Right to Life New Zealand

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

Overwhelming Majority of Submissions to Law Commission Oppose Decriminalisation of the Killing of Unborn

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Media Release 15 August 2018

The Law Commission under the Official Information Act has released to Right to Life information on the written submissions received by the Law Commission from the community on the review of the abortion laws in New Zealand.

 The President of the Law Commission, Sir Douglas White has advised Right to Life on 14 August, that a total of 3,419 submissions have been received. The issue was set out by the Minister of Justice, Andrew Little in a letter to Sir Douglas dated 27 February; The government is considering how best to ensure New Zealand’s abortion laws are consistent with treating abortion as a health issue. It was the wish of the Prime Minister that abortion be taken out of the Crimes Act and treated as “a reproductive choice for women.” The killing of the unborn child was no longer going to be treated as a crime.

 A total of 73.5 per cent of submissions which addressed the issue, opposed the decriminalisation of abortion and only 26.5 per cent of submissions which addressed the issue supported the decriminalisation of abortion.

Of the 2,278 submissions which addressed the issue, the Commission identified 603 that supported treating abortion as a health issue and/or removing abortion from the Crimes Act and 1,675 as opposing changes to the current criminal offences and/or opposing decriminalisation. The remaining 1,141 submissions did not address the issue. We are advised by the Law Commission that many of these 1,141 submissions supported protection for the unborn child and their mothers, this group will be summarised and the summary will be provided to the Minister of Justice in October. In the meantime there will be no information provided to the public on this summary until the Minister is advised.

Right to Life believes that this information provides conclusive evidence that the majority of the community are adamantly opposed to treating the killing of defenceless unborn children as a health issue and support protection for the lives of our unborn provided by the Crimes Act in sections 182, Killing of Unborn Child and 183 Procuring abortion by any means.

Right to Life earnestly requests that the government recognise and acknowledge that the government has no mandate from the people of New Zealand to remove the unborn who are classified as “unwanted “ from the protection of the Crimes Act where they have been protected since 1856, in order that it might facilitate the killing of these children as a health issue.

Right to Life also encourages the government to recognise that the first and only duty of government is to protect the lives of every member of the community from conception to natural death and not to preside over their destruction. It should recognise that the unborn child is the weakest and most defenceless member of the human family and deserves our respect and effective legal protection. Pregnancy is not a disease and abortion is not health care. It should also recognise that the sexualisation of our youth with Family Planning style comprehensive sex education programmes and the seductive “safe sex” message is promoting promiscuity, pregnancies outside of marriage and abortions.

 

Ken Orr

Spokesperson,

Right to Life

 

Is Jacinda Ardern’s government in breach of the Treaty of Waitangi?

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Media Release 30 July 2018

 

 Right to Life believes that Jacinda Ardern is in breach of Article Three of the Treaty of Waitangi. Jacinda Ardern proposes that abortion, the killing of the unborn, should be taken out of the Crimes Act and treated as a “reproductive issue of choice for women”. It is her belief and that of her government that the killing of children before birth should not be a crime, this includes Maori children.

When the Treaty was signed in 1840, the Crown gave an assurance that Maori would have the Queen’s protection. It is believed that that protection was to include protection for the right to life of Maori from implantation to natural death, which was provided by the common law of England and carried on in the New Zealand Crimes Act since 1856.

The Crimes Act section 182. “Killing Unborn Child” provides protection for the life of the unborn including Maori. It is a serious crime to kill an unborn child and on conviction a person may be imprisoned for a term up to 14 years. Section 183. “Procuring abortion by any means” prohibits unlawful abortion, this is also a serious crime and every one on conviction, is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 14 years. This section also states that; “the woman or girl shall not be charged as a party to an offence against this section.” This legal protection for the lives of unborn children has been in the Crimes Act since 1856.It would be a great injustice for the government to remove this protection.

Why does Jacinda Ardern believe that it should not be a crime to kill an innocent and defenceless Maori unborn child?

