The state of Victoria's Voluntary Assisted Dying Review Board reported 124 deaths by assisted suicide and euthanasia since 19 June 19, 2019 when the procedure became legal.

There were 231 permits issued for the procedure that year.

The Board's report says 104 of those who died under the Voluntary Assisted Dying Act 2017 committed assisted suicide. A further 20 people were euthanized by a medical practitioner.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrew had predicted there would be ‘a dozen' deaths in the first 12 months."

Victoria Health Minister Jenny Mikakos, of the Australian Labor Party, also expected the number of people seeking assisted suicide or euthanasia to be low initially, and increase in later years. Like Andrew, she thought as few as 12 people would access the scheme.

"We anticipate that once the scheme has been in place for some time, we'll see between 100 and 150 patients access this scheme every year," Mikakos said shortly before the law took effect.

Applicants under the Voluntary Assisted Dying Act 2017 ranged in age from 32 to 100, with an average of 71 years of age.

Forty-four percent were female, 55 percent were male and 1 percent were "self-described."

Most applicants - 78 percent - had diagnoses of malignant cancer and 15 percent had neurodegenerative diseases.

Anti-euthanasia advocate and director of HOPE, Branka van der Linden, called the number of deaths and the rate at which they were occuring "alarming.

"Half of those who applied for lethal drugs made their final request for euthanasia less than three weeks after they first requested it," van der Linden said.

"That's not a lot of time for reflection, for alternative options to be offered and explored, or for the necessary support to be provided."

Archbishop Peter Comensoli of Melbourne said the number of suicides was "heartbreaking."

The attitude toward death contradicts the extreme cautionary measures being put in place for the coronavirus pandemic, he noted.

"The whole state is making sacrifices to protect people from COVID-19 while on the other hand public hospitals are encouraging assisted suicide," Comensoli told The Catholic Weekly. "The contradiction is baffling for many doctors."

Tasmania is currently debating a bill that would legalize assisted suicide for Tasmanian residents 18 years of age and older, who "have decision-making capacity, (are) acting voluntarily, and have a relevant medical condition."

Tasmania rejected a similar bill in 2013.

Source

• Catholic News Agency
• Image: ABC News

The New Zealand Catholic bishops have sent a message to church members encouraging them to inform themselves about the issue and to take some action while the revision is under consideration.

Click here to see a comparison between the existing and the proposed legislation and a list of points for anyone who wishes to make a submission to consider.

In their message, the bishops say: " every pregnancy involves at least two lives - the child and the mother. Every abortion takes away an innocent life."

"Protecting and caring for life from conception to natural death stands at the core of our Catholic faith. From the moment an embryo comes into existence, a genetically and spiritually unique human life has begun," the bishops say.

"It is already the human being it will always be. It will only grow in size and complexity and is therefore entitled to be treated with the same respect as other human beings."

The bishops suggest three ways of responding to the present situation.

Political
We are called to speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves. We have an obligation to advocate for the right to life of the unborn child and the well-being of mothers. We encourage every one of you to exercise your democratic right to make a submission to parliament and to contact your local MP.

Prayerful
Every human life is a gift from God. Just as parents spontaneously pray for their unborn child, so we are called to pray for all the unborn, as well as for their parents and extended families. We also pray for wisdom for our MPs.

Pastoral:
Our belief in the sanctity of life is demonstrated in the way we show love for both unborn children and their mothers. The message others hear from us will be shaped not just by our words, but also by the way in which we speak and act. We need to ask: ‘After this debate is over, will our faith communities be seen as places of love, compassion and care that women facing the challenges of a pregnancy will want to turn to?'

Source

• Supplied: catholic.org.nz
• Image: catholic.org.nz

They will be praying will be to defend life, from conception to natural death.

On the same day parishes, groups, families and people of good will gather in Wellington to take part in the National March for Life.

They will gather at the Civic Square at 2 pm and march down Lambton Quay to Parliament grounds where the rosary will be prayed on the Parliament Lawn.

The Rosary Crusade organisers are hoping that all who can, will travel to Wellington to join the March for Life.

