Right to Life New Zealand

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

Labour government kills 214 vulnerable patients in first year of legislation

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Media Release 13 November 2022

Right to Life believes that this report represents the government’s rejection of the authority of our Creator and His fifth commandment, “Thou shalt not kill”.

 Right to Life is disappointed that the Labour government of Jacinda  Ardern is prepared to authorise and fund the killing of vulnerable New Zealanders under the guise of health care. This is the first government in New Zealand that has permitted the withdrawal of ethical medical care to be replaced with a lethal injection. It is noticeable that the Prime Minister and her government by their deafening silence refuse to take ownership of this shameful historical first annual report on the killing of vulnerable patients whose lives were deemed to be not worthy of living. 

The Registrar of Assisted Dying, Dr Kristin Good, has presented her report on the patients who have been killed by their doctor or assisted in suicide under the authority of the contentious End of Life Choice Act 2019 for the period 7 November, 2021 to 30 September 2022.

A total of 214 vulnerable patients were killed out of the 294 applicants who were confirmed as eligible. There were 80 patients who withdrew their request, died before their scheduled killing or were still waiting to be terminated.

The Registrar reports that:-

  • 174 [or 81.3%] were killed in their own home or another person’s residence.
  • 17 [or 7.9%] were killed in an aged care facility.
  • 14 [or 6.5%] were killed in a public hospital.
  • 9 [or 4.2%] were killed in a public hospice facility.

Right to Life is opposed to all euthanasia and is appalled that some vulnerable patients are being killed in public hospitals, aged care facilities and presumably in one hospice in contravention of the hospice movement’s prohibition of euthanasia. Right to Life is conducting a campaign to encourage retirement villages to adopt a policy of being euthanasia free.

Reasons for being ineligible for a lethal injection or assistance in suicide.

  • 44, Not experiencing unbearable suffering to be relieved in a tolerable manner.
  • 66, Does not suffer from a terminal illness that is likely to end their life in six months.
  • 44, Not in an advanced state of irreversible decline in physical capability.

SCENZ Group Practitioners, The Support and Consultation for End of Life in New Zealand (SCENZ) Group lists 132 unique practitioners, 92 Attending medical practitioners, 81 Independent medical practitioners,11 psychiatrists and 11 nurse practitioners, who are cooperating with the EOLC Act. There are some practitioners filling dual roles.

Right to Life commends and supports medical professionals who refuse to participate in the killing of their patients by killing them with a lethal injection or assist in their suicide.

There are more than 15,000 registered medical practitioners in New Zealand. This list of health practitioners in New Zealand prepared to facilitate the killing of patients confirms that the vast majority of medical practitioners faithfully uphold their medical ethics not to take the life of their patients.

Ken Orr,

Spokesperson,

Right to Life NZ Inc.

Ministry of Health Falsely Claims Women don’t Die from Abortion – Safer than Birth

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Media Release 6 February 2022

Right to Life challenges the claims of Clare Perry, Deputy Director General of Health that abortion is safer than birth and that there is no record of women dying from an abortion in New Zealand since 1977.

 The claim that abortion is safer than birth is false and demonstrably untrue. The objective of this cruel lie is to deceive women into choosing to kill their unborn child on the pretext that they are endangering their lives by allowing their child to be born. We will never know how many women died in an abortion, because to avoid shame and humiliation, the death of the woman will be attributed to another cause.

Right to Life wrote to the Minister of Health in January, to express our concerns at the injustice of abortion being publicly funded. In response he directed Clare Perry to reply.

Abortion is never safe for either mother or child. The sole objective of abortion is the violent killing of a defenceless child. Since 1977 there have been more than 546 000  children killed before birth. More than 270 000 of these babies killed were female and future women who died in an abortion. Why don’t these unborn future women count? Abortion is also never safe for the mother as it wounds her physically, mentally and spiritually.

A maternal death is that of a woman who dies in child birth or from any cause related to, or aggravated by pregnancy or its management (excluding accidental or incidental causes) during pregnancy and childbirth or within 42 days of termination of pregnancy, irrespective of the duration and site of the pregnancy.

The Health Quality & Safety Commission NZ advised RTL that there were 28 maternal deaths reported in New Zealand between 2006 and 2016. Seven of these deaths were the result of suicide within 42 days of having an abortion. These tragic deaths are irrefutable evidence that women are dying from the grief and remorse of abortion.

 Every maternal death is a terrible tragedy, that the death is suicide following the appalling grief of losing your precious child in an abortion is heart rendering.

Right to Life acknowledges that the circumstances around suicide are complex and that there may be other contributing factors such as mental ill health. Right to Life believes that these seven suicides are just the tip of the iceberg as it is believed that many women commit suicide many years later as a direct result of an abortion.

