Right to Life New Zealand

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

Andrew Little’s Campaign of Misinformation is a Threat to Women and the Unborn

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Image result for andrew littleThe Minister of Justice is responsible for the administration of the Crimes Act which provides legal protection for the right to life of every member of the community from implantation in the womb to natural death. It is his privilege and duty to ensure that all are equal before the law.

Right to Life is disappointed that at the direction of the Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern the Minister is conducting an unprecedented campaign to remove women and their unborn from the protection of the Crimes Act, under the pretext that the killing of the unborn should no longer be a crime. This proposal is unjust, a violation of the human rights of the mother and her child and is highly offensive and insulting to women. 

The Minister in response to an Official Information Act request dated 28 September 2018 from Right to Life, asked three important questions. He responded on 2nd November. Here are our questions and his responses;

We asked, “What evidence do you have to support your government’s contention that it should no longer be a crime to kill an unborn child in an abortion?”

The Minister had no evidence but said, ”I have publicly expressed my personal view that abortion should be treated as a health issue.” How dare the Minister declare that the killing of a child in the womb is not a crime but rather a “reproductive choice for women.” How dare he decide such a critical and consequential change to our laws, put in place to protect the unborn child, be removed because it is his personal opion. How dare he direct the Law Commission to investigate how to remove abortion from the Crimes Act, without also directing the Commission to fully investigate the consequences and to determine whether such a move was in the country’s best interests. How dare Jacinda Ardern use her privileged position as the Prime Minister of this country to drive her personal aganda to destroy the protection in law afforded to our unborn children. This proposal is a serious and grave injustice, which cannot go unchallenged.

It is an immutable truth upheld by the human race since the beginning of time that from conception, the child has an inalienable right to life.  It is totally unacceptable for the Prime Minister to direct the Minister of Jusitice to proceed to remove women and their unborn from the protection of the Crimes Act, in order to facilitate the killing of the unborn as a health issue of choice for women.

When Right to Life asked Little, “What evidence do you have that women are treated like criminals?”,

He replied: – “Abortion is unlawful unless it is lawful. An abortion in accordance with the Contraception Sterilisation and Abortion Act is effectively a defence to what would otherwise be a crime under the Crimes Act 1961. Section 44 of the Contraception Sterilisation and Abortion Act criminalise women who ‘procure their own miscarriage,’ making them liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $200.”

This section of the Crimes Act, is there to protect women from being violated by another person with an instrument with the intention of killing the child in her womb. A breach of this Act is an offence, it is not a crime. Why is the Minister trying to intimidate women by calling it a crime? The killing of an unborn child in an abortion is always a serious crime. Section 187A of the Crimes Act provides for protection of doctors from prosecution, if they exercise honest belief in the limited grounds for an authorisation of an abortion, set out in that section.

When we asked Little, “What evidence do you have that women considering an abortion are not treated with care, dignity and respect?”

The Minister replied, I am refusing your request as the information requested does not exist. Why does the Minister make serious claims for which he has no supporting evidence? The Minister’s false claim is disparaging of health professionals and it infers that the only way to treat women with care dignity and respect is to speedily provide for the violent killing of the unborn child when requested.

How do we show respect and care for women by killing their children? When will our politicians wake up to the fact that his proposal will certainly be harmful to and not in the best interest of the unborn children of this country or their mothers.

Right to Life believes that Andrew Little is failing badly in his duty and is being negligent in not giving consideration to the findings of the Royal Commission on Contraception, Steralisation and Abortion appointed by the Labour government in 1975.

Ken Orr
Spokesperson,
Right to Life

Why is Andrew Little Ignoring the Findings of A Royal Commission?

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Media Release 1 November 2018

The Minister of Justice is not serving the best interests of women and the unborn by ignoring the learned findings of the Royal Commission on Contraception Sterilisation and Abortion which made the following conclusions in its report to Parliament in 1977.

 The Minister has a serious duty to tell the nation why he considers that his opinion, devoid of any evidence, should override the following important and authoritative conclusions of a Royal Commission established by the Right Hon Bill Rowling, Prime Minister of the third Labour government.

•          “The unborn child as one of the weakest, the most vulnerable and most defenceless forms of humanity, should receive protection.”

•          “From a biological point of view there is no argument as to when life begins. Evidence was given to us by eminent scientists from all over the world. None of them suggested that human life begins at any other time than at conception”

•          “From implantation to birth, changes which take place in the unborn child are of a developmental nature only. There are no changes of a qualitative nature. The three events suggested as being of significance, namely quickening, viability and brain development are no more than stages in that development and are not indicative of any qualitative changes in the developing fetus which would make it non-human.”