But those who cannot get to Wellington for the March for Life can join the Rosary Crusade prayers at various other locations throughout the country.

The organizers are looking for people to lead the Rosary Crusade programme in their locality.

You can contact Clare on 022 1912 886 or clarests4@gmail.com to register your group or visit rosarycrusade.co.nz

Bishop Patrick Dunn is a patron of the Pro-Life Rosary Crusade, and four other New Zealand bishops, have offered us their prayerful support.

For more information on the National March for Life, visit march for life.nz, contact Michael on 021 825 955 or email him at michael@fli.org.nz

Supplied
Michael Loretz
Education Director
Family Life International NZ

Clare Dargaville
National Organizer
NZ Rosary Crusade

They have written Jacinda Ardern an open letter, published on Sunday as a full-page advertisement in the Sunday Star-Times, the Herald on Sunday and in the Dominion Post on Monday.

Spokesperson Barbara Hill said that it was time for an honest conversation about the impact abortions have.

"We began to feel that the law was changing too fast without any investigation of the fallout and consequences of abortion."

The open letter includes the names of the eight women and the number of children they have, including those they have aborted.

"We did what we thought was best at the time, encouraged - or in some cases pressured, by those around us. But we have suffered," they say in the letter.

"It was expedient at the time - it solved the initial problem I had, but I didn't realise until years later that I'd actually been grieving," Hill said.

Motivated by her own experience, she's calling for greater support and information to be given to women who are considering abortion.

"Once I stepped on the medical conveyor belt, there was no counselling or any information around potential fallout," Hill said.

"All the other women I've spoken to, not one of them has had really in-depth counselling about the possible outcome of this."

Hill said the advertisements were funded by the eight women and a number of organisations including Family First.

The prime minister hadn't yet read the letter when Newshub spoke to her but said all views would be considered.

She agrees with the letter writers that support for women who are considering abortion should be paramount.

Source

• newshub.co.nz
• radionz.co.nz
• Image msn.com

The Voice for Life prolife group laid out 13,285 pairs of baby booties on the lawn to represent the number of foetuses aborted in 2017.

There was tension and some scuffles when a prochoice demonstrator started picking up handfuls of booties and scattered them around.

People tried to restrain the person. Police were called but no arrests were made.

Voice for Life national president Jacqui de Ruiter said the group decided to create the graphic display following the release of the latest abortion figures to illustrate how many potential lives were lost through abortion.

DeRuiter said although they were outnumbered by the counter-protesters, the fact that thousands of people around the country had pitched in to knit the booties showed they had a lot of support.

"We are here to speak for the unborn, to show Parliament that we do not need more-liberal abortion laws."

Abortion Rights Aotearoa national president Terry Bellamak, who organised a counter-protest on the other side of the lawn, said it was to show solidarity with those who wanted abortion care.

"This booties protest ... is kind of about shaming and guilting people who have had abortions and we think that's wrong.

"Making sure that women can choose abortion when it's right for them and not having to feel demonised or somehow wrong."

National MPs Simon O'Connor and Chris Penk were among those addressing the prolife group.

Labour and Green Party MPs - as well as Nikki Kaye and Amy Adams from the National Party - spoke to the crowd in support of the counter-protesters.

Adams said there was cross-party support for improving abortion law.

Source

• nzherald.co.nz
• radionz.co.nz
• Image: Screenshot radionz.co.nz

On Monday, Jack Tame on TVNZ and Susie Ferguson on Morning report challenged his position.

Bridges said his position on abortions was that they should be "rare, safe, legal" - with an emphasis on rare.

He said he believes the present system is working well.

Bridges said the issue would be a conscious vote for National MPs.

On its website, TVNZ notes that Bridges is "religious."

Bridges' father was a Baptist minister and he is a practising Christian.

In a 2013 interview, Bridges said religion played a minor part in his adult life.

"I would still consider myself a believer. I do believe in God."

He and his wife Natalie are reported to have attended an Anglican church in Tauranga.

They met at Oxford while she was doing a Masters in English Literature and he was doing a Bachelor in Civil Law.

