Right to Life requests that the government conduct a referendum on the taxpayer funding of the abortion industry at the 2020 general election. The government promotes the false “right of women to choose an abortion”, yet denies the right of the taxpayer the choice to refuse to fund abortions. As taxpayers we are compelled to fund abortion, a refusal to pay taxes could result in a heavy fine or imprisonment. 

Since 1977 the government has decreed without consultation and the consent of the taxpayer, that the killing of the unborn in New Zealand is a core health service to be funded by the taxpayer with unlimited funding.

 This is an intolerable injustice:-

• It makes all taxpayers complicit in the murder of the innocent and defenceless unborn children. 

• It soils our hands with the blood of the innocent, placing an intolerable burden on the conscience of the nation. 

• It implicates all taxpayers in the damage inflicted on women’s health through abortion. 

Right to Life also again asks why, with the full knowledge that abortion is the murder of a human being, are the churches silent in protesting this appalling injustice?

The community has been coerced by this pure evil as it is promoted in the beguiling words of the Minister of Justice, Andrew Little as “a reproductive health service of choice for women”, it is not!

Pregnancy is not a disease and abortion is not health care. The unborn child is a patient that needs special care and protection. Abortion is the only “health service” that has the specific objective of killing the patient.

In 1988 the Abortion Supervisory Committee in its report to Parliament noted that we had an “unwieldly system of authorisations of abortions for potentially normal pregnancies on pseudo legal grounds.” Right to life believes that the Committee was alluding to the 97 per cent of abortions that are authorised on socio economic grounds masquerading as mental health. Dr Christine Forster, a former chairman of the Committee is on record as stating,  (these) “are the grounds used by certifying consultants to provide abortion on demand”.

Right to Life believes that the majority of taxpayers are opposed to their taxes being used to fund abortion. Marist polls conducted in the United States reveal that 68 percent of those polled are opposed to their taxes funding abortion. In the United States Federal funding of abortion is mostly prohibited. Polls in the United States also reveal that the absence of taxpayer funding for abortion encourages 18 to 35 per cent of women to choose life for their baby and continue with their pregnancy.

There were 13,285 abortions reported in 2017. Why should the taxpayer be required to pay for these abortions authorised for social reasons masquerading as mental health? Abortions in public hospitals cost on average $1100.00. That is a total cost in excess of $14 million and this excludes the more than $4 million in fees paid to certifying consultants in 2017 for authorising abortions. This money should and could be used for funding genuine medical procedures, such as hip and knee operations.

Right to Life believes that the government should in the interest of the lives of unborn children; our future citizens, the health of women and justice for the taxpayer provide a referendum on taxpayer abortion funding at the 2020 general election.

Ken Orr

Spokesperson,

Right to Life