It is the government’s intention to make it no longer a crime to kill an unborn child in an abortion. Those children who are classified as unwanted will be taken out of the Crimes Act in order that they may be killed as a health service and  as a “reproductive choice for women” These children will effectively lose the protection of the Crown. The children who are wanted will retain the protection of the Crimes Act and the protection of the Crown.

The decriminalisation of abortion would be a violation of the human rights of all unborn children including Maori and an attack on the dignity of Maori mothers, it would be a statement from the state that we have no interest in protecting the life of your child or protecting you from the violence of abortion, the child is your property and it is your choice whether the child lives or is killed. If we followed the Victorian model, abortion for any reason, is available up to 24 weeks if a doctor agrees. Abortion from 25 weeks to birth is available for any reason if two doctors believe that an abortion is desirable. Victoria effectively has abortion on demand up to birth.

The abortion rate for Maori is disturbing. In 2017 there were 13,285 abortions reported in New Zealand, 3,111 of these abortions were on Maori women. I believe that if abortion is decriminalised it will result in more pressure and coercion imposed on Maori women to terminate the life of their child by the fathers of the child who threaten to abandon the mother if she does not have an abortion.

Ken Orr

Spokesperson,

Right to Life

NZ Government pressured unlawfully by UN CEDAW committee to decriminalise abortion.

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Media Release 27 July 2018

Right to life is concerned that this UN Committee continues to unlawfully pressurise the New Zealand government and other governments to decriminalise abortion. It is abhorrent that the CEDAW Committee has hijacked the Convention for the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women. The ultimate discrimination of women is to be violently killed before birth in their mother’s womb.

Jan Logie, the Under Secretary for Justice led the government delegation at the 8th Periodic Review by the CEDAW Committee at Geneva on 12 July 2018. Members representing NGOs, the New Zealand Family Planning Association and the Abortion Law Reform Association NZ also attended the Review and made a joint submission supporting the decriminalisation of abortion.

It is disappointing that the government colludes with the UN Committees in hijacking the Convention in support of the government’s determination to decriminalise abortion in New Zealand. Right to Life fully supports the Convention as originally drafted  and signed by the New Zealand government in 1980.The UN Committee unlawfully continues to interpret Article 12 of the Convention to include abortion as part of family planning services, contrary to the intentions of the General Assembly that has repeatedly rejected abortion as part of family planning services.

Clearly, the intent of Article 12 was to protect women, especially during or after pregnancy or lactation, by ensuring adequate health care to protect mother and child. Nowhere in Article 12 or in any other provision of CEDAW is there a so called “right” to abortion or abortifacients. “Family planning” and “health care services” are mentioned, but not abortion. Right to Life requests that the government cease using the unlawful interpretation of the CEDAW Convention to promote discrimination against women through its proposal to decriminalise the killing of the unborn and to make abortion a health issue of choice for women. The government should uphold the Convention by opposing the ultimate discrimination of women, the killing of women before birth.

Ken Orr

Spokesperson,

Right to Life

Petition: Retain existing abortion legislation in New Zealand

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Abortion NZRight to Life has launched a new petition on the CitizenGo.org website

Please join us in signing this petition and standing-up for vulnerable women and importantly the unborn, the weakest and most at risk members of our human community. This petition with your signatures will be sent to the Ministers involved in this legislation, Health, Justice and Women.

SIGN THIS PETITION NOW!

Petition to: Minister of Health Hon Dr Jonathan Coleman

Dear Ministers of Health, Justice and Women,

This petition requests that the House of Representatives;

Retains the existing legislation pertaining to abortion under the Crimes Act 1961 and the Contraception Sterilisation and Abortion Act, 1977. 

Recognises that the existing legislation provides vulnerable women with some safeguards which ensure they can give informed consent and that they are able to consider their options when facing an unplanned pregnancy. 

Ensure that all health professionals who have conscientious objections, afforded by Section 46 of the CS &A Act 1977, to being involved directly or indirectly in an abortion procedure, maintain their freedom to choose not to participate or facilitate in any way the intentional death of an unborn child.