Both Ferguson and Tame's questions were motivated by the Irish voting in a referendum to remove the prohibition on abortion from their constitution.

"If you look at Ireland, they had a situation where it was probably the most restrictive regime in the western world - that's not where we're at" Bridges said.

Irish Minister for Health, Simon Harris, will seek the cabinet's backing on Tuesday to draft the new legislation.

The proposed legislation will allow abortions during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.

It will allow them up to the 24th week in exceptional circumstances.

New Zealand Catholic bishops' position is the law should protect the rights of both the mother and the unborn child.

They say it is both a justice and a health issue.

Source

• bbc.com
• radionz.co.nz
• thecivilian.co.nz
• tvnz.co.nz
• stuff.co.nz
• stuff.co.nz
• www.noted.co.nz
• Image: nzherald.co.nz

The case has roiled the United Kingdom and the public is taking sides in the streets and across the internet.

Members of "Alfie's army" have even attempted to storm the hospital where the patient is being treated to liberate him from the hospital's care.

But is the treatment being offered to Alfie Evans, a toddler suffering from a so-far-undiagnosed neurological disorder, moral, immoral or even medically inappropriate?

Catholic teaching on end-of-life care and treatment for patients in a persistent vegetative state can help address the controversy, says Kevin Wildes, S.J., a bioethicist and president of Loyola University New Orleans.

But while the tradition can help make sense of Alfie's plight, it cannot fully mitigate the emotional suffering of family members closest to him or even, apparently, put a stop to end-of-life controversies like the one consuming Alfie and his family.

They seem to crop up periodically in the United States and now with an increasing frequency in the United Kingdom.

The months-long legal battle between Alfie's parents and his doctors at the Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool has even drawn in Pope Francis and Italian authorities—unhelpfully, some medical ethicists say.

The pope and political leaders in Poland and Italy have supported the family's desire to have Alfie removed from Liverpool and cared for at Bambino Gesù, the Vatican's pediatric hospital in Rome. He has even been declared an honorary Italian citizen.

Doctors treating Alfie say that he has little brain function and that further treatment is futile—whether in Liverpool or in Rome.

They say there is no known treatment for his condition; in fact, there is not even a diagnosis for it.

He has been in a semi-vegetative state since he was brought in for care after suffering seizure-like symptoms in December 2016.

But the ventilator that had been helping Alfie Evans breathe was removed by court order on April 23, and he has since been breathing on his own with some assistance.

Now U.K. medical staff are providing oxygen, and they have restored hydration and nutrition interventions.

The British medical system has been indicted by critics who say that cost has been a factor in the decision to take Alfie off his ventilator, though staff at Alder Hey insist their only concern has been for the child's well-being.

John Paris, S.J., the Walsh professor of bioethics emeritus at Boston College, argues that it is entirely appropriate to take the cost of treatment into consideration in such decisions, along with other criteria like patient suffering or the apparent futility of further medical intervention.

Father Paris believes that, as in the Charlie Gard case which generated similar controversy and a previous intervention by Francis, the pope's pastoral intentions in his outreach to the Evans family have been interpreted incorrectly as a signal that therapeutic treatment could be available for Alfie.

But at Bambino Gesù, Father Paris believes, Alfie Evans would only receive care similar to what he is already receiving in Liverpool—that is, comfort as his natural death approaches.

Teaching vs. ideology

The church offers guidance on the meaning of extraordinary and ordinary care in the treatment of the critically ill and people in persistent vegetative states, but the teaching is often unable to overcome ideologically driven controversy and confusion in such cases, Father Wildes says.

That is particularly true in the United States, he thinks, where end-of-life controversies have been driven by abortion politics, sometimes in contravention to the church's actual teaching about the care of patients nearing death or in persistent vegetative states.

The church does not teach that every possible recourse must be taken to preserve life. Continue reading

• Since writing this piece, Alfie Evans passed away April 28, his father, Thomas Evans Tweeting, "My gladiator lay down his shield and gained his wings". RIP
• Image: Lauren Ashburn

The family-friendly event aimed to:

• Celebrate life
• Remember the more than 500,000 pre-born babies who have been aborted since 1974
• Increase public awareness of abortion, and its impact on women, families and society while highlighting the alternatives and support available to the abortion-vulnerable.
• Bring all New Zealanders of goodwill together, united in the one common vision of making abortion unthinkable.

