Right to Life New Zealand

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

Joy to the world -the Birth of Christ and human dignity

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Media Release 27 December 2020

Joy to the world -the Birth of Christ and human dignity

God’s gift to the human race. The celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, true God and true man, proclaims the ineffable truth of the sanctity and dignity of the humanity of every unborn child from conception. Christ, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, emptied Himself to take on our humanity. From the very moment of conception He the Son of God was also truly a human being. He deigned to take on the helplessness of being a human embryo and a foetus. He did not become a human being at birth, as He was fully human at conception.

Man alone is made in the image and likeness of God and is alone called to eternal union with God. Every child is lovingly formed in the womb of its mother by God. The Old Testament tells us in Genesis, “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. “Every child at the moment of conception is endowed with human rights, the foundation right being a right to life. Every child, regardless of the circumstances of its conception, is a gift from God, endowed with gifts to enrich our community.

God, by inviting the cooperation of Mary in the conception of Jesus, has sanctified the womb of every woman in a special way as being a sanctuary for the first nine months of life of every human being.

Every child is called to eternal union with God who made us for Himself. It is our privilege to love, respect and protect the life of every child from conception. Every child is a unique and unrepeatable miracle and masterpiece of God’s loving creation sent into this world with a plan for its happiness.

·       It is an appalling outrage and an unspeakable offence against God to deny the humanity of God’s masterpiece, the unborn child.

·       It is a grave offence to our Creator and  a crime against humanity for the State to deny the child’s right to life and to approve and fund its killing as a core health service by poisoning, violent dismemberment or by sucking it out of its mother’s womb.

·       It is a violation of the rights of women for the State to withdraw its protection for women from the violence inflicted on her by those seeking to kill her innocent and defenceless child. Every unborn child is a precious child of God, it is not as falsely described by the government as the contents of the uterus, the products of conception or after being violently killed, discarded as medical waste.

Right to Life believes that the Labour government of Jacinda Ardern, in passing the anti-life and anti- feminist  Abortion Legislation Act 2020, perceives the unborn as a threat to the nation.  It has sadly rejected God’s plan for procreation and aligned itself with the biblical King Herod in his slaughter of the innocents, seen to be a threat to his throne and to his kingdom.

Right to Life will continue to defend and uphold the dignity of women and motherhood to defend the humanity and the right to life of every human being from conception and to uphold the message of the birth of Christ that every child should be welcomed into the world with love, joy and hope.

Ken Orr,

Spokesperson,

Right to Life

Government’s deafening silence on catastrophic birth rate

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Media Release 21 November 2020

Should we expect our Labour government that promotes and funds the violent killing of our precious children before birth to be concerned about our appalling fertility rate?

 Our birth rate has been below replacement level since 1975.

Why is the Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern and her government, silent in response to New Zealand’s appalling birth rate? Our nation is facing an increasing demographic winter which will have a catastrophic effect on the future of this nation. We have an increasing ageing community with a declining workforce to support them and look after them. Why does the government not have a policy to increase our birth rate and confront this crisis?

Statistics NZ have announced that our fertility rate is now 1.63, the lowest ever recorded in New Zealand since 1894. The replacement birth rate is 2.1 for women between the ages of 15 and 44. Demographers warn that a birth rate of 1.5 is the point of no return.

Our birth rate has been in decline since the 1960s when the contraceptive pill was introduced. In 1931 at the height of the great depression, the birth rate was 3.61. In 1974 the birth rate was 2.12, just above replacement level and that was the last year that we had a replacement birth rate.

Right to Life applauds the courageous women who sacrifice themselves by choosing to have children and raise them in spite of the formidable obstacles confronting them, especially the more than 200,000 solo mothers who are raising children alone.We also applaud the noble women who chose life for their baby in the face of abandonment of the father and coercion to choose abortion.

Right to Life believes that there are many reasons for this crisis.

