Led by Jacinda Ardern, they include the anti-feminist movement, the Family Planning Association, the Green Party, the radical left of the Labour Party,

All are strident advocates for the killing of our vulnerable, innocent and defenceless unborn.

We can not state more clearly that Jacinda Ardern is the prime driver for the decriminalisation of abortion in New Zealand.

The Prime Minister does not recognise the humanity of the unborn child, nor its right to life.

It is our view that:

• Ardern believes that the child is the property of the mother.
• She believes that the killing of an unborn child by another human is a human right.
• That it is her wish abortion be taken out of the Crimes Act and treated as a health issue.
• She believes the killing of an unborn child by another human is a "reproductive choice for women".

Responding to an Official Information Act request on 16 March, Justice Minister, Andrew Little, confirmed that the government supported the born alive law contained in Section 159 of the Crimes Act 1961.

The born alive law states that "for the purposes of the Crimes Act", an unborn child does not become a human being until it is born.

However, it was never the intention of Parliament to deny the humanity of the unborn child. This whole section is a legal fiction intended to differentiate between homicide and the killing of an unborn child.

A poll conducted by AC Nielsen in 2004 on behalf of Right to Life found considerable support for recognising the humanity of the unborn child.

The poll of 1000 persons found that,

• 36% believed that the unborn child became a human being at conception,
• 14% at the time of implantation and
• 28 % at a point between implantation and birth.

These statistics show a total of 78% who believed that the unborn child was a human being before birth.

Further, in April 2019, a poll of a 1,000 persons found 47% believed that the human rights of the unborn child should be legally protected from about six weeks once a heartbeat can be detected.

Curia Market Research conducted the poll in April 2019 on behalf of Family First.

Instead then, of following its own agenda, why does the Labour-led government not amend the law to reflect public opinion?

Right to life requests that the Labour-led government conduct a binding referendum.

The question to be asked: "Do you recognise the unborn child from implantation as being a human being endowed by its Creator with human rights, the foundation right being an inalienable right to life?"

It is disappointing that our government has $2.2 million to conduct a referendum on legalising the personal use of cannabis, an issue that is a threat to the lives and health of New Zealanders.

It is shameful that the government gives priority to legalising the smoking of cannabis but has no interest in promoting the rights of our most vulnerable.

New Zealand cannot be a just society until the New Zealand Bill of Rights protects the human rights of every New Zealander from conception to natural death.

We find it astounding on the 19 January 2018 Jacinda Ardern was jubilant in announcing that "she was pregnant with her first child".

She has felt her baby kick; she has heard its heartbeat and watched in awe at scans showing the wondrous miracle of creation developing in her womb, indeed a beautiful baby and a unique and unrepeatable miracle of nature endowed with a right to life.

How then can she be in denial about the humanity of the unborn child and its right to life?

• Ken Orr is a spokesman for Right to Life
• Image: Supplied

Since she became Prime Minister nearly 19,000 innocent and defenceless children have been violently killed in their mother's womb.

Right to Life commends the Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern who is also the Minister for Child Poverty Reduction for her passionate commitment to reduce child poverty in New Zealand. Why then is she ignoring the utter poverty of unwanted unborn children, our most vulnerable children?

The Prime Minister stated in an opinion article that she wrote for Children's Day 3rd March 2019, "one of our goals and aspirations as a Government is to make New Zealand the best place in the world to be a child, but we can always do more. The way we treat children, says so much about what kind of country we are."

Right to Life agrees and asks then what sort of country are we when the government authorises and funds the violent killing of an average of 35 children every day? Why too does the Prime Minister discriminate against our unborn children the most vulnerable of our children? Human life begins at conception; at the moment of conception, a new human being, a child, the weakest and most defenceless member of the human family is created. That child is a unique and unrepeatable miracle of God's loving creation.

Why does the Prime Minister not recognise that the greatest poverty that could be inflicted on a child is to be violently deprived of life before it is born? This is a crime against humanity and a burden on the conscience of the nation.