•          In rejecting the argument that some degree of development should be reached before the unborn child be accorded status the Commission said, “If some stage of physical or mental development has to be accepted as indicating whether or not human life is in being, so a stage may be reached at the other end of life where a person who has become senile or has lost consciousness may be disposed of.”

•          The Commission rejected abortion at the request of the mother, as it would then accord to the unborn child only that status which the individual woman herself choose to give it.

•          The Commission recognised that abortion was violence against women and the unborn, and supported the retention of section 182, Killing of Unborn Child in the Crimes Act, stating that it was necessary to differentiate between homicide and the crime of abortion, the killing of an unborn child.

Right to Life asks the Minister:  What evidence do you have that the findings of the Royal Commission were wrong and are not relevant in 2018?

The Minister is of the opinion that abortion should be taken out of the Crimes Act, but he can produce no evidence to substantiate his claim that the killing of an unborn child in an abortion should no longer be a crime.

Does the ill-informed opinion of the Minister now override justice?

Ken Orr

Spokesperson,

Right to Life

Law Commission’s Law Review Betrays Women and the Unborn

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Media Release 26 October 2018

The Law Commission’s report portrays a day of infamy, betrayal, shameful injustice and the denial of the dignity of women and of motherhood. It is also a callous denial of the humanity of our precious unborn and their inalienable right to life. Shame on this government that tramples on the human rights of our precious unborn and the right of women to be protected from the violence of abortion, it has forfeited its right to govern.

The report of the Law Commission on recommendations for taking abortion law out of the Crimes Act and treating it as a health issue, was presented to the Minister of Justice. The review had been requested by the Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, who has abandoned protecting women.

The government has no mandate from the people of New Zealand to remove women and their unborn from the protection of the Crimes Act. There is to be no public consultation or debate about the contents of the review prior to the government presenting a bill to Parliament.

The Law Commission have advised Right to Life under the Official Information Act that there were 3,419 submissions received on the review of the abortion laws in New Zealand. There were 1,677 submissions opposed to removing women and their unborn children from the protection of the Crimes Act, which since 1856 has recognised the killing of an unborn child in an abortion as a serious crime and violence against women. There were only 603 submissions that supported making the killing of an unborn child in abortions a health issue and a choice for women. The authentic feminist position is to oppose the decriminalisation of abortion.

A huge majority of the submissions, 69 %, were opposed to the decriminalisation of abortion, with 49 % specifically supporting retaining abortion in the Crimes Act with an additional 20% supporting legal protection for the child in the womb. The remaining 13% did not address the issue of decriminalisation.

The three legal models presented by the Commission represent an unprecedented attack on the sanctity of life of the unborn child, the weakest and most defenceless member of our human family. These proposals constitute an unprincipled denial of the humanity of the child in the womb.

The models proposed provide for the unborn, deemed by the mother as unwanted, to be removed from the protection of the Crimes Act, Part VIII Crimes against the person which recognises abortion as violence against the mother and the unborn. It states that abortion is a serious crime that on conviction the accused may be imprisoned for up to 14 years. The models provide for the killing of the unborn, effectively up to birth, to be a reproductive health issue of choice for the woman.

It will then be no longer a crime to kill an unborn child, but a health service. This is a blatant lie perpetrated on women.

It is the duty of the state to protect the lives of every member of our community from conception to natural death and not to preside over their destruction. The decriminalisation of abortion will allow the government to declare that they have no interest in protecting the lives of New Zealanders in the first nine months of their lives and that they are prepared to  preside over their destruction.

The Law Commission proposes that doctors “who do not wish to provide health services in connection with abortion because of a conscientious objection to refer women to someone who can provide the service.” The unborn child is a patient and doctors have an absolute right to refuse to be involved in the killing of another human being.

The government admits that it has no evidence to substantiate the claim that in a modern society it should not be a crime to kill an unborn child.The government intends to replace truth and justice with personal opinion, which is the basis of the advocacy of the Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern and the Hon. Andrew Little for the decriminalisation of abortion.

Right to Life requests that the Labour Party return to the high social principles of its founders to uphold the sanctity of life ethic and to protect the lives of the most vulnerable members of our community.

