The Minister of Justice is responsible for the administration of the Crimes Act which provides legal protection for the right to life of every member of the community from implantation in the womb to natural death. It is his privilege and duty to ensure that all are equal before the law.

Right to Life is disappointed that at the direction of the Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern the Minister is conducting an unprecedented campaign to remove women and their unborn from the protection of the Crimes Act, under the pretext that the killing of the unborn should no longer be a crime. This proposal is unjust, a violation of the human rights of the mother and her child and is highly offensive and insulting to women. 

The Minister in response to an Official Information Act request dated 28 September 2018 from Right to Life, asked three important questions. He responded on 2nd November. Here are our questions and his responses;

We asked, “What evidence do you have to support your government’s contention that it should no longer be a crime to kill an unborn child in an abortion?”

The Minister had no evidence but said, ”I have publicly expressed my personal view that abortion should be treated as a health issue.” How dare the Minister declare that the killing of a child in the womb is not a crime but rather a “reproductive choice for women.” How dare he decide such a critical and consequential change to our laws, put in place to protect the unborn child, be removed because it is his personal opion. How dare he direct the Law Commission to investigate how to remove abortion from the Crimes Act, without also directing the Commission to fully investigate the consequences and to determine whether such a move was in the country’s best interests. How dare Jacinda Ardern use her privileged position as the Prime Minister of this country to drive her personal aganda to destroy the protection in law afforded to our unborn children. This proposal is a serious and grave injustice, which cannot go unchallenged.

It is an immutable truth upheld by the human race since the beginning of time that from conception, the child has an inalienable right to life.  It is totally unacceptable for the Prime Minister to direct the Minister of Jusitice to proceed to remove women and their unborn from the protection of the Crimes Act, in order to facilitate the killing of the unborn as a health issue of choice for women.

When Right to Life asked Little, “What evidence do you have that women are treated like criminals?”,

He replied: – “Abortion is unlawful unless it is lawful. An abortion in accordance with the Contraception Sterilisation and Abortion Act is effectively a defence to what would otherwise be a crime under the Crimes Act 1961. Section 44 of the Contraception Sterilisation and Abortion Act criminalise women who ‘procure their own miscarriage,’ making them liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $200.”

This section of the Crimes Act, is there to protect women from being violated by another person with an instrument with the intention of killing the child in her womb. A breach of this Act is an offence, it is not a crime. Why is the Minister trying to intimidate women by calling it a crime? The killing of an unborn child in an abortion is always a serious crime. Section 187A of the Crimes Act provides for protection of doctors from prosecution, if they exercise honest belief in the limited grounds for an authorisation of an abortion, set out in that section.

When we asked Little, “What evidence do you have that women considering an abortion are not treated with care, dignity and respect?”

The Minister replied, I am refusing your request as the information requested does not exist. Why does the Minister make serious claims for which he has no supporting evidence? The Minister’s false claim is disparaging of health professionals and it infers that the only way to treat women with care dignity and respect is to speedily provide for the violent killing of the unborn child when requested.

How do we show respect and care for women by killing their children? When will our politicians wake up to the fact that his proposal will certainly be harmful to and not in the best interest of the unborn children of this country or their mothers.

Right to Life believes that Andrew Little is failing badly in his duty and is being negligent in not giving consideration to the findings of the Royal Commission on Contraception, Steralisation and Abortion appointed by the Labour government in 1975.

Ken Orr
Spokesperson,
Right to Life