A national petition, signed by 15,407 concerned citizens opposing the decriminalisation of abortion was presented at a short ceremony at Parliament at 12.30 pm on Wednesday 20th November. It is believed to be the largest petition from residents of New Zealand to our Parliament on the issue of abortion. The petition organised by Right to Life was presented to Simon O’Connor MP by Fleur Utting and Philip Creed vice President of RTL.

The people attending were Philip Creed, Fleur Utting, Mary Pollard, Monica Devine and  Martin Frauenstein. The MPs present were Simon O’Connor, Alfred Ngaro, Chris Penk, Paulo Garcia and  Hariata Hipango,

Below is a transcript of the presentation made by Vice President Philip Creed to the MP’s.

Thank you for being here today to receive us. Right to Life applauds you for your courageous defence of life in opposing the Abortion Legislation Bill and the End of Life Choice Bill. Be assured that you have our total support in defending life.

We all have a duty to defend life. We are here today to present a petition to our Parliament to maintain the protection of the Crimes Act for women and for our precious unborn children. We recognise that every unborn child is a unique and unrepeatable miracle of God’s loving creation that is endowed at conception with an inalienable right to life. May our Parliament respond to our petition to protect women and the unborn from the violence of abortion.

We believe that this is the largest petition ever made by residents of New Zealand to Parliament on the issue of abortion, on the care of women and concerning the killing of the unborn child.

It is our privilege today to present to you a petition signed by 15,407 concerned citizens opposing the decriminalisation of abortion and supporting protection for women and the unborn provided by the Crimes Act.

This petition was organised by Right to Life. This petition defends our inalienable  right to life, the foundation of our human rights. Since 1856 the Crimes Act, section 182, Killing unborn child, has recognised that the killing of an innocent and defenceless unborn child is a serious crime. This petition is opposed to abortion being taken out of the Crimes Act and made “a reproductive choice for women.”

The proposal of the Prime Minister to decriminalise abortion is an unprecedented attack on the sanctity of life of the unborn child. An attack on the right to life of the unborn is an attack on the right to life of us all. It is a denial that the unborn child is a human being endowed at conception with human rights. It is a rejection of the responsibility of the State to protect the lives of all New Zealanders from conception to natural death. Under the government’s proposal the child is to be declared the property of the mother. This is slavery and no person has the right to claim ownership of another person. If today Parliament can declare that the unborn child is not a human being, tomorrow Parliament may declare that other vulnerable human beings, those with dementia and Alzheimer’s are no longer human beings and protection for the lives such persons may be removed from the Crimes Act and killed and declared a health service.
The government have no mandate to declare that the unborn are not human beings and that they have no right to have their lives protected by the State.

in September Right to life employed Curia Marketing Services to conduct a survey.

One question asked when the unborn child became a human being

• 65% said before birth.
• 25 % said at conception,
• 14 % said at implantation
•  26 % said between implantation and birth.

A second question asked when should the human rights of the unborn child be protected by New Zealand law

• 17 % believed at conception,
• 10 % at implantation
• 28 % between implantation and birth.

This shows 55% of New Zealanders believe that the unborn child’s right to life should be protected at some stage before birth.

Why then is our governments removing instead of ensuring protection for our precious unborn?