The Prime Minister in 2018 introduced the Child Poverty Reduction bill which had as its objective to encourage a focus on child poverty reduction and provide a commitment by Government to address child well-being. The bill was passed in December 2018. There is no provision in this Act to recognise the poverty inflicted on unborn children.

It is the duty of government not only to reduce child poverty but to prohibit the killing of children both born and unborn. The Prime Minister, however, who believes that smacking a child is a crime, believes that killing an unborn child should not be a crime and should be a "reproductive choice for women". It is her intention to facilitate the killing of children before birth by removing "unwanted" unborn children from the protection of the Crimes Act. Under her proposal, they will be able to be killed with impunity under the Health Act as a "reproductive health service".

Right to Life requests that the Prime Minister ceases discriminating against our unborn children and revokes her plan to decriminalise the killing of the unborn.

Ken Orr,
Spokesperson,
Right to Life

The principle questions asked were:-

• Is it still your policy to retain a restriction on abortions imposed at 20 weeks gestation in the Crimes Act section 187A in your proposed legislation to decriminalise abortion?
• Is it your policy to accept dismemberment abortions that permit an abortionist to tear the arms, legs and head off an unborn child?

The new coalition government has specifically made a commitment to "strengthen New Zealand's democracy by increasing public participation, openness, and transparency around official information".

The questions were asked on 15 January 2019.

Right to Life believes that the Prime Minister has a duty to lead by example.

The Crimes Act stipulates that the cut - off point for abortions is 20 weeks and the cut-off point in the legislation being drafted by the Minister of Justice is 22 weeks.

Mike Munroe, Chief of Staff of the Prime Minister's Office advised on 24 January that he was referring our Official Information Request to the Minister of Justice, as he was responsible for "alternative approaches on abortion law."

Prior to the election on the Newstalk ZB's Leader's Breakfast, Jacinda Ardern made the following statement:

"Yes I think abortion should come out of the Crimes Act.

"That does not mean for a moment that I am proposing what has been claimed, that you should be able to have on-demand abortion to birth.

"No that is absolutely not what I am saying.

"We of course must regulate...

"We have time periods already set out in the law and I am not proposing changes to that.

"I am proposing it comes out of the Crimes Act."

This is an important public policy statement concerning abortion.

The public have an absolute right to ask the Prime Minister, who believes that killing an unborn child should not be a crime, is relentlessly driving a change in the abortion law to remove abortion from the Crimes Act and to make abortion a "reproductive choice for women".

Will she support retaining the 20 week cut off as she has publicly stated?

The minister of Justice at the direction of the Prime Minister is to bring a bill to Parliament to adopt the Law Commission's Model C.

Under this Model, there would be no statutory test until 22 weeks of a pregnancy.

After 22 weeks, the health practitioner who intends to perform an abortion would need to be satisfied that the abortion is appropriate in the circumstances, having regard to the woman's physical and mental health and well-being.

Everyone knows what this means; effectively abortion on demand up to birth.

In January, 2018, Curia Market Research, an independent pollster released results of a poll of 1,013 persons.

• Just 9% support the current legal limit for an abortion of 20 weeks.
• Only 4% believe it should be later than 20 weeks, including up to birth.
• 50% think the time limit should be shorter than the current 20 weeks, and a further 36% were unsure.
• The median choice of those who did choose a time limit was 15 weeks.
• 56% of women think the time limit should be less than the current 20 weeks.
• 53% of those who generally support abortion think the time
limit should be less than the current 20 weeks.
• 29% of abortion supporters say 10 weeks or less.

There is increasing opposition in the United States to the violence and suffering imposed on defenceless unborn children by dismemberment abortions.

There are now ten states that have outlawed this horrific violence on the defenceless.

The public have a right to know if the Prime Minister supports protecting the unborn from this dismemberment violence.

• Ken Orr is spokesperson for Right to Life.

Recently she stated, "New Zealand condemns any use of chemical weapons, whether it is in Syria or on the streets of the UK.

