Media Release 23 August 2024
Right to Life applauds human rights activist Paul Barnao, for courageously defending the right to life of unborn children and the protection of their mothers from the violence of abortion.
Paul Barnao was found guilty in the Wellington District Court on Tuesday 20 August for trespass and violating the 150 metre Safe Area which has been imposed around the Wellington Hospital premises, in order to suppress free speech, and to prevent any person offering help to a woman seeking an abortion. This is Paul’s 15th charge of trespass at the Wellington Hospital since 2022.
Police sought a prison sentence and said in evidence, that while at the clinic, the 59-year-old’s actions have ranged from approaching patients and offering them money or religious cards not to have an abortion, to handing out brochures relating to his Christian beliefs on abortion. He has approached women and encouraged them not to have an abortion, as well as preaching to patients at the clinic.
At a judge-alone trial, Paul Barnao argued that his actions were driven by necessity, because he believed abortions were contrary to Christian scripture and he was protecting women and children from suffering and injustice. He argued that Divine Law was paramount, trumping the law of the land.
It is an acceptable legal defence against a charge of trespass, that it was for the purpose of protecting the life of another person. As the Court accepts the fiction that an unborn child is not a human being , this legal defence was not accepted.
Right to Life believes that God’s Fifth commandment: “thou shalt not kill” is paramount and supersedes the Abortion Legislation Act 2020, which allows unborn children to be poisoned, sucked from their mother’s womb or violently dismembered up to birth by abortion.
In giving evidence, the police stated that his actions have caused extreme distress to patients at the clinic. Right to Life believes that the Police have been deceived into accepting the killing of unborn children as a “health service” and failing to recognise that an abortion facility is actually a crime scene.
Right to Life believes that it is a sad day for justice in New Zealand, when the Police are required to arrest Paul Barnao for trying to protect the lives of defenceless unborn children and their mothers from the violence of abortion.
The Police are also required to police the Safe Areas around hospitals [suppression of free speech zone] to prevent any person trying to offer help and assistance to a woman seeking an abortion, because she mistakenly believes that there is nobody prepared to help her in her hour of desperate need.
Dr Tracey Morrison, a South African, follows a long line of outsiders appointed by ALRANZ, to be president and spokesperson in 2021.
Dr Morrison criticised Judge Couch in a media release by ALRANZ, for not imposing a prison sentence of 3 months on Paul Barnao. It is believed that ALRANZ has a national membership of about 45 members, ALRANZ does not represent the women of New Zealand.
Paul Barnao is deemed by the Court to be a threat to society, and he has been sentenced to 80 hours community work, 12 months intensive supervision, and to wear an electronic bracelet to ensure that he can be subject to constant surveillance. Right to Life believes that Paul Barnao is not a criminal, rather he is a pro-life hero.
Ken Orr,
Spokesperson,
Right to Life New Zealand Inc.