Well over six hundred ‘voices for the voiceless' from all around the country carried signs from the Civic Centre to Parliament sharing the message ‘We love them both' and witnessing to the truth of the dignity and sacredness of every human life from conception until natural death.

At Parliament grounds, the gathering continued with entertainment from the Mother of Divine Mercy Refuge youth.

A line-up of inspirational speakers included David Light, Commonwealth silver-medallist in boxing.

A spokesperson said a spirit of peace and joy permeated the event.

She said the organisers hope the March for Life will become an annual gathering to promote a culture of love and life.

December 2017 marks 40 years since the passing of the Contraception, Sterilisation and Abortion Act.

The National March for Life New Zealand was organised by people who wish to be a voice for the voiceless.

It was supported by Voice for Life, Right to Life, Family Life International NZ and the NZ Catholic Bishops Conference.

Source

• Supplied
• March for Life
• Image: Supplied

However, the policy does not appear in the Labour Party's 100-day plan.

Justice Minister Andrew Little says it would be "well into next year" before any changes.said the government remained committed to modernising the law. Continue reading

In August, an online referendum was held that contained a double question: "Should AUSA disaffiliate the ProLife Club and ban any clubs with similar ideology from affiliating in the future?"

The legal advice presented to AUSA found the referendum question could be considered biased or leading because it was not possible to answer each of the questions separately.

AUSA president Will Matthews said if the referendum question had been split into two questions it would have been a different matter.

"The way it was written is unconstitutional, so we have declared it void."

ProLife New Zealand (PLNZ) spokeswoman Mary-Anne Evers said the club welcomed the news.

"The whole process baffled me a little, to be honest," says Evers. "An unsubstantiated, anonymous question was submitted to be included in the AUSA referendum shortly before voting opened.

"The club had very little time to respond to it, or to engage students in real discussion on the matter.

"Then when the results came out they were "provisional" because they weren't sure whether they were allowed to do what they were doing. It just didn't seem like due process.

"They may not agree with the views that our clubs hold, but at least they recognise our right to free speech and don't try to suppress views they disagree with."

Evers hopes that the continued presence of Prolife Auckland at the University will "keep the conversation happening".

She notes that "women on both sides of the debate have a lot in common.

"We both see difficult situations that women face, including unwanted or difficult pregnancies, or gender discrimination (often tied to motherhood or potential motherhood).

Source

• Scoop
• Stuff
• Image: Stuff

It is an effort to bring about an end to abortion and offer hope to abortion vulnerable.

The vigil is coordinated by Family Life International (F.L.I), a Catholic pro-life and pro-family organisation that provides practical help to all women and girls facing an unplanned pregnancy.

Family Life International says 40 Days for Life runs in 40 countries across more than 600 cities and is known to have saved 12,668 lives and resulted in 83 abortion centre closures worldwide.

This year, for the first time, 40 Days for Life vigils in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch are running 12 hours a day, every day for 40 consecutive days.

This makes it the largest 40 Days for Life mobilisation ever seen in New Zealand.

It is the the fourth time it has occurred in Auckland.

And it is the second year that Michael Loretz has been the organiser there.

He says it's an "an awesome responsibility and privilege to give a public witness and to provide community outreach to vulnerable women in an effort to end the tragedy of abortion in our community."

The vigil is being held outside the Auckland Medical Aid Centre (AMAC) in Dominion Road.

Loretz admits that "there have been tensions but the relationship seems to be civil most of the time."

His hopes for this year's vigil is "that hearts and minds will turn to God and that respect for life and a culture of life will return to our collective consciousness…It would be marvellous if a baby were saved."

General Manager of AMAC, Lesley Wood, feels that the vigil is "futile & unchristian".

Wood said the vigils have "no affect what so ever on the business," adding "it can make others angry and even more determined to exercise their legal rights."