"New Zealand believes all states must adhere to obligations under international law, including in respect of chemical weapons."

It is however inconsistent for the Prime Minister to denounce this crime against humanity while at the same time giving approval for chemical warfare in New Zealand in the form of a war against our own children.

Last year the Abortion Supervisory Committee reported to Parliament that 1,970, pre-born children were killed in their mother's womb with the lethal chemical Mifegyne RU486.

This chemical was approved for the killing of children by then Minister of Health Annette King, in August 2001.

In her media release on 30 August 2001, the Minister stated that, "Mifegyne RU486 meets the international standards of safety and effectiveness required for medicines".

Mifegyne RU 486, is not a medicine and pregnancy is not a disease.

The lethal drug is not safe for the unborn child, nor is it safe for women.

It is however, as the Minister claims, highly effective in killing the unborn.

Since the introduction of this new chemical warfare against the unborn there have been nearly 18,000 unborn killed in New Zealand by this drug.

This chemical war is also violence against women who are the second victims of this war.

I call this a crime against humanity.

Mifegyne acts by depriving the endometrium of a hormone which the human embryo requires to flourish, the embryo then dies of starvation.

This highly effective chemical warfare is approved and funded as a core health service by the government and is used in a number of Public Hospitals.

The Family Planning Association is an ardent supporter of chemical warfare with Mifegyne.

The Association supports the decriminalisation of abortion, removing abortion from the Crimes Act and making it no longer a crime to kill an unborn child.

The Association supports abortion being a reproductive choice for women for any reason with this lethal poison being available at all of its other 29 clinics.

Chemical warfare has been raging against our own children in the womb for more than fifty years.

It is hypocritical for our government to condemn crimes against humanity in other countries while actively waging a government funded war against our own children.

There will be no peace in New Zealand until this devastating war against our nation's children in the womb is stopped.

• Ken Orr is spokesperson for Right to Life NZ
• Image: ODT

He is seeking to influence the Justice Select Committee to reject submissions and in so doing undermining the democratic process.

Seymour's baseless allegations are deeply offensive and insulting to the thousands of New Zealanders who have sent submissions on behalf of their children, families and wider community expressing their great concerns this ill-advised bill represents.

What Seymour is in fact saying is that the parliamentary process of receiving submissions is of no significance or value.

Seymour is saying that public opinion polls, conducted by asking, frankly, what can be described as ‘leading' or at least ill-informed questions are of superior value.

This is nonsense.

David Seymour should if he wishes to retain any credibility refrain from commenting on the submissions.

Seymour

• has not seen the 28,800 submissions,
• is not qualified to comment on the quality of the submissions, and
• should allow the Justice Committee to get on with its business of considering the submissions.

David Seymour's dismisses organisations opposed to doctors killing patients or assisting suicides, calling them the anti-assisted dying lobby.

David Seymour is aware that this "lobby" fully supports lawful and ethical assisted dying as set out by the New Zealand Medical Association in its submission to the Justice Select Committee.

Ethical assisted dying is

• death with dignity and comfort,
• the right of patients to decline treatment,
• the right to request pain relief even it it may hasten the death of a patient, and
• the right of access to appropriate palliative care.

The "lobby", though, totally opposes assisted dying entailing the deliberate ending of a patients life or assisting their suicide masquerading as medical care.

David Seymour claims that opinion polls consistently reveal that the majority of New Zealanders support "medically assisted death."

Opinion polls deliver results favouring poll sponsors

The polls are misleading.

We believe that many of those polled simply want to ensure that pain relief and the withdrawal of burdensome treatment does not become illegal.

The polls have often been commissioned by organisations that support euthanasia and appeal to people's fears about "insufferable pain."

The result is therefore not accurate.

David Seymour says he hopes that submissions will have suggestions that will enable the Committee to improve the bill.

The truth is that nothing can fix this bill.

Nothing the Committee can do can make doctors killing patients or assisting in their suicide which is intrinsically evil ever acceptable, ever.

