Right to Life New Zealand

Upholding the sanctity of Human life and Standing Up for the Vulnerable

Right to Life Requests that the Minister of Justice Resign

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Media Release 21 December 2021

The Minister in continuing to refuse to protect the unborn child has failed in his duty to protect the weakest and most defenceless member of our human family. As a consequence of his failure to fulfil the duties of his office Right to Life requests that the Minister resign his warrant as the Minister of Justice. In the event that he does not resign, we request that the Prime Minister remove him. 

 The Minister of Justice, Kris Faafoi who has the privilege and duty to provide effective legal protection for the lives of all New Zealanders from implantation to natural death continues to uphold the legal fiction that the unborn child does not become a human being with a right to life until it is born.

He continues to refuse to seek amendment of the law to recognise that the unborn child is a human being with a right to life by repealing section 159 of the Crimes Act 1961. The unborn child is one of us. When the Minister denies the humanity and the right to life of the unborn child he is denying our humanity and right to life.

He continues to assert that Parliament has the right to decide who is a human being and who has a right to life. Today the government denies the humanity of the unborn child, tomorrow the government may deny the humanity of those with dementia and Alzheimers disease.

Right to Life asked the Minister in August 2021 under the Official Information Act,

“What scientific or other evidence do you have to support section 159, Killing Unborn Child in the Crimes Act , which states that the unborn child does not become a human being until it is born.” He has acknowledged that he has no scientific evidence or other evidence to support his contention that the unborn child does not become a human being with a right to life until it is born.

It is simply incredible that in spite of the minister having no evidence to justify this legal fiction, he is prepared to uphold this injustice which results in the murder of more than 13,000 unborn New Zealanders every year, authorised and funded by the government. Right to Life believes that he does this because he has the support of the Prime Minister and the caucus of this government, many in Parliament and of course the media of New Zealand.

It is an unspeakable tragedy that the Minister does not recognise that life begins at conception and that every child is a unique and unrepeatable miracle of God’s loving creation, made in His image and likeness and endowed at conception with an inalienable right to life.

Right to Life makes no apology for continuing to be a voice for women and our unborn. We are committed to continue to campaign for legal recognition of the unborn child as a human being endowed by its Creator with an inalienable right to life.

Ken Orr,

Spokesperson,

Right to Life N.Z. Inc.

Minister of Justice continues to deny humanity of unborn children

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Media Release 28 November 2021

Right to Life believes that the Minister of Justice the Hon. Chris Faafoi, is failing in his fundamental duty to promote effective legal protection for every human being in New Zealand from conception to natural death. He has acknowledged that he has no scientific evidence to support his contention that the unborn child does not become a human being with a right to life until it is born.

 It is an unspeakable tragedy that the Minister, does not recognise that life begins at conception and that every child is a unique and unrepeatable miracle of God’s loving creation, made in His image and likeness and endowed at conception with an inalienable right to life.

Right to Life makes no apology for continuing to be a voice for women and our unborn. We are disappointed that the Minister continues to refuse to protect our unborn. He continues to uphold, without any evidence, the statement that he made in a letter to our Society on 24th September 2021, this is a violation of human rights and a crime against humanity.

“Abortion is a health issue, not a criminal issue. It is also an issue of the women’s autonomy agency and reproductive rights that everyone has the right to decide what they will do with their own body”.

These are dangerous and dehumanising lies that sustain the government’s war on women, their precious unborn and on the family.  Medical science confirms that human life begins at conception and that up to birth there is no other stage of development at which the human child becomes a human being. Medical science is unanimous in upholding the belief that  the child is a unique and separate human being with its own blood group temporarily residing in its mother’s womb and in control of the pregnancy.

The Minister of Justice, in a response of 23rd August 2021 to Right to Life under the Official Information Act, had advised that he does not have any scientific or other evidence which states that the unborn child does not become a human being until it is born.

Right to Life believes that the Minister does not believe the fiction which he is instructed  to uphold in order to justify the killing of more than 13,000 innocent and defenceless unborn children in New Zealand each year, authorised and funded by this government.

Right to Life asked the Minister of Justice under the Official Information Act on 3rd October 2021:-

  • Is it your policy to accept that section 159 upholds a legal fiction that is contrary to medical science?
  • Is it your policy to accept that the unborn child until birth is not a human being?

The Minister responded on 22nd October, 2021, he advised that he was declining our request under section 18[g] of the Act on the grounds that,” the information requested is not held by me or by my office.”

Right to Life will continue to campaign for the urgent repeal of section 159 of the Crimes Act, it is untenable for the Minister to continue to defend section 159 which sustains the legal fiction that the unborn child is not a human being until it is born.

