16 February 2023
Ombudsman,
Office of the Ombudsman, PO Box 10 152,
Wellington 6143.
Dear Sir,
I wish to lodge a complaint against the Ministry of Health for declining to provide our Society with the information requested in our Official Information Act request of 26 January 2023. The relevant correspondence is attached. Our request was.
“The names of the pharmacists who indicated to your Ministry that they are prepared to dispense mifepristone and misoprostol for the purpose of killing an unborn child in a medical abortion.”
The Ministry declined our request in its response of 2 February 2023, under the following sections of the Act:-
9[2][a]to protect the privacy of the natural persons; and
9[2][g][II] to maintain the effective conduct of public affairs through the protection of employees from improper pressure or harassment.
Right to Life questions the need to withhold the names of the pharmacists in question on the grounds that it is necessary to protect their privacy.
Right to Life believes that these pharmacists that are prepared to dispense the lethal drugs mifepristone and misoprostol for the purpose of killing an unborn child in a medical abortion are in breach of the Pharmacy code of ethics, Principle 1. “Make the health and well-being of the patient your first priority.” The unborn child is a patient and dispensing these lethal drugs to kill this tiny patient is in violation of the pharmacists duty to give priority to protect the health and wellbeing of his patient.
In 2021, there were 5,780 early medical abortions reported in New Zealand. These unborn children were of a gestation of up to ten weeks and were killed by poisoning with the drugs mifepristone and misoprostol dispensed by pharmacists who have now become abortion providers.
Right to Life believes that the community have a right to expect that pharmacists uphold the ethics of their profession to not dispense lethal drugs to kill another innocent human being.
Right to Life believes that it would be in the interest of the pharmaceutical profession and the community for the Society to write a respectful letter to the pharmacists on the list requesting that they protect the lives of their unborn patients by refusing to dispense drugs intended to kill them.
Yours sincerely, Ken Orr,
Secretary,
Right to Life.