Ken Orr

Spokesperson,

Right to Life

Overwhelming support for retaining protection of the Crimes Act for the lives of women and the unborn

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Media Release 14 October 2018

A huge majority, 69 %, were opposed to the decriminalisation of abortion, with 49 % specifically supporting retaining abortion in the Crimes Act with an additional 20% supporting legal protection for the child in the womb. The remaining 31% did not address the issue of decriminalisation.

The Law Commission have advised Right to Life under the Official Information Act that there were 3,419 submissions received on the review of the abortion laws in New Zealand. There were 1,677 submissions opposed to removing women and their unborn children from the protection of the Crimes Act which since 1856 has recognised the killing of an unborn child in an abortion as a serious crime and violence against women. There were only 603 submissions that supported making the killing of an unborn child in abortions a health issue and a choice for women. The authentic feminist position is to oppose the decriminalisation of abortion.

There were 1,139 submissions that did not address this issue, of these 671 expressed support for legal protection for the lives of unborn children. The Minister of Justice at the direction of the Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern had requested the Commission on February 27 to provide advice, “how best to make changes to ensure New Zealand’s abortion laws are consistent with treating abortion as a health issue that is a reproductive choice for women, rather than as a criminal issue.” The Commission was to give no consideration to the sanctity of life of the unborn and the right to life nor to comment on the duty of the state to protect the lives of our unborn.  

The overwhelming opposition to decriminalisation expressed in these submissions provides a clear message to the Prime Minister and her government that they do not have a mandate from the people of New Zealand to remove the protection of the law for the lives of vulnerable women and their unborn children.

The people of New Zealand should be aware that the government is using the Law Commission review as a subterfuge to give legitimacy to Jacinda Ardern’s unprecedented attack on women and their precious unborn, she is determined to inflict on women the appalling lie that women have a “right” to kill their own children as an issue of choice.

Prime Minister, as a loving mother with a beautiful child, you are aware in every fibre of your being that the killing of a defenceless child in the womb is an unspeakable crime. Why are you not at the forefront in opposing the decriminalisation of abortion.

Right to Life lodged Official Information Act requests with the Minister of Justice and the Prime Minister asking what “ information that you have that would justify changing the law to make it no longer a crime to kill an unborn child in an abortion.” The reply from the Prime Minister was that there was no evidence.

The Minister of Justice in his reply, produced no information to support his claim and said that “my personal view is that abortion should be treated as a health issue and not a criminal one.”

Right to Life wrote to all government MPs on 9 August asking them what evidence did they have to support the government’s claim that abortion, the killing of the unborn child should no longer be a crime, not one MP produced any evidence.

The community should be aware that the Law Commission was precluded by the Minister of Justice from giving any consideration to the findings of the authoritative and respected report of the Royal Commission on Contraception Sterilisation and Abortion given to Parliament in 1977. This Commission recognised that human life began at conception and from implantation deserved the protection of the law for its right to life. It recognised that there was no stage in the development of the unborn child when it should not be recognised as a human being.

Right to Life earnestly requests the government to reaffirm the duty of the state to protect the lives of all from conception to natural death by retaining abortion in the Crimes Act. It should always be a crime to kill an unborn child.

Ken Orr

Spokesperson,

Right to Life

Mothers and their unborn die from “safe” abortions in New Zealand

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Media Release 2 October 2018.

 

United Nations Human Rights experts commemorated “International Safe Abortion Day on 29 September.

Abortion activists are campaigning for the decriminalisation of abortion in New Zealand, ignoring how abortions are intrinsically violent to the defenceless unborn and to mothers.

 Family Planning and abortion activists claim that women do not die from safe legal abortions. The Centre for Disease Control in the United States reports that since the passing of Roe v Wade in 1973 to 2008 that 400 women died because of a legal abortion in the United States. The Federal Drug Administration advised that since 2000 to 2017, 22 women have died in the United States from an RU 486 chemical abortion. There were 4185 serious complications reported and 1041 women were hospitalised.

 

The Abortion Supervisory Committee has advised Parliament that since 1978 they have not been advised of any woman dying from an abortion. Right to Life believes that there have probably been at least five immediate deaths of women from an abortion, as the international maternal mortality rate is one maternal death for every 100,000 abortions. Since 1978 there have been more than 500,000 abortions reported in New Zealand. It is believed that doctors are most reluctant to disclose on a death certificate that a maternal death was caused by an abortion. Tragically, wounded women also commit suicide after an abortion, the numbers are hidden.

 

The women of New Zealand do not need the decriminalisation of abortion and improved access. Abortion and safety do not go together. Abortion is never safe for the defenceless unborn child which is violently killed in its mother’s womb.

