Media Release 17th June 2020

Many women in 2019 chose life for their baby in preference to the violence of abortion. Right to Life congratulates these heroic women who deserve the love and support of our community.

Every day it is estimated that thirty-six unborn children are taken to Hospitals and clinics to be violently killed. If this number of children were taken out of our kindergartens each day to be murdered there would be riots in our cities and towns. Statistics NZ report that In 2019 there were 12,857 abortions reported in New Zealand. This is a decrease of 425 abortions on the 13,282 abortions reported in 2018. We should mourn with these women who are grieving the loss of their precious child. There were only 35 abortions authorised on the grounds of “danger to life and/or Physical Health.

Right to Life also grieves with the women who were so often abandoned by the father of the child in the time of the woman’s greatest need and coerced into an abortion that was chosen for her. It is a cruel mockery and charade for society to pretend that it is “a woman’s right to choose.” “Choosing” an abortion is a decision of despair and a cry for help.

The abortion statistics are an indictment on our Parliament which sanctions and funds the killing of the innocent as in the words of our Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, “a reproductive choice for women.” Abortion is a core health service with unlimited funding and no waiting list, our women deserve better. The statistics disguise the reality that every child  violently dismembered in the  womb of the child’s mother is an unrepeatable miracle of God’s loving creation.

The statistics are also an indictment on the media which have generally ignored the media release on abortion statistics made by Statistics NZ It was Joseph Stalin who said the killing of one human being is a tragedy and the killing of tens of thousands just a statistic. Since 1977 more than 500,000 children have been violently killed in their mother’s womb, a massive violation of human rights. Why is the media so coldly indifferent to the killing of New Zealand children in their first nine months of life?

Right to Life requests that the government introduce abstinence sexuality programmes to replace Family Planning school sex education programs which encourage promiscuity with abortions arranged without the knowledge or consent of parents as a backup for failed contraceptives.

Repeat abortions totalled 4,645, 3,008 were having their second, 1,081 were having their third, 326 were having their fourth, 132 their fifth, 62 their sixth, 26 their seventh and 10 their eighth or more. Right to Life believes that these statistics are under reported. Studies conducted in the United States, reveal that repeat abortions are actually 50 per cent of the total abortions reported.

Key Facts Abortion Statistics 2019

• The general abortion rate was 13.1 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15–44 years, down slightly from 13.7 per 1,000 in 2018
• Women aged 20–24 years had the highest abortion rate (19.5 abortions per 1,000 women aged 20–24 years), down from 20.5 in 2018.
• 51 percent of all abortions were for women aged in their 20s
• Most abortions (64 percent) were a woman’s first abortion, unchanged from 2018.
• 64 percent of abortions were performed before the 10th week of the pregnancy, up from 50 percent in 2018.
• 18 percent of known pregnancies (live births, stillbirths, and abortions) ended in an abortion, unchanged from 2018.
• 78 young women under the age of 16 years had an abortion in 2019. Statistics have been discontinued on the number of young women who alleged that they had notified their parents or guardian of their abortion.
• 12,498 abortions were authorised on the grounds of mental health, the grounds used by certifying consultants to provide abortion on demand. This is 98 percent of the total. There were 35 abortions authorised on the grounds of danger to life/ and or Physical Health.

Ken Orr

Spokesperson,

Right to Life