Preamble:

Dear friends of life please sign this petition asking our government not to decriminalise abortion. Activists have been demanding that abortion be removed from the Crimes Act and made merely a medical matter between a woman and a doctor. Right to Life believes that it is important that we understand why abortion is in the Crimes Act 1961, Section VIII, Crimes against the Person and why it would be a great injustice to women and to the unborn to remove abortion from this statute and to treat abortion purely as a health issue.  [Read more…]

7 Questions for the Greens on Their Abortion Policy

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Jan Logie

Jan Logie NZ Green Party

Right to Life has asked the following seven questions of Jan Logie Spokesperson for the NZ Green Party, on among other things, Women and Rainbow issues. From the Green’s website this is what Jan Logie has to say about herself: ” I am passionate about reducing inequality, eliminating violence and promoting participation in society, locally and globally.”

Pity that generosity of spirit does not seem to extend to the right to life of the unborn child.

Here are our questions to her: We will keep you posted as to what response we get from her.

1 Why are the Greens seeking to establish 20 weeks as a cut off point. What happens at 20 weeks in the development of the child that requires this limit?

2 Are you planning a restrictive bubble around abortion clinics where no one may enter to pray, protest or to offer women seeking an abortion assistance?

3 What action will the law require when doctors refuse to refer a woman seeking an abortion to another doctor who will perform the abortion? [Read more…]

Why Does the Prime Minister Support Violence Against Women?

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Media Release  11 June 2014

Abortion is now a significant election issue.

Right to Life is disappointed that The Prime Minister, the Right Hon John Key, in response to the Green Party’s proposal to decriminalise the killing of children in the womb stated, “I personally support the status quo. I have been in favour of the right for women to choose, but there is a formal medical process around that. I think the balance is about right and I think we should just leave it where it is.”

Right to Life makes no apology for once again speaking up in defence of women and the unborn child. A National government under John Key, took office in November 2009. It is estimated that in the five years that the National government has been in office, that 75,000 children in their first nine months of life, were taken with the approval of the government, to a place designated by the government, to be killed in their mother’s womb. Their murder is an unspeakable crime against humanity and a preventable tragedy. It is tragic when our Prime Minister thinks that this is acceptable. Does he also accept the damage done to women’s health with a potential lifetime of grief, regret and sorrow?  Does he also accept that having an abortion is associated with significant increase in risk of depression, a 155 per cent increased risk in attempted attempted suicide,  a 110 per cent increased risk of alcohol abuse and an increased risk of drug abuse.

The Prime Minister claims to support the “right of women to choose” to kill their unborn.

[Read more…]

The Greens Declare War on Women, The Unborn and The Disabled

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Media Release  6th  June 2014

The Green Party has declared support for decriminalising abortion. This is bad news for women and their precious unborn. The decriminalising of abortion would mean that it would no longer be a crime to kill an unborn child. An abortion would be at the request of a woman for any reason or no reason. The Green Party was successful in a coalition government with Labour in Victoria and Tasmania in decriminalising abortion, which effectively means that in those Australian states, an abortion is available on request for the full nine months of pregnancy.

The first and only duty of government is to legislate for the protection of the right to life of all its members and not to preside over their destruction. The Green Party has now abdicated its duty to protect our unborn children, the weakest and most defenceless members of our human family and has now made itself unfit to be in government.

Right to Life believes that many citizens will be repulsed by the Green’s adoption of a culture of death and will be apprehensive of voting for Labour in the belief that Labour could be enticed into supporting the Green’s sinister proposal. Right to Life requests that the Labour Party now makes a public commitment not to enter into any coalition agreement with the Greens to decriminalise the killing of the unborn.

The Greens have declared war on women. There are 200 million women missing in the world today because of sex selection abortions. The current abortion legislation protects women by making it unlawful to kill a child in the womb because it is not the desired sex. The Greens now want to legalise the killing of female children in the womb because they are not the desired sex, this is monstrous. Just how does the Green’s represent the best interest of women?