·       The Labour government of Jacinda Ardern has undermined motherhood, the dignity of the family and the humanity of the unborn child, by passing the Abortion Legislation Act, which promotes the legal fiction that the child is not a human being until it is born. It is now no longer a crime to kill an unborn child but in the words of our Prime Minister, “a reproductive choice for women.”

·       The breakdown of marriage in New Zealand.

·       Half the children born in New Zealand are born out of wedlock or a defacto relationship.

·       Divorce and the abandonment of women.

·       Contraception, sterilisation and the Same Sex Marriage Act 2013.

·       Abortion, one in five potentially normal pregnancies ends in the killing of the child in the womb. Each year more than 13,000 innocent and defenceless unborn children are poisoned, violently dismembered or sucked out of their mother’s womb. Each child is a unique and unrepeatable miracle of God’s loving creation.

·       The failure of the government to promote open adoption as a loving option in preference to the violent killing of the child in an abortion.

·       The excessive cost of housing, both building and rental. New Zealand is the second most expensive country in the OECD to raise a child.

·       The economic pressure on women to be in the workforce in preference to being a dedicated mother at home raising a family.

The government needs to urgently publicly acknowledge the demographic crisis and formulate a policy to promote marriage exclusively between one woman and one man and to promote child rearing. Two thirds of countries in Europe have measures to encourage fertility, baby bonuses, tax incentives and paid parental leave.

Ken Orr,

Spokesperson,

Right to Life

Gore Health leads way in rejecting euthanasia by lethal injection for patients

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Media Release 7 November 2020

Right to Life requests that the twenty District Health Boards in New Zealand follow the commendable example of the Gore Health Community Trust to protect the vulnerable by publicly refusing to have anything to do with providing their patients with euthanasia by lethal injection or assisting in their suicide.

There is no place for the euthanasia or assisted suicide of patients in our hospitals and hospices. Killing or assisting patients to die by suicide is not health care.

Right to Life also requests that the government does not direct DHBs to provide lethal injections and assisted suicide to patients in accordance with the End of Life Choice Act. The Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern stated after the election that “she wants to govern on behalf of all” . Hopefully this includes protecting the vulnerable in our community, the aged, the disabled and the seriously ill from being killed by a doctor as normal health care and an “end of life choice”.

Right to Life commends the Gore Health Community Trust for affirming the sanctity of life and its commitment to providing quality palliative care for its patients.

Gore Health chief executive Karl Metzler, (Stuff – 6 November) states the vast majority of physicians are opposed to the End of Life Choice Act.

“None of them got into medicine to end lives,” he said.

Euthanasia is not a core health service and District Health Boards are not obliged to provide euthanasia. According to the Oregon experience, for the state to set up a national euthanasia system would be very expensive and would benefit only a small group of elite white people.

All of our District Health Boards are cash-strapped and are struggling to provide the services which they are required to provide in mental health, cancer treatment and in other areas of care.

It would be an intolerable burden on the community to impose this expensive and unnecessary euthanasia system for the termination of the lives of vulnerable patients.

Our palliative care services are world class, but they are underfunded. Currently only 1 in 3 New Zealanders who need palliative care in one of our 33 hospices has access to a hospice.

The state should concentrate on providing increased funding for palliative care and refrain from funding euthanasia. Our health funds should be used exclusively to promote a culture of life and not a culture of death.

Ken Orr,

Spokesperson,

Right to Life N.Z. Inc.

Freedom of speech challenged by Hon Phil Twyford

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Media Release 11 October 2020

Right to Life is concerned that the Hon Phil Twyford, the MP for Te Atatu, with the support of the Prime Minister, Hon. Jacinda Ardern, has sought to challenge the right of free speech of Alfred Ngaro, the National candidate for Te Atatu. He was asking members of his electorate if these are the values that you want in Parliament? The Minister is claiming that a statement made by Alfred Ngaro on his Facebook account was “a gross piece of misinformation.” “It has more in common with the fake news of the American religious right than the way we do politics in New Zealand.”

