Hon. Andrew Little,
Minister of Justice,
6th June 2019

Dear Minister,

Proposed Abortion Law Changes

Thank you for your letter of 11 April. You express the view that abortion should be a health service. Health services protect life and promote health. Abortion is not a health service because it results in the violent death of a patient, a defenceless and innocent human being in its first nine months of life.  How can we talk of better health outcomes when a patient has been violently killed?

I share your desire to ensure that women considering terminating the life of their child in the womb are not burdened with the unjustified and cruel burden of believing that they are criminals. The law is explicit in making it clear that women may not be charged under the Crimes Act with a crime. It should be noted that it is only Family Planning and advocates for abortion who continue to inflict this burden on women by constantly claiming falsely that the abortion law makes criminals out of women. The pro-life movement is highly protective of women and their unborn and we will never burden women with this false association with criminality.

There is, however, a stigma associated with the taking of the life of another human being. This stigma is recognised by all cultures throughout human history and one which is vitally necessary for the preservation of the human race. This prohibition of the taking of innocent human life is the foundation of the law, ethics and of medicine. It would be the height of folly to seek to remove this stigma which is protective of our humanity.

Every woman is imbued with a maternal instinct that immediately seeks to nurture and protect the developing child in her womb. Every woman, no matter how distressing the circumstances of her pregnancy, knows that it is wrong to harm her child. A woman seeking an abortion is making a cry for help. A woman does not seek an abortion like a woman seeking a Porche, but like an animal that is prepared to gnaw her leg off to free herself from a trap. We will not genuinely help women by pretending that there is no stigma and guilt associated with the killing of her child. the weakest and most defenceless member of the human family. There is no change that Parliament can make to the law to remove this stigma, because the stigma is written indelibly in our conscience and on our hearts.

In your last paragraph you state that my letter underscores my essential position on abortion when I asked the question, “Do you then believe that women should be permitted to endanger their lives by bringing about their own miscarriage or permitting someone else to do that?” You believed that my reason for posing the question was that I did not trust women to make a decision about abortion.

The issue is not trust but protection for women and the unborn. I do not believe that any person has the right to kill another human being, simply because their existence is a cause of inconvenience. The first duty of the State is to protect the human rights of every member of the community from conception to natural death and not to preside over our destruction. We have a special duty to protect the weak and the vulnerable in our community. The Royal Commission on Contraception Sterilisation and Abortion stated in its report to Parliament that “the unborn child, the weakest and most defenceless member of the human family deserved special protection from implantation.”

Abortion is also violence against women. We have a duty to protect women from coercion, domestic violence and the threat of abandonment by the father of the child if the abused woman does not have an abortion. In conclusion, I believe that our women deserve better than abortion and that we do not promote the freedom and equality of women by informing them that the state does not have any interest in protecting them and their unborn children. The changing of our laws to make killing unborn children a ‘health’ issue rather than a crime, would send a strong signal that it is a woman’s right to choose whether her chldren live or die.

Your government’s proposals to devalue innocent human life, will not only corrupt at an individual level but will metastasize to spread through our entire society. Laws have consequences; bad ideas have victims.

Yours sincerely

Ken Orr,

Secretary