[Read more…]

ALRANZ Makes War on the Disabled

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Media Release 21st May 2014 

The Abortion Law Reform Association, in a recent discussion paper, seeks common ground with the disability sector.This would appear commendable. Right to Life fully supports the Association’s following principles; “The right to accurate, balanced information about disability. The right to adequate social and financial support for raising a child with a disability. The right to have or refuse prenatal testing.”  Right to Life however, does not support the following principle “the right to terminate a pregnancy when a fetal diagnosis is made.”

ALRANZ promotes a culture of death. This culture which is evil, demands complete acceptance. It will not tolerate the truth and accepts no compromise with its deadly agenda. It is simply  not possible for ALRANZ,  to find common ground with the disability sector, which promotes a culture of life and is protective of the rights of the disabled. ALRANZ’s objectives in promoting abortion, are diametrically opposed to a culture of life.

The disability sector should be alert to the hidden agenda of ALRANZ, who hide as a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Its hidden agenda is to seduce the disability sector into giving their valuable support for the decriminalisation of abortion in New Zealand. It disingenuously  proclaims that it is opposed to discrimination against the disabled, but it is not. ALRANZ is totally supportive of the killing of children in the womb including the “disabled”, for any reason or no reason. Can  ALRANZ explain why they support the killing of the unborn diagnosed with Down Syndrome, Spina Bifida or other disability?

[Read more…]

Family Planning Accuses Government of Violations of Human Rights

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Media Release  6th March 2014

The New Zealand Family Planning Association[FPA] in its submission to the United Nations Human Rights Council had the breath-taking audacity to accuse the New Zealand government of violating the human rights of women and girls living in New Zealand. The UN Council was meeting in February to review the performance of the government in its upholding human rights. Right to Life believes that the FPA is itself guilty of supporting serious human rights violations.

The UN accusations are very serious ones; they are an affront to our nation. The main accusation is that the government has not decriminalised abortion to allow for abortion on demand for the whole of pregnancy, for any reason, or no reason. The FPA claims to represent the women of New Zealand at the United Nations and to be the champion of the human rights of women. How dare they, this is challenged; the ideology of the FPA is alien to that held by the fast majority of New Zealand women.

Who then has appointed the FPA to fill this role? Nobody, they have appointed themselves. FPA is a business; its business is selling sex, and its objective is to encourage as many people as possible to be sexually active. Its marketing strategy is to seduce our children and to increase its client base by infiltrating schools with comprehensive sex education programmes that threaten the morals and health of our children. Family Planning claim that they promote choice; this is a charade, for they are opposed to schools consulting with parents to seek approval for the use of sex education programmes in school. They are also opposed to parents having the right to withdraw their children from these offensive programmes. The FPA does not accept that parents are the first educators of their children, for the FPA believes that they are.

[Read more…]

ALRANZ Push for Decriminalisation of Abortion Seeks Abortion on Demand for Any Reason Up to Birth

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Editor,

Sunday Star Times.

Dear Sir

Re 12 January. Firstly Dr Healey is not a medical practitioner. Dr Morgan Healey claims that abortions are safe, why does she ignore the real grief and suffering inflicted on women by the loss of their child? She infers that the Abortion Law Reform Association represents the women of New Zealand, it does not.  ALRANZ has a national membership of less than 100 members indicating minimal support. ALRANZ  seeks the decriminalisation of abortion. This would entail the  removal of legal protection for the human rights of unborn children, the weakest and most defenceless members of the human family. The public should be warned that ALRANZ wants to remove abortion from the Crimes Act with the killing of the unborn child no longer being a crime. Abortion would be available on demand for the whole nine months of pregnancy for any reason or no reason. There are 200 million women missing in the world, the result of sex selection abortions. This is the ultimate discrimination against women for it victimises two women, the mother and her daughter in the womb. The discrimination is compounded for many of these abortions are  forced on  women who want to protect their daughter. Why does ALRANZ support sex selection abortions?

[Read more…]

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