The killing of unborn children is a human rights issue not a religious issue. It is deplorable that the Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, is quoted by One News as condemning the factual statement of Alfred Ngaro as,” blatant misinformation.”   

The statement on Facebook said that the Hon Phil Twyford supported full term abortion and abortion based on gender and disability. The Minister is angry that Alfred Ngaro is asking the members of his electorate of Te Atatu if your local MP should represent the values of the people?

The electorate have a right to know how their elected MPs vote in Parliament. Alfred Ngaro is providing a service to his community by reminding them how their elected member has failed to protect women and the unborn child by supporting this extreme abortion legislation and rejecting amendments to protect them. The position of the Minister on these important issues is a matter of public record, it is not fake news.

Right to Life believes that Alfred Ngaro was justified in believing that the Hon Phil Twyford  supported these appalling values as he had voted on the 17 March 2020 against these amendments to the Abortion Legislation Bill that allows abortions up to birth that would have:-

·       Prohibited abortions after 20 weeks except in extreme circumstances to protect the life or health of the mother.

·       Prohibited abortions on the grounds of sex selection.

·       Prohibited abortions after 20 weeks for babies diagnosed with a disability including Down syndrome.

Hansard is the official record of Parliament, it is not fake news and records these votes by the Minister. Hansard also records that the Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern and thirty-six of her caucus voted for this anti-life and anti-feminist Abortion Legislation Act, with only nine voting against the bill.

The Hon Phil Twyford also voted against amendments that would have:-

·      Provided appropriate care to any child born alive in an abortion.

·      Required pain relief being given to a child being aborted after 20 weeks.

·      Provided increased legal protection for women and their unborn child.

Right to Life is very concerned that Newshub which reported this attack on free speech by Minister Twyford and which is at the service of the community, did not uphold the right of free speech of Alfred Ngaro.

Ken Orr,

Spokesperson,

Right to Life    

Authorised by Paul Ives, 22C McBratneys Road, Christchurch

Prime Minister Should Not Condone Adultery

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Media Release 28 July 2020

Right to Life is concerned at the statement reported in the NZ Herald of the Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, that a Cabinet Minister having an affair is not necessarily inappropriate.

Right to Life believes that having an affair or committing adultery is always morally reprehensible, offensive and inappropriate. It gives offence to our Creator by violating the sixth commandment of God, “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” It damages the persons committing adultery , violates the marriage contract to be faithful to your spouse, gives offence to the spouse and gives scandal to the community.

Those who govern, do so with the permission of the governed. The community has an absolute right to expect that those who sit in our Parliament or in government are persons of the highest integrity and moral rectitude.

We should have compassion for those who fall from grace, for there but for the grace of God goes myself.

The Prime Minister has no authority to challenge and re-interpret the commandments of God. As the architect of the anti-life Abortion Legislation Act, she and her government have challenged God recently by reinterpreting the fifth commandment, “Thou shalt not kill.”

They have done this by declaring that the unborn child is not a human being, does not have a right to life and that it is no longer a crime to kill an unborn baby.

Right to Life believes that the community has a right to expect the Prime Minister to be a role model in her own personal life and to expect and demand the highest integrity from her Ministers and members of her caucus.

Ken Orr

Spokesperson,

Right to Life

Does the government really care about women's health?

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Media Release 3rd Feb 2020

Right to Life questions the government’s commitment to women’s health. Why does it not have information concerning the detrimental effect of abortion on women’s health? How can the government continue to promote abortion as a health service when It has no information to support its effectiveness in protecting women’s health?

98% of the more than 13 000 abortions authorised in New Zealand each year are done on the grounds that the continution of the pregnancy would result in serious danger [not being danger normally attendant upon childbirth] to the mental health of the women.

