from serious risk?

The Minister has not disclosed under the Official Information Act what provisions he is declining my request. I submit that the Minister has no grounds for declining my request as he has access to the abortion statistics recorded by Statistics NZ and by the Perinatal and Maternal Mortality Review Committee {PMMRC].

Statistics available from the PMMRC reveal that the vast majority of late term abortions are performed on the grounds of alleged foetal disability including Down syndrome.

I question the Minister’s claim that it is my duty to produce evidence about the performance of full term abortions, this is an absurd distraction that seeks to avoid answering my request.

Yours sincerely,

Ken Orr,

Secretary.

Ombudsman Complaint Against MOH Refusal to Provide Abortion Information

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15 September 2020

Ombudsman,

Office of the Ombudsman,

Dear Sir,

 Official Information Act request –Complaint

I wish to lay a complaint against the Ministry of Health for declining to provide information requested in my Official Information Act request of 4 August 2020.

The information was withheld under section 9[2][a] of the Act, to protect the privacy of individuals. It is alleged that the release of this information may indirectly identify the people that it relates to due to the specific nature of these questions.

My complaint relates specifically to the following questions:-

  1. The number of abortions that were performed by Women’s Clinics in Masterton, Palmerston North and Invercargill?
  1. The number of abortions that were performed by registered midwives?
  1. The number of abortions that were performed in Family Planning clinics?

The Director General of Health has a statutory duty under the Abortion Legislation Act 2020 to provide Parliament with regular statistics on abortion. It is noted that the Abortion Supervisory Committee since 1978 also had a statutory duty to provide Parliament  with an annual report on the performance of abortion in New Zealand. This report was substantial and comprised more than forty pages. It was readily available to the community. This report included a list of all the registered abortion facilities and the number of abortions that had been performed in the facility in the year of reporting..

The women’s clinics  in Masterton, Palmerston North and Invercargill are clinics owned by the Magma Health Care Ltd  a private company that has contracts with a number of District Health Boards to kill unwanted children before birth. We share the Ministry’s concern about protecting privacy. I would note that with the experience of forty-seven years involvement in the pro-life movement I know of no instance where the listing of abortion facilities has resulted in a breach of privacy. I believe that the public have a right to know the number of abortions funded by the taxpayer that are performed by a private company for profit.

According to the Midwifery Council in New Zealand there were 3,171 registered midwives in New Zealand in 2019. Prior to the passing of the Abortion Legislation Act 2020 abortions could be lawfully performed only by registered medical practitioners. The new law came into operation on 24th March and now permits midwives to perform medical abortions. I believe that Parliament and the public have a right to know how many abortions are performed by midwives. I do not believe that release of this information will impact on the privacy of midwives or of their patients.

The Family Planning Association with thirty clinics are the major abortion referral agency in New Zealand. I am aware that the Association has a policy to turn all of its clinics into abortion clinics. I consider it appalling that the Ministry intends to keep  secret the number of abortions that are being performed by Family Planning.

It is inconceivable that the government wish to treat the killing of the defenceless unborn as a routine health service and “a reproductive health choice for women” while at the same time withholding important information from Parliament and the public.

It is my belief that it is the intention of the Ministry to discourage a continuing public debate on the killing of our innocent unborn and the health and welfare of their mothers, the second victim of abortion.

Yours sincerely,

Ken Orr,

Secretary

Response to Official Information Request to MOH on Abortion Figures Unacceptable

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Right to Life made an Official Information Request related to Abortion Statistics during the Covid Lockdown to the Ministry of Health. We deem their response, which was received on 1st September, shown below, to be unacceptable.

We intend to lay a complaint with the Ombudsman in relation to their refusal to answer questions 7,8,and 9 of our inquiry. These questions related to inquiring into the number of abortions performed by the private Magma abortion clinics; how many abortions were performed by midwives, and how many were performed at Family Planning clinics.

The Ministry refusal was on the grounds of preserving annonymity of the individual women involved. Such a claim we believe is totally groundless as there is no possible way any individual could be identified by the Ministry providing this information. We believe this information should be available to the public and that the Ministry is deliberately holding back information that is in the public’s best interest to be aware of.

Ken Orr
By email: ken@righttolife.org.nz
Ref: H202005805
Dear Ken Orr
Response to your request for official information
Thank you for your request under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act) to the Ministry of
Health (the Ministry) on 4 August 2020 for:

“1. The number of abortions that have been reported to the Ministry of Health since the 24
March 2020?2. The number of abortions that were on pregnancies of 20 weeks or more gestation?
3. The number of abortions post 20 weeks that were performed for the reason of
potentially disabled child?
4. The number of abortions that were 24 weeks or more gestation?
5. The number of medical abortions?
6. The number of medical abortions where the abortion drugs were couriered to the
woman to allow her to perform the abortion in her own home?
7. The number of abortions that were performed by Women’s Clinics in Masterton,
Palmerston North and Invercargill?
8. The number of abortions that were performed by registered midwives?
9. The number of abortions that were performed in Family Planning clinics?”
Data regarding abortions performed after 30 April 2020 is not yet available. Similar to other
collections administered by the Ministry, we expect there to be a 3 to 4 month lag between a
procedure occurring and the data becoming available for release. This allows for submission by
the provider and collation, analysis, and review by the Ministry.
The Ministry can provide the number and details of abortions performed since 24 March 2020 to
30 April 2020 as detailed below. The number of and details of abortions performed after 30 April
2020 is refused under section 18(g) of the Act, as this information is not held by the Ministry or
any other agency subject to the Act.