Ken Orr,

Spokesperson,

Right to Life N.Z. Inc.

Born alive rule – a legal fiction exposed

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Media Release 28 August 2021

Right to Life requests that the Prime Minister direct the Minister of Justice to urgently draft a bill to repeal section 159, of the Crimes Act and introduce legislation that will recognise the humanity of the unborn child from conception endowed with an inalienable right to life.

The Minister of Justice, Hon Chris Faafoi, in a response to Right to Life under the Official Information Act has advised that he does not have any scientific or other evidence which states that the unborn child does not become a human being until it is born.

The question presented to the Minister was:-

“What scientific or other evidence do you have to support section 159, Killing Unborn Child, in the Crimes Act 1961, which states that the unborn child does not become a human being until it is born”?

Medical science confirms that human life begins at conception and that up to birth there is no other stage of development at which the human child becomes a human being.

This fundamental truth was confirmed by the Royal Commission on Contraception Sterilisation and Abortion in its report to Parliament in 1977.

The child has a mother and a father, it is a member of the human race. Every child is a unique and unrepeatable miracle of God’s creation deserving of our respect and protection. Today a great deal is known about the amazing life and development of the child in the womb.

Justice Forest Miller, in the High Court, Wellington in the case Right to Life v. the Abortion Supervisory Committee stated in his judgement of 8th June 2009 in respect to section 159 of the Crimes Act, Killing an unborn child:- “The rule according human rights only at birth is founded on convenience rather than medical or moral grounds.”

“A legal right to life would be incongruous in such a law, for it would treat the unborn child as a separate legal person, possessing a status fundamentally incompatible with induced abortion. Far from modifying the born alive rule, the abortion law rests on it”.

The Hon Andrew Little, as Minister of Justice, presented the Abortion Legislation bill to Parliament, designed by the Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern At its first reading he said,

”I accept on legal and moral grounds the established jurisprudence in New Zealand that human rights do not accrue until human life is possible, and that the widely accepted human rights that we all understand apply when they are capable of being exercised, which is to say I accept the “born alive” principle that guides our courts today”.

Since 1978 more than 540,000 unborn children have been killed before birth under the pretext that they were not human beings. This is equivalent to the population of Christchurch and Dunedin.

This is a violation of their human rights, violence against women and their precious unborn children.

Right to Life believes that because of the important admission of the Minister of Justice, this contentious anti-life Abortion Legislation Act has lost its legitimacy and should be urgently repealed. Abortion should be in the Crimes Act. The unborn child is a human being. It is the foundation of the law that it is always a crime to kill an innocent human being.

Ken Orr,

Spokesperson,

Right to Life

Minister of Health supports experimentation on human beings and their destruction

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Media Release 6 June 2021

The Minister of Health, the Hon Andrew Little, supports changing the guidelines to allow more human beings to be made available for scientific experimentation that entails their destruction. Human embryos are human beings, they are not a commodity to be used by the strong to exploit and destroy.

 Right to Life is opposed to all experimentation on human embryos and their destruction. We believe that we should follow the commendable  example of Austria, Germany, Russia and Turkey which prohibit such violations of human rights.

In March, the Minister directed the Advisory Committee on Assisted Reproductive Technology [ACART] to consider recommending that the guidelines be extended from 14 days to 28 days for experimenting on human embryos. Beyond two weeks is the point at which a spherical embryo starts to form a body plan, deciding where its head will end up, and when cells begin taking on specialized missions. This is a slippery slope that could with medical advances see embryos kept alive for much longer.

The Minister was quoted in the media as stating, “if we want that research to happen and want to have the medical and health benefits to go with it, then we need to change the guidelines.”

Human life begins at conception, at the moment of conception the new human being is endowed by its Creator with human rights, the foundation right being an inalienable right to life. The human embryo is the weakest and most defenceless member of the human family that deserves our respect and protection; It should be accorded the respect due to the human person.

The human embryo is the most persecuted member of the human family.

It is frequently conceived unnaturally in a petri dish. It is scrutinised and rejected if the wrong sex, or if surplus to requirements, frozen for up to five years for possible future use or if not used, then it is discarded.

There are between 5,000 and 7,000 human embryos frozen in storage in New Zealand; this treatment violates the human rights of the embryo and is a crime against humanity.

This is science without a conscience. It requires denying the status of the human embryo as a human being. The Minister shamefully made this denial of the humanity of the human embryo when he presented the Abortion Legislation bill to Parliament for its first reading on the 8th August 2019.

