Media Release 13 October 2024
Right to Life believes that we should all be faithful in upholding the spiritual work of mercy by comforting the afflicted who are suffering the loss of a baby.
The international community each year commemorates the tragic loss of babies by remembering them and their mothers on “Infant loss Remembrance Day, 15th October”, during baby loss awareness week 10th October to 15th October.
Right to Life is aware that every woman who suffers the loss of a child through miscarriage, stillbirth or by abortion experiences the very painful loss of their precious child.
The Ministry of Health advises that every year 600 unborn and born babies die between 20 weeks gestation, and 12 months of age. It is not known how many children lose their lives through miscarriage. The Ministry of Health believes that 1 to 2 babies out of every 10 pregnancies lose their lives in a miscarriage of pregnancy.
Abortion is the major cause of baby loss in New Zealand. The Ministry of Health has advised Right to Life that the provisional abortion total for abortions in 2023 was 16,214. Each one of these tragic deaths is, for many of these mothers, a cause of intense grief, sorrow and regret.
Each one of these abortions was preventable if each mother was given the compassion and help that she deserved and needed to bring their baby to birth.
The war against pregnant women, regardless of which government is in power, is relentless and unremitting.
It was our Parliament which in 2020 passed the extremist Abortion Legislation Act, which denied the humanity of the unborn child from conception endowed by its Creator with an inalienable right to life and decreed that the mother has a right to kill her child effectively for any reason up to birth. Our government promotes the fully funded killing of the unborn by the state, as a “reproductive choice for women” and as a human right.
These women are part of our family and community, who deserve our compassion, love and support. Women who have suffered the loss of a precious infant in an abortion need spiritual healing. The pro-life movement reaches out to these women offering them support and counselling. A number of excellent pre and post abortion counselling services are listed on the internet.
In commemorating “Infant Loss Remembrance Day” we should remember that fathers also grieve the loss of their child as do grandparents and other members of the child’s family. Their grief is compounded by the state, which unjustly denies the right of fathers to protect their unborn children from being murdered before birth.
Right to Life will not rest until the state’s war against women, the unborn and the family is stopped.
Ken Orr,
Spokesperson,
Right to Life New Zealand Inc.