• Ken Orr is spokesperson for Right to Life NZ
• Image: ODT

Right to Life makes no apology for speaking up on behalf of women and the New Zealand's most vulnerable; the unborn.

It speaks for the authentic feminist position, namely to oppose abortion, which is violence inflicted on women and New Zealand's voiceless and choiceless; unborn children.

The killing of the unborn has been outlawed under the Crimes Act since 1856.

For many years, the state has identified its a duty to legislate to protect the lives of unborn children; the weakest and most defenceless members of the human family.

Crimes Act: Section 183

Jacinda Ardern, who supports the decriminalisation of abortion, claims the inclusion of abortion in the Crimes Act makes women criminals.

This is false.

Section 183, which prohibits the killing of the unborn child, states that a woman or girl may not be charged as a party to this section.

If, as the Prime Minister proposes, abortion is decriminalised, as it is, for example, in Victoria, Australia, a woman would have the right to abort the child up to 24 weeks gestation without being required to give a reason and after 24 weeks, two doctors will be required to agree that the abortion was appropriate.

The current abortion laws are those recommended by the Royal Commission on Contraception, Sterilisation and Abortion, established in 1975 by a Labour government.

The commission said, upholding the status of the unborn child: "From a biological point of view, there is no argument as to when life begins. Evidence was given to us by eminent scientists from all over the world. None of them suggested that human life begins at any other time than at conception."

They went on to say: "From implantation to birth, changes which take place in the unborn child are of a developmental nature only. There are no changes of a qualitative nature.

"If some stage of physical or mental development has to be accepted as indicating whether or not human life is in being, so a stage may be reached at the other end of life where a person who has become senile or has lost consciousness may be disposed of."

Child poverty and homelessness

If we, as a society deny the humanity of the unborn, and place a woman's right to choose ahead of society's most vulnerable the right to life, by extension, the denial of their unborn humanity is a direct threat to the most basic right of all people, the right to life.

A lot is being made by Ms Ardern about child poverty and homelessness.

Could I suggest, the ultimate child poverty is to be deprived of life before birth?

Could I suggest the ultimate state of homelessness is being prematurely evicted before being able to make life choices for oneself?

Our women deserve better than abortion. Our country deserves better than rendering the most vulnerable homeless.

• Ken Orr is spokesperson for Right to Life NZ
• Image: ODT

Right to Life is a "whole of life" pro-life organisation, meaning we seek to uphold the right to life of every human being from conception to natural death.

The United Nations Declaration of Human Rights upholds our right to life as being universal and inalienable. It is the foundation of our human rights, being inalienable it may not be taken from us nor may we give it up.

In New Zealand two Death with Dignity bills were defeated at their first reading in 1995 and 2003. ACT MP David Seymour has a private member's bill, "End of Life Choice" in the ballot.

And the Parliamentary Health Select Committee is considering an estimated 20,000 submissions on a petition concerning assisted suicide, from former MP Maryan Street.

In Holland the Dutch Euthanasia Society is currently lobbying Parliament to change the law to allow providing every 70 year old with a lethal suicide pill.

Street and the Voluntary Euthanasia Society are proposing that the Crimes Act be changed to allow doctors to kill their patients or assist in their suicide.

Assisting in suicide or engaging in homicide are serious crimes which may be punished with a term of imprisonment.

The World Medical Association that represents medical associations in 102 countries is totally opposed to euthanasia.

The New Zealand Medical Association (NZMA) that represents more than 5500 registered medical practitioners is also opposed as are palliative care specialists and Hospice New Zealand.

The medical profession is absolutely clear that euthanasia is about doctors killing their patients.

Dr Paul Ockelford, the then chairman of the NZMA, at a public meeting discussing euthanasia in Dunedin in 2012, asked if the NZMA condoned doctors taking a life, would we teach it at medical school? "Would we have a course that teaches students to kill?" Continue reading

Source and Image

• Article by Ken Orr, spokesman for pro-life organisation Right to Life in Stuff

The Abortion Law Reform Association of New Zealand set up a "give a little" web page to raise $300 to send the flowers, support messages and "sweet treats" to three abortion clinics.