My responses to your questions are as follows:
“1. The number of abortions that have been reported to the Ministry of Health since the 24
March 2020?”
There were 307 abortions reported in the period 24 March 2020 to 31 March 2020 and 1,097
abortions reported for April 2020. This is a total of 1,404.

“2. The number of abortions that were on pregnancies of 20 weeks or more gestation?”
Seven abortions were reported in the period 24 March 2020 to 30 April 2020 for pregnancies
where the estimated duration was 20 weeks or more.

“3. The number of abortions post 20 weeks that were performed for the reason of potentially
disabled child?”
The Ministry does not collect this data and there are no grounds to believe this information is
held by another agency subject to the Act. As such, this part of your request is refused under
section 18(g) of the Act.

4. The number of abortions that were 24 weeks or more gestation?
One abortion was reported in the period 24 March 2020 to 30 April 2020 for pregnancies where
the estimated duration was 24 weeks or more.

“5. The number of medical abortions?”
There were 689 medical abortions reported in the period 24 March 2020 to 30 April 2020.

6. The number of medical abortions where the abortion drugs were couriered to the woman to
allow her to perform the abortion in her own home?

The Ministry does not collect this data and there are no grounds to believe this information is
held by another agency subject to the Act. As such, this part of your request is refused under
section 18(g) of the Act.

“7. The number of abortions that were performed by Women’s Clinics in Masterton, Palmerston
North and Invercargill?”
“8. The number of abortions that were performed by registered midwives?”
“9. The number of abortions that were performed in Family Planning clinics?”

Information in response to parts 7, 8 and 9 of your request is withheld under section 9(2)(a) of
the Act, to protect the privacy of individuals. Releasing this information may indirectly identify
the people that it relates to due to the specific nature of these questions.

I trust that this information fulfils your request. Under section 28(3) of the Act you have the right
to ask the Ombudsman to review any decisions made under this request.
Please note that this response, with your personal details removed, may be published on the
Ministry website.

Yours sincerely

Clare Perry

Acting Deputy Director-General

Health System Improvement and Innovation

Parliamentary Population and Development Group Ignores Population Crisis

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Media Release 20 July 2020

Since the introduction of the contraceptive pill into New Zealand in 1961 the government has been unwittingly funding a war on women, children and the family.

Wednesday 11 July was World Population Day which focused on the importance of population issues. To mark the day the New Zealand Parliamentarians’ Group on Population and Development (NZPPD) issued a media release to draw attention to the human rights linked to sexual and reproductive health. Right to Life questions the NZPPD’s focus on sexual and reproductive health which includes the promotion of contraception, sterilisation, abortion and sex education.

 It is disappointing that the NZPPD does not recognise that contraception, sterilisation and abortion represent violence against women. A genuine feminist position that supports the dignity and human rights of women would be seeking to protect women from this culture of violence and death.

 The Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern supports the war on women with contraception, sterilisation and abortion. She was the architect of the Abortion Legislation Act 2020 which makes it no longer a crime to kill an unborn baby. In response to an Official Information Act request from Right to Life, she advised that she had no policy to support a birth rate of 2.1 or to promote marriage as exclusively between one man and one woman. 

Contraception. sterilisation and abortion will not make women free but slaves to men who refuse to honour the dignity of women who are called by our Creator to co-operate with Him in creating new life. 

Women have an absolute right to decide if and when they wish to become pregnant. Why is it in the interest of women to take powerful drugs which simulate a permanent pregnancy in the body in order that they are available to men?

Contraception is a serious threat to the future of this nation. The governments continued promotion and funding of contraception is contributing to the destruction of our community. It is disappointing that the NZPPD does not recognise that New Zealand is facing a demographic crisis. Our birth rate is a catastrophic 1.89  and has been in decline since 1960. In 1959 our birth rate was a commendable 4.026. We believe that It was the introduction of the contraceptive pill in 1961 which was the cause of the birth rate dramatically declining to 2.055 in 1981 to below replacement level. This is a population crisis, why is the NZPPD, Parliament and the government not concerned?

Contributing to the population crisis is the dramatic decline in traditional marriages which are exclusively between one woman and one man. Our marriage rate at 9.8 per 1,000 persons over the age of 16 in 2019 was the lowest since 1960, the peak was 45.5 in 1971. Contraception has adversely affected marriage as men can now have ready access to women without the need to make a permanent commitment to women in marriage.

There is a correlation between a decline in marriage rates and an impact on children and families. A reduction  in marriage rates could have a negative social impact on children with an increase in child poverty and abuse. Why is the Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, the Minister for Child Poverty Reduction not concerned?

If the government is really serious about population issues why is it not addressing the crisis that confronts us?

Ken Orr,

Spokesperson,

Right to Life

Authorised by Paul Ives, 22C McBrattneys Rd, Dallington, Christchurch 8061


 

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