Right to Life submitted an Official Information Act request to the Minister of Health on 7 January 2020. The questions were:-

What information do you have that abortions authorised on the grounds of mental health in New Zealand protects the health of women?

Do you have any evidence that abortion has a detrimental effect on the health of women?

The Minister of Health responded on 22 January:-

The information requested appears to be more closely associated with the functions and responsibilities of the Ministry of Justice. Accordingly I am transferring your request to the Ministry of Justice…

This is a legal subterfuge used by the Ministers of this government to avoid providing information to the public which would incriminate the government. Right to Life believes that it is reasonable to conclude that the Minister of Health does not have any information which would support the killing of unborn children for the purpose of protecting the mental health of women in New Zealand. There is also no reason to believe why the Minister of Justice should have this information.

There is no other area of our health services where there is not rigorous and constant review of the services to ensure that the services are justified, meeting the designated health objectives and are cost effective. It is appalling that the government can promote the violent killing of the unborn for the purpose of protecting women’s mental health when they have no evidence that it is achieving this objective.

It is astounding that the Prime Minister, the Right Hon. Jacinda Ardern, as a woman and as a mother, should be driving the decriminalisation of abortion and inflicting the violence of abortion on women and their precious unborn children, under the pretext that it is protecting the mental health of women.

In 2008, New Zealand scientist Professor David Fergusson and his team of researchers found rates of mental health problems such as depression, anxiety, suicidal behaviours and substance abuse were about 30 per cent higher in women who had experienced abortion, compared to those who had not.

This is a cruel and cynical exploitation of vulnerable women. Abortion is a failed experiment in social engineering by this and previous governments with women being used as guinea pigs.

Right to Life believes that it is absolutely scandalous that the government can promote and fund the killing of defenceless and innocent unborn children as a core health service and deceive women into believing that it is necessary to kill their unborn child to protect their mental health.

It may be concluded from the Minister’s response to the second question that the Minister and previous Ministers have not had any research conducted into the widely recognised detrimental effects of abortion on women’s health. Our women deserve better, does the government really care about women’s health?

Ken Orr
Spokesperson,
Right to Life

Will the Labour Party Conference Save the Party?

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Media Release Nov 30th 2019

Will the annual Labour Party conference in Wanganui save our nation this weekend by addressing the failure of the Labour led government to protect the lives of the most vulnerable in our community, the unborn the seriously ill and the disabled?

Never before in the history of New Zealand has there been such a sustained and orchestrated attack by a government on the right to life of New Zealanders.

Right to Life believes that this conference is critical for the future of the Labour Party. is it going to be faithful to its founding principle to protect the vulnerable in society, or is it going to allow the killing of our most vulnerable?

The Labour Party of Michael Joseph Savage and Peter Fraser was founded with high and noble objectives to uphold the dignity of the individual and protection for the right to life of every human being from conception to natural death.

The Labour Party has the privilege of leading the government of our nation at this time. Conference should reflect on the first duty of government which is to protect the lives of every member of the community and not to preside over our destruction.

Conference should also reflect that New Zealand desperately needs stateswomen and statesmen who are more concerned for the next generation than they are about the next election.

It is an appalling tragedy that since this Labour led government took office that more than 26,000 innocent and defenceless unborn children have been violently killed in their mother’s wombs, in public hospitals approved and funded by the government. Their mothers, the second victim of abortion cruelly wounded.

The Prime Minister is also the Minister for Child Poverty Reduction. The conference should ask why she does not realise that the greatest poverty a child could experience is to be deprived of its life before it is born? She is also pledged to reduce domestic violence and child abuse; child abuse commences in the womb.

The Prime Minister in speaking in Parliament in support of the introduction of the Abortion Legislation Bill said, “the time is right for us to finally put women’s dignity and their rights at the centre of this discussion.” Conference should ask her how she can promote the dignity of women by giving them the right to kill their own children? How also do you promote the dignity of women by denying them the right to be born?