These findings concurred with a large record-based study of 600,000 women conducted in Finland in 1997 which found that women who chose abortion over birth were six times more likely to die by suicide in the year following the pregnancy.

Right to Life estimates that as a consequence of the more than 546,000 abortions performed since 1978, there have been more than 25 maternal deaths by suicide following an abortion.

These statistics dispel the myth propagated by Family Planning and the pro-abortion movement that abortion is safe and that since 1977 no woman has died as a result of having an abortion. Every abortion kills a defenceless and innocent child in the womb, and wounds and sadly sometimes kills a grieving mother. Both abortion and suicide are cries for help from women in despair. Stop saying that abortion does not hurt women.

Ken Orr,

Spokesperson,

Right to Life N.Z. Inc.

Abortion statistics : 13,236 children killed before birth in 2020

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Abortion statistics : 13,236 children killed before birth in 2020

Media Release 19 October 2021

The Ministry of Health, that presides over the abortion industry in New Zealand has produced its first annual report after taking over responsibility for the oversight of the abortion industry from the Abortion Supervisory Committee in March 2020.

 Right to Life grieves with those women who have lost their precious child through abortion, they and their child deserved better than abortion. Right to Life also commends those courageous women who chose life for their child in 2020. Every one of these children was a unique and unrepeatable miracle of God’s loving creation endowed by its Creator with an inalienable right to life.

With the passing of the Abortion Legislation Act 2020 designed by the Prime Minister, the killing of the unborn has been taken out of the Crimes Act and has been made a health issue.

It is no longer a crime to kill an unborn child as the government upholds the legal fiction that the unborn child is not a human being and does not have a right to life until it is born.

The government recognises that this fiction is necessary to allow women to kill their children before they are born. The government authorises the killing and provides the funding for the state funded abortion industry which is an essential service, with no waiting list and unlimited funding.

The abortion industry poisons, suctions or violently dismembers an estimated 36 unborn children each day, their earthly remains being disposed of as medical waste at the local landfill. Children  may now be killed up to 20 weeks gestation for any reason and up to birth if a doctor considers it is  “appropriate”.

Key facts on the killing:

  • 13,236 children were killed before birth in 2020, up from 12,857 killed in 2019.
  • The general abortion rate was 13 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15-44 years, down slightly from 12.2 per 1,000 in 2019.
  • 18.6% of known pregnancies ended in an abortion in 2020, compared with 17.7% in 2019 (this percentage excludes miscarried pregnancies).
  • The mean age of those having an abortion in 2020 was 28 years.
  • 40% of all abortions were for those aged 30 years and over, up from 34 percent in 2015.
  • Most abortions in 2020 (64%) were a first abortion, the same as in 2019
  • 21.7% of all abortions were for those identifying as Maori in 2020, a decrease from 23.1% in 2019.
  • 8% of all abortions were for those identifying as Pacific peoples in 2020, a decrease from 9.8% in 2019
  • In 2020, 45% of abortions were accessed before eight weeks’ gestation, compared with only 27% in 2019.
  • The rate of early medical abortion increased significantly: 36% (4,774) had an EMA up to nine weeks’ gestation in 2020 compared with only 22% in 2019.
  • Conversely surgical abortion decreased substantially, accounting for 59% (7,802) of total abortions compared with 72% in 2019.

Ken Orr,

Spokesperson,

Right to Life N.Z. Inc.

Why no legal protection for babies born alive in an abortion New Zealand?

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Media Release 26 May 2021

 Right to Life fully supports the excellent and timely petition of our member Sarah-Jane Cleaver who with passionate dedication has obtained the signatures of 6,586 concerned citizens who are now requesting Parliament to legislate to require that babies born alive in an abortion receive appropriate palliative care. The petition is currently being considered by the Parliamentary Petitions Select Committee.

The Ministry of Health has advised Right to Life that there were 13,236 unborn babies killed by abortion in New Zealand in 2020. 120 of these babies were late term and were 20 weeks or more gestation. One of these was awaiting birth being between 35 and 39 weeks.

The Ministry of Health does not require that abortionists report babies being born alive in an abortion. It is appalling that there is no record of the fate of these poor babies. Right to Life makes no apology for speaking up in defence of these children who have survived a determined and vicious attack on their lives. They are human beings endowed by their Creator with an inalienable right to Life and have a right to respect and appropriate palliative care. Who can ignore the cries of these babies as they fight to breathe?

It is known that babies are born alive in abortions. There has been a six-fold increase in late term abortions in Victoria Australia following decriminalisation of abortion in 2008.

In 2016 there were 310 late term abortions resulting in 33 babies being born alive. The Victorian Consultative Council on Obstetric and Paediatric Mortality and Morbidity reported that in 2012 there were 53 ‘terminations of Pregnancy’ after 20 weeks ‘resulting in live birth’. There is no legal requirement to provide care for a baby born alive in an abortion in Victoria.