Referring to abortion, he said; “Some regard it as a denial of life or a breach of human rights, and we will hear extravagant language in the public debate about this referring to “killing” and “murder”. I reject those notions. I accept on legal and moral grounds the established jurisprudence in New Zealand that human rights do not accrue until human life is possible, and that the widely accepted human rights that we all understand apply when they are capable of being exercised, which is to say I accept the “born alive” principle that guides our courts today.”

 Right to Life believes that the Minister, in denying the humanity of the human embryo, it’s right to life, and his acceptance of scientific experimentation on, and destruction of the human embryo, is upholding the same anti-life  philosophy of Dr Josef Mengele.

It was at Auschwitz concentration camp in World War II, that Dr. Mengele denied the humanity of those Jewish children, who were cruelly and inhumanly experimented on and killed in the cause of “medical science”.

These were crimes against humanity and were condemned at the Nuremburg war crimes trials in 1945-1949.

Appealing exclusively to the future benefits that may come about from research on human embryos, the Minister obscures the broader ethical issues associated with the wilful destruction of human life.

Sufficient account needs to be taken of the moral harm associated with the destruction of human embryos, including the wider repercussions for society.

Ken Orr,

Spokesperson,

Right to Life

Why has the Prime Minister Redefined who is Human?

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Media Release 9 August 2020

Why has the Prime Minister Redefined who is Human?

The Ministry of Health; “The term unborn child is not a scientific term and does not have a commonly accepted definition.”

The Prime Minister said in September 2018, “If you ask me why I’m in politics, my answer will be simple: children.”

Right to Life respectfully questions this assertion.

The Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, is the first Prime Minister in the history New Zealand who has sought to usurp the authority of the Creator to redefine who is human and the bearer of human rights. In doing so she has sought to usurp the authority of the Creator. Our humanity is a gift from God. Human life begins at conception at which moment we are endowed by our Creator with inalienable human rights, the foundation right being a right to life. Our rights being inalienable they cannot be taken from us, nor may we give them up.

Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, as the architect of the anti-life and anti-feminist Abortion Legislation Act 2020 which has redefined the unborn child as a non- human being. Right to Life has to ask why is the child now the property of the mother?  Why does It become a human being endowed with a right to life endowed with an inalienable right to life only when it is born? This is a legal fiction that is an affront to the Creator, an offence to women, a violation of the human rights of the child and a crime against humanity. It allows the government to sanction and fund the killing of nearly 13,000 defenceless unborn children each year.

Right to Life submitted to the Prime Minister an Official Information Act request on the 21 April 2020. The request was:

“What medical or biological evidence do you have to prove that the unborn child is not a human being with a right to life until it is born?”

The Prime Minister has refused to answer this important question. The Chief of Staff of the Prime Minister’s office replied on 22 May. “I believe that the information requested is more closely connected with the functions of the Ministry of Justice. Accordingly I have decided under section 14[b] [ii} of the Act transfer the request to the Ministry of Justice.” The Ombudsman has advised Right to Life that this is a legal ploy used by Ministers who wish to avoid being accountable.

The Ministry of Justice replied on 10 June. ” Information to which your request relates is not held by us but is more closely connected with the functions of the Ministry of Health,” your request has been referred to the Ministry of Health. The Acting Deputy Director General of Health, Clare Perry replied on 3rd July.

“The Royal Commission you refer to is now 50 years old.” The Law Commission’s report to the Minister of Justice on taking abortion out of the Crimes Act and making abortion a health issue,”only uses the term unborn child when referring to existing legislative provisions that include it, as it is not a scientific term and does not have a commonly accepted definition. The term unborn child is not used in recently amended Contraception Sterilisation and Abortion Act 1977 (CS & A Act). The information you are seeking is not held by the Ministry and would need to be created in order to respond to your request.”

These disturbing responses are the fruits of a culture of death. A prime Minister who refuses to answer a fundamental question on the humanity of the unborn child. The Minister of Justice who has removed reference to the unborn child and its human rights from legislation specifically drafted for the killing of the child and lastly the Ministry of Health that declares that there is no commonly accepted definition of an unborn child. Only the triumph of a culture of life based on truth and justice that recognises the dignity of women, the humanity and right to life of our precious unborn can save our nation from this increasing and violent war on women.

Ken Orr,
Spokesperson,
Right to Life

Authorised by Paul Ives, 22C McBrattneys Rd, Dallington, Christchurch 8061

Why does the Prime Minister Want Midwives to become Killers?

