Ellie Whitaker the spokesperson from the NZ Centre of Bio-Ethical Reform was recently interviewed on Reality Check Radio by host Maree Buscke.
Ellie has just returned from a 4 months internship with the Canadian Pro-Life organisation the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical reform.
This organisation's aim is to make abortion unthinkable by changing hearts and minds. They do this through showing the public images that expose the injustice of abortion and having conversations with everyday people. In Canada she did this by talking to people on the street, conducting roadside displays and even door knocking. As would be expected Ellie experienced a range of responses from the usual "abortion is a woman's right" and that the unborn child is "just a blob of tissue", to abortion is not OK under any circumstances, with the majority of opinion being in the middle somewhere between these two extremes; something along the lines that abortion should not be used as a form of contraception but it should be available in some circumstances.
Ellie then talked about the legal situation relating to abortion in NZ. She highlighted that up to 20 weeks there are no restrictions on abortion at all and that up to 10 weeks a NZ women can access abortion even without visiting a clinic or seeing any medical professional, rather she can obtain the drugs by mail order to procure an Early Medical Abortion (EMA). There are serious issues associated with medical abortions including a woman being alone, medical issues that may arise and that there is no check on whether the woman is being coerced.
After 20 weeks gestation obtaining an abortion is straightfoward. A woman simply needs to consult with a health practionter who deems it clinically appropriate for the well-being of the mother (extremely subjective) and who must consult with a second health professional (neither of whom need to be a doctor and neither do they need to agree).
Ellie goes on to point out that at the time of passing of NZ's incredibly liberal abortion bill that three modifications (SOP's) were put forward to mitigate the impacts of abortion. These were that pain relief should be administered to the baby before abortion, that abortions should not be allowed on sex-selection grounds and that if a baby was born alive after an abortion it should be cared for, aborted babies that survice abortion and are born alive are left on the operating table to die. ALL were turned down by our Parliament. What is equally shocking is that this legislation was passed on the eve of the Covid lockdowns. Parliament were more concerned about ensuring this legislation got through than about the 'threat' of Covid.
Ellie talked about the 226 babies that lost their lives to late term abortions in NZ in 2020. She also pointed out that since the passage of the Abortion Legislation Act abortion rates have been sky-rocketing. Of around 57,000 live births recorded in the latest available (2023 Abortion statistics), (for previous 12 months), there were around 14,000 abortions.
Maree Buscke brought up the fact that it was highly ironical that while the 'my body my choice argument' was common and was conidered valid when applied to abortion, it was rejected when it came to the subject of Covid-19 vaccinations.
Ellie then talked about choice being important, but it depended on what was being chosen. She talked about how it was possible that people thought it was unthinkable that a mother could choose to kill her two year old child, yet it was pefectly acceptable to kill one in the womb.
Ellie stated that instead of killing her child that adoption was the loving option for mothers who had an unplanned preganancy and did not think they could bring up their child. She stated that very few adoptions took place in NZ each year and that open adoption gave the birth mother many choices.
Ellie went on to discuss the support that was available for pregnant mothers including organisations that provided crisis pregnancy care such as Pregnancy Councelling Services (PCS) and Pregnancy Choice. These organisations also provide Post abortion counselling.
Finally Ellie was asked about her own organisation The New Zealand Centre for Bio-ethical Reform. She said that this was going to be patterned after the Canadian parent organisation, with the aim of making abortion unthinkable. She plans to engage all New Zealanders with intelligent and persuasive dialogue and show images that display the injustice of abortion. Another goal is to upskill people who are pro-life to engage other on the topic.
Ellie talked about the importance of using images in a generation which was heavily influenced by them. She re-iterated the importance of this and how it had been successful in other areas such as stopping smoking.
In closing Ellie talked about the coming NZ tour in October and November with the head of the Canadian parent organisation's Quiana Casamayor speaking and who is coming all the way from Canada to tour NZ with us!!! Ellie is excited to have her train us in conversational apologetics and street outreach! Learn more about Quiana at: https://www.endthekilling.ca/about/staff/quiana/
For more information on the coming tour please visit https://endthekilling.nz/