Right to Life exhorts the Conference to engage with the Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, who herself is a loving mother and ask her why she is determined to have abortion taken out of the Crimes Act? Such an act will mean the killing of an unborn child will be a “reproductive health choice for women”, rather than what it should remain, a crime.

Conference should also question the Prime Minister and her caucus as to why they are supporting the End of Life Choice Bill which if passed at a referendum will empower doctors to kill their patients or assist in their suicide?

Right to Life requests that conference save the once great Labour Party from destroying itself by losing its soul and its reason for existence.

Ken Orr,
Spokesperson,
Right to Life

Is Andrew Little in breach of the Treaty of Waitangi?

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Media Release 3 December 2018

In an unprecedented attack on the sanctity of life of the unborn the Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern and the Minister of Justice propose that the killing of children before birth should not be a crime.

 The Minister of Justice, Andrew Little, at the direction of the Prime Minister proposes to amend the Crimes Act to remove women and their unborn from the protection of the Crimes Act. This Act provides legal protection for women and unborn children against the violence of abortion, it also protects the right to life of the unborn, which has been in the Crimes Act since 1856.

 Right to Life believes that the decriminalisation of abortion would be a breach of the Treaty of Waitangi and requests our submission be referred to the Waitangi Tribunal for a decision on this matter.

 Right to Life wrote to the Minister of Maori Development, the Hon. Nanaia Mahuta, in June 2018, requesting that she refer our submission to the Waitangi Tribunal for a decision, but she refused to do this, stating it would be inappropriate.

The Minister of Justice proposes that there would be no statutory test until 22 weeks of pregnancy. After 22 weeks pregnancy, the health practitioner intending to perform an abortion would need to be satisfied the abortion is appropriate in the circumstances, having regard to the women’s physical and mental health and wellbeing.

Right to Life believes that this represents a complete withdrawal by the government of protection for women and their unborn from the violence of abortion, including Maori. In the view of Right to Life, this would be a 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 unborn children, those in Te Whare Tamariki, before birth, should not be a crime.

When the Treaty was signed at Waitangi in 1840, the Crown gave an assurance that Maori people would have the Queen’s protection and all the rights and privileges of British subjects.

We believe the protection of the Crown for the Maori people included the protection for the right to life of Maori from the beginning of pregnancy until death, which was provided by the common law of England and in the New Zealand Crimes Act since 1856.

For the government acting as the Crown to withdraw this protection for Maori women and their unborn would, in our view, be a serious violation of the Treaty.

Section 182. “Killing Unborn Child” of The Crimes Act 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.” It would be a great injustice for the government to remove this protection.

Why do Jacinda Ardern and Andrew Little believe that it should not be a crime to kill an innocent and defenceless unborn child, by abortion?

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 as a “reproductive choice for women” These children will lose the protection of the Crown.

The decriminalisation of abortion would be a violation of the human rights of unborn children and an attack on the dignity of all mothers, including Maori mothers.

It would be a declaration from the Crown that we have no interest in protecting the life of your child or protecting you from the violence of abortion, that your child is your property and it is your choice whether your child lives or dies.

The abortion rate for Maori is disturbingly high. In 2017 there were 3,111 abortions on Maori women, 23.4% of the total of 13,285 abortions reported in New Zealand.

Right to Life believes that if abortion is decriminalised, it will result in more pressure and coercion imposed on Maori women to terminate the lives of their child by the father of the child, who may abandon the mother if she does not have an abortion.

Ken Orr

Spokesperson,

Right to Life.

Why is Andrew Little Ignoring the Findings of A Royal Commission?

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Media Release 1 November 2018

The Minister of Justice is not serving the best interests of women and the unborn by ignoring the learned findings of the Royal Commission on Contraception Sterilisation and Abortion which made the following conclusions in its report to Parliament in 1977.