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Media Release 23rd May 2020

Right to Life is appalled that the Midwifery Council of New Zealand has now extended and gazetted its scope of practice to allow midwives, subject to education and training, to prescribe lethal drugs to kill unborn children in medical abortions and to violently dismember children in surgical abortions. This is a total violation of the ethics of the profession to protect mothers and their precious unborn.

The web site of the Midwifery Council proudly proclaims, ‘Health and safety of mothers and babies comes first” and “Guardians of professional standards”.

Our midwives enjoy a well-earned reputation as caring health professionals who since the beginning of the human race have enjoyed the love and respect of the community. What greater vocation is there than to have the privilege to care for expectant mothers and their precious and vulnerable unborn children. We the community have a duty to protect our midwives and their professional standards.

Every child is a unique and unrepeatable miracle of God’s creation that is endowed at conception with an inalienable right to life. It is an unspeakable outrage for the government to inflict on our respected midwives a direction that they have a responsibility to kill the unborn at the request of the mother. This surely is a violation of human rights and a crime against humanity.

Right to Life asks, ‘Prime Minister, why do you want midwives to become killers?’ The community should be aware that this assault on women and their unborn children is her responsibility as the architect of the Abortion Legislation Act 2020. It was Jacinda Ardern who worked closely with the Minister of Justice, Andrew Little to draft this infamous Bill.

Right to Life believes that requiring midwives to kill the unborn will destroy the profession. Why should a pregnant women trust a midwife who believes that killing their child before birth could be a treatment option?

There will be no place in the profession for those midwives who are not prepared to kill the innocent and defenceless unborn. The conscience provision in Section 46 of the earlier CS & A Act have now been repealed. Those who refuse to kill on the grounds of conscience will be compelled by law to refer the woman to a midwife who is prepared to kill.

Right to Life requests that the government take urgent action to repeal this anti-life and anti- women legislation. We also urge that midwives in New Zealand defend their profession, defend their ethics and defend women and the unborn by refusing to submit to the government’s demand that they stain their hands with the blood of the innocent. They should be confident of the active support of the community.

Ken Orr,
Spokesperson,
Right to Life

Why Has Jacinda Ardern Betrayed The Disability Sector?

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More than half of the unborn children in New Zealand with Down syndrome are killed before they are born. This is a violation of their human rights and a crime against humanity.

Right to Life believes that this is state sponsored genocide, disguised as health care, against a clearly defined group within our community.

Can the Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, be trusted?  In 2017 she made a promise to the disability community in response to concerns expressed by the Saving Down’s advocacy group that the new abortion bill would remove the current 20 week prohibition and allow abortions up to birth for foetal abnormality. The Prime Minister responded, “They have said till 40 weeks, which is wrong, which is wrong. We have time periods already set out in law, I am not proposing changes to that. I am proposing it comes out of the Crimes Act.”

Right to Life asks the Prime Minister why she has directed that the Abortion Legislation Bill allow for the killing up to birth of children before birth who may have a disability, including Down syndrome? The current abortion legislation under the Crimes Act allows for the killing of a child before birth up to 20 weeks “where there is a substantial risk that the child, if born, would be so physically or mentally subnormal as to be seriously handicapped.” Down syndrome is considered a mild to moderate disability and Right to Life therefore protests at the killing of any of these special children who are gift to the community.  

The Down syndrome community are the most persecuted community in New Zealand. According to information provided by the Minister of Health under the Official Information Act. In 2017 there were only 47 children born with Down syndrome.  It is estimated that there were 56 babies with Down syndrome who were killed before birth in 2017. Between 2009 and 2017 it is estimated that 694 children with Down syndrome were killed before birth in abortions in New Zealand. 

There is an international campaign to eliminate Down syndrome by killing these children before they are born. In Europe many countries have an abortion rate for Down syndrome of 90%, in Iceland it is nearly 100%.

Government funded screening for Down syndrome and other disabilities is offered to all pregnant women in New Zealand. Right to Life believes that this screening is a search and destroy mission that promotes the belief that only the perfect have a right to life. Those women whose screening reveals a high risk of a baby with Down syndrome are offered an abortion by the government and encouraged to terminate the life of their child. This would contribute to the average annual abortion rate of 62% for Down syndrome.

The Abortion Legislation Bill driven by the Prime Minister holds that abortion does not kill an unborn child and that the child has no rights until it is born. The Prime Minister would therefore logically believe that a child with Down syndrome is not a human being and has no right to life. Right to Life asks her then: Is it your objective to encourage the extermination of children with Down syndrome in New Zealand through their violent termination up to birth?

Why are the Churches and the media silent?

Ken Orr

Spokesperson,

Right to Life

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