"We want to balance out the vitriol and stigma perpetrated by the anti-choice '40 Days' campaign," ALRANZ stated on its "give a little" page.

The campaign raised $425 from 28 donors.

The amount above $300 is being spent on supporting other abortion clinics and providers, starting from Invercargill and moving north.

The 40 Days for Life campaign runs from February 10 to March 20, and is taking place outside AMAC in Auckland, Wellington Hospital and Christchurch Hospital.

Those participating in the vigils are praying for an end to abortion, for women who are considering an abortion -that they may chose life, for women who have had an abortion and who are now seeking spiritual and physical healing.

Prayer is being offered for those doctors and nurses involved in abortion industry that they might change and promote a culture of life.

But ALRANZ said the clinics involved are being targeted for harassment.

Right to Life spokesman Ken Orr rejected this charge.

"It is disappointing that ALRANZ, a small pro-abortion anti-feminist organisation, is opposed to prayers for an end to the killing of the unborn and for support for women to choose life for their unborn baby," Mr Orr said.

"This organisation is conducting a campaign of 40 days harassment of those praying in these vigils. There has been verbal abuse, theft of signs and prayer material.

"Those participating in the vigils will not be deterred by this harassment," Mr Orr said.

ALRANZ said it would be organising "some counter-protests".

Sources

• Give a Little
• Right to Life New Zealand
• Image: A Culture of Life

Dr Rob Jonquiere has spoken at several gatherings in New Zealand over the past two weeks.

He was brought here by the Voluntary Euthanasia Society of New Zealand.

The Society is pushing for the Government to change the law to allow people with "unbearable suffering to end their lives with dignity, not in pain".

Jonquiere helped draft legislation that allowed Dutch people suffering a terminal illness to choose to die.

He says he is hopeful change would come to New Zealand, where euthanasia is still illegal.

Right to Life spokesman Ken Orr was "not happy at all" that Jonquiere was in New Zealand "promoting suicide".

"If the bill he is promoting is passed, it will destroy the trust our community has in the medical profession not to kill their patients."

The two men were to meet in Christchurch on Monday in private to debate the issue.

The Nathaniel Centre - Euthanasia in New Zealand

Source

• Stuff.co.nz
• The New Zealand Herald
• Image: Stuff.co.nz

"Smith is within his coronial rights to describe Edna Gluyas' death as suicide or euthanasia, but to call for Parliament to yet again confront euthanasia is simply irresponsible in the light of what we now know about widespread elder abuse in New Zealand," he said.

And Ken Orr, Spokesperson for Right to Life, says his organisation believes that Smith's request is "reprehensible and a deadly threat to the common good".

" It is concerning that a Coroner should be advocating a culture of death with the murder of the vulnerable," he said.

Source

• Voice for life Inc: Stuff.co.nz
• Right to life: Voxy
• Image: ACU
  

The committee is particularly concerned that women seeking fertility assistance have been caught up in the anti-abortion protests.

In particular, the Report singles out "harassment of medical staff is taking place in Invercargill resulting from services now being offered at Southland Hospital."

"We are further concerned about the impact of being known as a certifying consultant in some locations. During the last year the Committee has heard distressing reports from certifying consultants where they, their families, patients and wider public have been the subject of harassment. Particularly distressing are reports of women seeking fertility assistance who have been harassed when they were mistakenly thought to be seeking pregnancy termination."

However, Right to Life spokesman, Ken Orr, says their protests are peaceful and supportive of women.

"The people who have vigils outside hospitals and clinic are there in a prayerful presence."

The Right for Life group were not responsible for bullying or threatening staff as their group opposed violence, he said.

Source

• The Abortion Supervisory Committee Report
• Stuff.co.nz
• Image: TV3