 

The Abortion Supervisory Committee reported to Parliament in 2017 that there were 12,823 abortions reported in 2016.  There were no complications reported for 12,767 abortions. There were only 56 complications reported as being present prior to the woman’s discharge, that is an unbelievable rate of  0.4 per cent. The international complication rate for abortions is 2 per cent. Right to Life believes that there were probably more than 255 complications, five times the number reported, many of these complications would occur immediately after discharge of the woman from the hospital after the abortion. Long term complications resulting from abortion such as sterility, miscarriages, premature deliveries and breast cancer are not recorded.

 

We should challenge the cynical mantra “abortions should be safe, legal and rare.” The killing of the unborn is never safe for the child that is killed or for the mother who is the second victim of abortion. If we really care about women’s health, the government will promote chastity before marriage, faithfulness within marriage and adoption as a loving option.

 

Ken Orr,

Spokesperson,

Right to Life  

High Court Rejects Traditional Family as Public Benefit

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Media Release 12 September 2018

Right to Life deplores the judgment of Justice Simon France in the High Court in Wellington on 31 August 2018. The judgment declared that the Charities Board was correct in cancelling the charity status of Family First, it is incoherent and unjust. Justice Simon France stated; “Its core purpose of promoting the traditional family unit cannot be shown to be in the public benefit in the charitable sense under the Act.”

 The High Court and the Charities Board are inferring that all forms of family are equal.  The traditional family of exclusively one woman and one man has been accepted by mankind since the beginning of time as the foundation stone of a healthy society. New Zealand was founded on the traditional family. Those who planned and organised the colonisation of New Zealand carefully selected traditional families to be the foundation of  this new nation.

The claim of the Charities Board and the High Court that the traditional family is not the foundation stone for a healthy society is outrageous and an insult to every traditional family in New Zealand. It is the traditional family that gives security to women and to children. In marriage a man makes a public commitment to protect the mother of his children and to provide for his wife and children. The Judge has failed to explain why the traditional family does not serve society nor has he presented another form of family which is now superior or even equal. Now is the time for the traditional families of New Zealand to protest at this attack on the family.

Those citizens who are concerned for the future of New Zealand should be aware that there is an organised international campaign by the population controllers at the United Nations and in the European Union to promote the LGBTQ agenda with the objective of destroying the traditional family.

Right to Life fully supports and applauds Family First’s intention to appeal this shocking judgment to the Court of Appeal and encourages every citizen to support this appeal on behalf of the traditional families of New Zealand.

Right to Life calls upon the Labour led government to uphold its policy included in the Labour Party Manifesto in 2017. “Labour will ensure that community and voluntary organisations can engage in advocacy without fear of losing government contracts or their charitable status.”

Ken Orr

Spokesperson,

Right to Life

Dr Duncan Webb MP, “Abortion does not constitute the violent killing of a defenceless child 

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 Image result for duncan webb mpMedia Release 1 September 2018          Image result for violent abortion

Right to Life is disappointed that Dr Duncan Webb MP, Labour, in response to our Society’s letter of 9 August 2018, stated, “abortion does not constitute the violent killing of a defenceless child.” Dr Webb is a Professor of Law and it is with respect that we challenge this statement which raises many important questions.

The Crimes Act, section 182 Killing an unborn child, is emphatic in declaring that it is an unborn child that is killed and that it is a serious crime to kill an unborn child. 

The killing is indeed violent, a suction curettage abortion entails the dismemberment of the child by tearing the legs, arms and head off the child. It is the responsibility of the assisting nurse to reassemble the body parts to ensure that all limbs are recovered. 

It is indisputable that the child is defenceless it is unquestionably the weakest and most defenceless member of the human family. Why is Dr Webb in denial that abortion violently kills a defenceless unborn child?  [Read more…]

Law Commission Should be guided by conclusions of Royal Commission.

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Media Release 25 August 2018

 Right to Life believes that the Law Commission should be guided by the wise conclusions made by the Royal Commission on Contraception Sterilisation and Abortion in its report to Parliament in 1977.

 The Law Commission advised Right to Life in April in response to an Official Information Act request, that the Commission had a copy of the report. The Commission advised that it “is aware that there were a range of views about the extent to which the interest of the fetus should be taken into account. Some of the alternatives the Committee presents in its advice may take the status of the fetus into account to varying extents.”