Source

• fli.org.nz
• newsbeat.kiwi
• Image: newsbeat.kiwi

Family First has taken the occasion as an opportunity to highlight the fact that the unborn child has no legal rights.

They say the new law gives the Whanganui river and all its tributaries more rights than the unborn child.

"Although New Zealand now feels compelled to grant human rights to non-living entities in the nation, the country allows women of any age to have an abortion under a number of circumstances."

"That's right folks. An unborn child has less rights than a river. Only in NZ!"

In 2011 the court of appeal upheld a previous high court judge's ruling that unborn children do not have a right to life.

However, in law, a legal person, is not the same thing as natural person.

Legal, or judicial, person

Refers to a non-human entity that is treated as a person for limited legal purposes. Legal persons can sue and be sued, own property, and enter into contracts.

There are already numerous legal persons in New Zealand. Many corporations, trust boards, and church institutions are legal persons.

Natural person

Refers to an individual human being. No other entity can be deemed to be a natural person.

In many cases, fundamental human rights are implicitly granted only to natural persons.

In most countries for example, legal persons cannot vote, marry, or hold public office.

Most countries also exclude legal persons from holding natural or constitutional rights, such as the freedom of speech.

The Whanganui river is the first river in the world to be made a legal person.

This week India granted Ganges and Yamuna rivers legal person status. In making their decision, the judges cited the ruling in New Zealand as part of their reasoning.

Source

• familyfirst.org.nz
• law.cornell.edu
• wikipedia.org
• dw.com
• stuff.co.nz
• Image: geoffcloake.co.nz

The title of his presentation was "Manufacturing Stigma: How Religious Healthcare Could Damage Your Health".

In September Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, chair of the US bishops' pro-life committee, said this lobbyist group "is not affiliated with the Catholic Church in any way.

"It has no membership, and clearly does not speak for the faithful. It is funded by powerful private foundations to promote abortion as a method of population control."

Dolan said "the use of the name 'Catholic' as a platform to promote the taking of innocent human life is offensive not only to Catholics, but to all who expect honesty and forthrightness in public discourse."

O'Brien is a mass-going Catholic born and raised in the Republic of Ireland.

In an interview with Kim Hill on Saturday Morning O'Brien said the Catholic church is a body of believers, "rather than some building in Rome".

He says it should should be compassionate and committed to social justice, including women's sexual health.

O'Brien said the bishops were solely representing their own kind.

"And very often their views are downright wrong and dangerous."

"The reality is the Catholic hierarchy have a very narrow, very conservative view that's not even shared by other religions so it seems like a craziness to put what they would advocate into law."

Bishops, like any group, should have an absolute right to free speech, but should not have the right to put their beliefs into law, he says.

"I don't think that their particular beliefs reflect the best thing for a pluralistic and secular society."

The CFC website says O'Brien's involvement in reproductive rights was sparked by his reaction to the great injustices that women especially face as a result of the Catholic hierarchy's influence over public policy in Ireland.

Listen to inteview with Kim Hill

Source

• cruxnow.com
• catholicsforchoice.org
• familyplanning.org.nz
• radionnz.co.nz
• Image: conscience

A spokesperson for the New Zealand's Catholic Bishops Conference, Simone Olsen, said of Catholics for Choice: "Clearly this group's message is inconsistent with the Church's teaching on family which seeks to protect the vulnerable and the voiceless including the unborn and at every stage of life's journey." Continue reading in NZ Catholic

The demonstration is in response to a regular demonstration by pro life group Voice for Life demonstrators.

Abortion Law Reform Association (ALRANZ) member Scott Summerfield said the aim of the demonstration was to support women seeking abortion services at the hospital.

"They harass and humiliate women coming here for an abortion," he said.

However, Voice for Life Hauraki Branch secretary Lyn Hopkins said the pro-life group's demonstrations were peaceful.

She denied that any of the demonstrators in her group had harassed women going in for an abortion.

"We just say good morning to people walking past and if somebody wants to talk to us they can," she said.
"We offer advice, care and support if they want it.