In Queensland between 2005 and 2015, 204 babies were born alive as a result of abortions. In 2015, 27 babies of 20 or weeks gestation survived only to die later of neglect. The Queensland health authority directs that no palliative care is to be given to any baby born alive in an abortion.

There are no statistics on babies born alive in NSW. The law in NSW requires that palliative care be provided to a baby born alive in a late term abortion.

There are no statistics on babies born alive in South Australia. The law in South Australia does not require that palliative care to protect the life of the  baby born alive in a late term abortion. In these circumstances,  the baby is wrapped in a blanket and the mother is given the opportunity to hold the baby as it dies.”

 In Western Australia there were 27 babies born alive in late term abortions in 1999-2016. There is no legal requirement to provide care for a baby born alive.

The Ministry of Health web site states  “a live birth after an intended abortion is extremely unlikely. From 22 weeks of pregnancy, feticide (an injection to stop the fetal heart) takes place prior to the abortion. This is not a legal requirement.”

In the event that this did occur, all babies born alive are legal people with the same rights as any other person. There is a requirement to provide health care in the same way as for any other baby. This is a request that may or may not be  followed.

We urgently need a law to protect these children who are the weakest and most defenceless members of our human family.

If we do not legislate we may in the future have a direction from the Ministry not to provide palliative care and just to hold the baby until it dies.

Ken Orr

Spokesperson,

Right to Life

Christchurch Abortion Capital of the South Island

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Media Release 6 March 2021

The latest abortion statistics released by the Canterbury District Health Board confirm that Christchurch tragically continues to be the abortion capital of the South Island.

The Canterbury District Health Board has released to Right to Life under the Official Information Act the abortion statistics for 2020. The Board advises that in 2020 there were a total of 1,658 abortions performed at Christchurch Women’s Hospital and at the Gynaecological Procedure unit at the Christchurch Public Hospital.

This is an increase of 90 over the abortion total for 2018, the total for 2019 has not yet been released. Since the passing of the Abortion Legislation Act 2020 abortions do not have to be performed in a licensed facility. Medical abortions may be performed in a suburban medical centre and by telehealth with the dangerous drugs being taken by the women in their own home without medical supervision. These abortions are only reported to the Ministry of Health.

This is therefore not the abortion total for Christchurch as it does not include abortions performed outside of Christchurch Women’s Hospital. We may have experienced a 10 per cent increase in abortion numbers under the new extreme abortion law.

A total of 941 defenceless unborn children were violently dismembered and killed in their mother’s womb. A total of 717 unborn children were poisoned in their mother’s womb with lethal drugs.

Each one of these children was a unique and unrepeatable miracle of God’s loving creation endowed by its Creator at conception with an inalienable right to life. They were created to love and to be loved, they were endowed with special gifts to enrich our community. Their killing is crime against humanity and a violation of their human rights, why are the churches silent? We should also mourn for their mothers, wounded and often grief stricken, the second victim of abortion.

The Board advised that since 2010 the oldest child killed in an abortion at Christchurch Women’s Hospital was 34 weeks gestation, just 6 weeks before it was due to be born.

The Abortion Legislation Act 2020 came into operation on the 24th March 2020; this allowed for abortion on request for any reason up to 20 weeks. After 20 weeks it was required that a doctor considered it “appropriate.” There were 1,638 potentially normal pregnancies that were terminated in abortions of less than 20 weeks gestation and 20 late term abortions post 20 weeks.

The Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, the architect of the new anti-life and anti-feminist new abortion law, has decreed that the unborn child is not a human being, has no human rights until it is born and that it is no longer a crime to kill an unborn child.

The Canterbury District Health Board dedicated to protecting life and promoting health has an outstanding reputation for caring for the community that it serves. It really cares for its people. Right to Life believes that the Board and its dedicated staff do not support the burden inflicted on them by the government has decreed that killing the unborn is a core health service with unlimited funding. Why does the Prime Minister who tells us to be kind and the Minister of Health, Hon. Andrew Little, inflict this intolerable violence against women and their precious unborn on our communities and on the dedicated staff in our hospitals?

The CDHB advised Right to Life in a letter, “that staff recognise that for any woman considering abortion can be overwhelming and incredibly stressful and a decision not taken lightly. Staff deal gently, respectfully and professionally with women.”

Social workers talk of regret, guilt, depression and anxiety and that there is no pressure to decide.

Right to Life encourages our doctors and nurses to refuse to be involved in the killing of our defenceless unborn children and reject the culture of death which the government is imposing on them under the guise that it is a health service.


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

This is the website of Right to Life NZ Inc.
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