 The Minister has a serious duty to tell the nation why he considers that his opinion, devoid of any evidence, should override the following important and authoritative conclusions of a Royal Commission established by the Right Hon Bill Rowling, Prime Minister of the third Labour government.

•          “The unborn child as one of the weakest, the most vulnerable and most defenceless forms of humanity, should receive protection.”

•          “From a biological point of view there is no argument as to when life begins. Evidence was given to us by eminent scientists from all over the world. None of them suggested that human life begins at any other time than at conception”

•          “From implantation to birth, changes which take place in the unborn child are of a developmental nature only. There are no changes of a qualitative nature. The three events suggested as being of significance, namely quickening, viability and brain development are no more than stages in that development and are not indicative of any qualitative changes in the developing fetus which would make it non-human.”

•          In rejecting the argument that some degree of development should be reached before the unborn child be accorded status the Commission said, “If some stage of physical or mental development has to be accepted as indicating whether or not human life is in being, so a stage may be reached at the other end of life where a person who has become senile or has lost consciousness may be disposed of.”

•          The Commission rejected abortion at the request of the mother, as it would then accord to the unborn child only that status which the individual woman herself choose to give it.

•          The Commission recognised that abortion was violence against women and the unborn, and supported the retention of section 182, Killing of Unborn Child in the Crimes Act, stating that it was necessary to differentiate between homicide and the crime of abortion, the killing of an unborn child.

Right to Life asks the Minister:  What evidence do you have that the findings of the Royal Commission were wrong and are not relevant in 2018?

The Minister is of the opinion that abortion should be taken out of the Crimes Act, but he can produce no evidence to substantiate his claim that the killing of an unborn child in an abortion should no longer be a crime.

Does the ill-informed opinion of the Minister now override justice?

Ken Orr

Spokesperson,

Right to Life

Andrew Little Abandons Crimes Act Protection for Women and the Unborn

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Media Release 30 October 2018

The Minister of Justice proposes allowing for the killing of children up to 22 weeks gestation for any reason at the request of the mother. This is an unprecedented assault on the Crimes Act and its defence of life and an attack on mothers and their unborn.

The Minister of Justice is the Minister responsible for the administration of the Crimes Act. He has a serious responsibility to explain to the community what evidence he and his government, have to justify the removal of abortion from this act.

The Minister is also giving a message to the disability community that he has no objection to the unborn with Down syndrome or other disability being killed before birth with the permission of his Labour led government. He is also giving approval for sex selection abortions that discriminate against female unborn. This discrimination was opposed by 94 % of women in a 2018 poll.

 Right to Life challenges the Minister to answer these important questions?

·       Why does he believe that it is not a crime to kill an unborn child in an abortion?

·       Why does he believe that the unborn child is not a human being?

·       Why does he believe that the child does not have a right to life from conception?

·       Why does he believe that the state should withdraw its protection for the unborn child?

·       Why does he believe that we can protect women’s health by killing their unborn children?

Why should we trust this Minister or his government to protect the lives of other vulnerable groups in our community such as the disabled, those with Alzheimer’s or Dementia, when he is not prepared to protect the unborn?

The Minister of Justice has declared his support for the Law Commission’s option C. This option rejects any statutory test for the killing of a child up to 22 weeks of pregnancy. “After 22 weeks, the health practitioner who intends to terminate the life of the child would need to be satisfied that the abortion is appropriate in the circumstances, having regard to the woman’s physical and mental health and wellbeing.” Right to Life believes that these requirements will effectively provide abortion on demand up to birth.

The New Zealand Parliament in 1856 provided legal protection for women and the lives of unborn children from implantation to birth under the Crimes Act. It is a serious crime to kill an unborn child. The law recognised that the unborn child was a human being and that it had a right to life. It also recognised that the state had a serious duty to protect the lives of the unborn the most vulnerable and defenceless member of our human family.

Ken Orr

Spokesperson,

Right to Life

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