16 October 2020

Ombudsman,

Office of the Ombudsman,

Dear Sir,

I wish to lay a complaint against the Minister of Justice, Hon. Andrew Little for declining to provide the following information under the Official Information Act:-

• What statistical evidence do you have to support your claim that there is no such thing as a full-term abortion?

• What evidence do you have to support your claim that abortions after 20 weeks are performed to protect the women’s life or health from serious risk?

The Minister has not disclosed under the Official Information Act what provisions he is declining my request. I submit that the Minister has no grounds for declining my request as he has access to the abortion statistics recorded by Statistics NZ and by the Perinatal and Maternal Mortality Review Committee {PMMRC].

Statistics available from the PMMRC reveal that the vast majority of late term abortions are performed on the grounds of alleged foetal disability including Down syndrome.

I question the Minister’s claim that it is my duty to produce evidence about the performance of full term abortions, this is an absurd distraction that seeks to avoid answering my request.

Yours sincerely,

Ken Orr,

Secretary.