"We want these people to think about the issue and to be there to support women who want to make a better choice in their life and that is to choose life for their child."

Green MP Catherine Delahunty was at the demonstration.

"I don't think that they have an understanding of how damaging these actions have been, not only to those women going to the health services but for people who have been traumatised by their own experiences," she said.

Hopkins said the Voice for Life group could not demonstrate on August 5 because it didn't have a permit from Thames Coromandel District Council.

The group had been demonstrating without a permit for about five years because they weren't aware they needed one, she said.

However, they intended to resume their protest as soon as they could get a permit, she said.

Source

• stuff.co.nz
• Image: stuff.co.nz

Jackie Edmond, CEO of the Family Planning Association thinks abortion should be considered as a health issue.

She is calling on the government remove the legislation about abortion from the crimes act.

"To the quiet majority, abortion is a health care service like any other and should be accessed and regulated as such."

"In 2016, our abortion laws are a relic of the past. Abortion laws should protect and promote human rights, women's health and autonomy," she said.

Orr says The FPA is confused when it claims "1960s law unacceptable for 21st century women of New Zealand".

"Right to Life asks if they have read the law which was passed not in the 1960s but in December 1977."

NZ rejects CEDAW's calls for law change

Orr says the FPA call is in response to the demands of the United Nations Committee for the Convention for the Elimination of all Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).

In its 2012 report CEDAW noted that "abortion remains criminalised in the State party, which leads women to seek illegal abortions, which are often unsafe.

CEDAW urged the Government to:

1. Review the abortion law and practice with a view to simplifying it and to ensure women's autonomy to choose
2. Prevent women from having to resort to unsafe abortions and remove punitive provisions imposed on women who undergo an abortion

In the Final Draft for Consultation of the Eighth Periodic Report by the Government of New Zealand March 2012 - March 2016, submitted in June, the New Zealand Government responded to the CEDAW Report by stating:

• "Abortion is legal in New Zealand for women of any age, if two certifying consultants agree that the pregnancy will seriously harm a woman's physical or mental health."
• "The Government has no plans to review the law on abortion."

Source

• www.stuff.co.nz
• women.govt.nz
• righttolife.org.nz
• Image: catholicleader.com.au

She was charged and convicted - erroneously, in the eyes of a coalition of senior medical, legal and human rights advocates in Port Moresby who have taken up her case - with the unlawful killing of an unborn child.

Her husband, James Channel, received a similar sentence for helping buy the drugs to induce abortion through the back door of a local clinic.

It was common knowledge around Arawa that a health worker there ran a thriving business selling and administering misoprostol.

The couple are understood to be the first in PNG to be jailed for abortion.

Those fighting for a Supreme Court review of the judgment say the case looms as a dangerous precedent in a country where access to contraception is scarce, motherhood is a perilous business and unsafe abortions are shockingly high.

Leoba was raised in a village in mountain country in central Bougainville.

A good student, at the end of grade eight she was invited to continue her education but had been promised in marriage.

At 16 she was sent to her betrothed's family to work in their food garden and household and prove herself before marrying at 18.

In October 2014 Devana was 23, with a two-year-old son and a six-month-old girl she was breastfeeding.

Both births had been difficult, the second leaving her injured and traumatised after the 4.8-kilogram baby got stuck.

Around this time she fell pregnant again.

As Justice Sir Kina Bona, who presided over the case in the National Court, observed in his written judgment: "She was weak, she was short of blood and she found she was not coping too well."

Devana was about 4 months pregnant when she and her husband obtained the drugs for the termination in early January 2015.

When she went to Arawa clinic after two days of bleeding and complications, police were summoned and Channel was jailed.

Devana was ordered from her bed by her irate mother and instructed to walk 20 minutes up the road and turn herself in.

She passed out in the cells but was cared for by other inmates.

A Catholic in a strongly faithful community, she was also the sole female heir to a matrilineal heritage and so felt intense pressure to produce daughters.

Contraception was never discussed within her family, she says, and she recalls no instruction on the topic at school or from health workers.

While PNG has a strong policy advocating universal access to family planning, in much of the country the message is not heard due to remoteness, pockets of cultural and religious resistance, and the lack of basic services.