Right to Life is extremely disappointed and concerned at the response of the Commission. Why, is the Commission dehumanising the unborn child by insisting on calling the child a fetus. The Commission is aware that if it wishes to deny the human rights of the child it is first necessary to deny the child’s humanity. The Commission appears to support the dangerous and false notion that the status of the child is a matter for public opinion. This proposal is an attack on the human rights of every member of our community and violates the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Right to Life earnestly entreats the Commission to place the status of the unborn child and its right to life at the forefront of its review of the abortion laws in New Zealand.

The Commission appears to be influenced by the Minister of Justice, Andrew Little, who believes that the Commission’s report is no longer relevant, he advised our Society in March, “in regards to your fourth request, I would expect the Law Commission to take into account any documents or reviews that are of contemporary relevance . I would take note that the report of the Royal Commission that you reference was undertaken in the 1970s.”

The Commission in its report to Parliament said, upholding the status of the unborn child : “The unborn child as one of the weakest, the most vulnerable and most defenceless forms of humanity, should receive protection. From a biological point of view there is no argument as to when life begins. Evidence was given to us by eminent scientists from all over the world. None of them suggested that human life begins at any other time than at conception”

They went on to say, “From implantation to birth, changes which take place in the unborn child are of a developmental nature only. There are no changes of a qualitative nature. The three events suggested as being of significance, namely quickening, viability and brain development are no more than stages in that development and are not indicative of any qualitative changes in the developing fetus which would make it non-human at one point of time and human at another.”

In rejecting the argument that some degree of development should be reached before the unborn child be accorded legal status, the Commission said, “If some stage of physical or mental development has to be accepted as indicating whether or not human life is in being, so a stage may be reached at the other end of life where a person who has become senile or has lost consciousness may be disposed of.” Does the Law Commission have any evidence that these conclusions are now no longer relevant and should be disregarded?

Right to Life asks the Hon. Andrew Little and the Law Commission why these important and fundamental conclusions about the status of our precious unborn children are not to be at the forefront of the law review by the Commission.

Ken Orr

Spokesperson,

Right to Life

NZ Government pressured unlawfully by UN CEDAW committee to decriminalise abortion.

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Media Release 27 July 2018

Right to life is concerned that this UN Committee continues to unlawfully pressurise the New Zealand government and other governments to decriminalise abortion. It is abhorrent that the CEDAW Committee has hijacked the Convention for the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women. The ultimate discrimination of women is to be violently killed before birth in their mother’s womb.

Jan Logie, the Under Secretary for Justice led the government delegation at the 8th Periodic Review by the CEDAW Committee at Geneva on 12 July 2018. Members representing NGOs, the New Zealand Family Planning Association and the Abortion Law Reform Association NZ also attended the Review and made a joint submission supporting the decriminalisation of abortion.

It is disappointing that the government colludes with the UN Committees in hijacking the Convention in support of the government’s determination to decriminalise abortion in New Zealand. Right to Life fully supports the Convention as originally drafted  and signed by the New Zealand government in 1980.The UN Committee unlawfully continues to interpret Article 12 of the Convention to include abortion as part of family planning services, contrary to the intentions of the General Assembly that has repeatedly rejected abortion as part of family planning services.

Clearly, the intent of Article 12 was to protect women, especially during or after pregnancy or lactation, by ensuring adequate health care to protect mother and child. Nowhere in Article 12 or in any other provision of CEDAW is there a so called “right” to abortion or abortifacients. “Family planning” and “health care services” are mentioned, but not abortion. Right to Life requests that the government cease using the unlawful interpretation of the CEDAW Convention to promote discrimination against women through its proposal to decriminalise the killing of the unborn and to make abortion a health issue of choice for women. The government should uphold the Convention by opposing the ultimate discrimination of women, the killing of women before birth.

Ken Orr

Spokesperson,

Right to Life

Government’s Shameful Hypocrisy Exposed

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Media Release Saturday 21st July 2018

Right to Life is appalled at the government’s embarrassing inconsistency in defending human rights. While the Minister of Justice, Andrew Little is commended for his principled high moral stand on Australia’s Foreign Correspondent programme this week, he is nevertheless being hypocritical.  He warned that Australia was in breach of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in its detention of a 17 year old New Zealander. 

Andrew Little lambasted Australia’s lack of “humanitarian ideals” and its “breach of human rights”. He continued to hold the high moral ground by saying “it seems to me that there is a venal political strain to all this,” Andrew Little in representing the New Zealand government at the periodic review of our human rights by the United Nations Committee reviewing our performance on the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights  at Geneva in April this year, claimed that “New Zealand has a strong human rights record”, but this is not so.

[Read more…]

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