In many communities the only health care is provided by the Catholic Church, which declines facilitating access to modern contraception, although it is funded by the PNG government to provide a full range of services.

Source

• smh.com.au
• Image: smh.com.au

She said abortions were part of a broken system as they currently fell under justice rather than the Ministry of Health.

Edmonds said this when making a submission last Thursday to the Justice and Electoral select committee's hearing of a petition by Hillary Kieft.

"It's a health issue - it's not an anything else issue," Edmond said.

"We can talk about this as a very large huge event but over 90 per cent of women are happy with the decision they make with abortions."

"Clearly it's a big decision and I don't want to understate it but for many women it's a positive experience in what was a difficult situation."

Kieft's petition to Parliament calls for abortion law changes that will make it mandatory for parents of a child under the age of 16 to be told before their daughter has an abortion.

The two proposed changes sought for legislation to ensure parents were notified before daughters are referred for an abortion, and to ensure there is "a fully informed consent" from those undergoing the procedure.

Family Planning however is strongly opposed to making parent notification for under-16s mandatory or compulsory post-abortion counselling as mooted by Maori Party co-leader Marama Fox.

Family Planning National Medical Adviser Christine Roke told MPs that parental involvement in abortions was a good thing "but pushing it on young people isn't".

"It's breaching confidentiality and privacy for a questionable benefit".

She said there was no proof that abortions caused mental health issues in women so that was not a reason for parents to need to be told.

Kieft's own daughter, who was 15 at the time, was taken for an abortion in Hawera in 2010.

It was arranged by her school and it wasn't until a year later when she attempted suicide that Kieft found out what her daughter had been through.

In 2008 a long-term Christchurch study of more than 500 women found a link between having an abortion and an increase of nearly a third in the risk of disorders such as depression and anxiety.

Reporting their findings in the British Journal of Psychiatry, the Otago University researchers said that abortions account for 1.5 to 5.5 per cent of the overall rate of mental disorders.

The researchers said their study backed up others overseas which concluded that having an abortion may be linked to an increased risk of mental health problems.

When the study was published a pro-abortion group said that international evidence was inconclusive.

The then president of the Abortion Law Reform Association, Margaret Sparrow said it was likely that the effect of abortion on mental health was small or negligible and closely linked to factors that led to unplanned pregnancies.

She cited the findings of an American Psychological Association taskforce on mental health and abortion.

Source

• stuff.co.nz
• nzherald.co.nz
• Image: smallvictoriesusa.com

The Labour Party and Family Planning say they will fight the proposed amendment.

The petition was prompted by the experience of the Kieft family in Stratford in 2009.

Hillary Kieft and her husband Peter found out that their daughter, then 15, had had an abortion organised by her school, when she attempted suicide a year later in 2010.

Last Monday Kieft presented a petition calling for an amendment to the law to Whanganui MP Chester Borrows.

Her petition was aiming at helping both girls and their families facing an unplanned teenage pregnancy.

"Whether or not a girl goes on and has an abortion or not, give us the right as parents to support her through the ordeal," said Kieft.

The school and Family Planning involvement ended with the procedure, and no follow-up counselling was given.

Six years after the procedure, their daughter still suffered from depression, and was infertile, so would never be able to have children, Keift said.

At 15, their daughter was not mature enough to have made a genuinely informed decision on her own, she said.

The reason she hadn't wanted to tell them about her pregnancy was because she was ashamed and scared, they found out later.

"She thought that we would be disappointed in her, just the normal family stuff."

So instead, the girls' boarding school she attended arranged for her to have a termination through Family Planning in Hawera.

"One day she didn't come home and I rang the school and was told she had gone to a counselling appointment, and she was dropped home later that day."

That was the day she had had the abortion.

The two proposed changes sought for legislation to ensure parents were notified before daughters are referred for an abortion, and to ensure there is "a fully informed consent" from those undergoing the procedure.

At present, those aged under 16 are able to have information restricted from anyone if it's deemed "the disclosure of that information would be contrary to that individual's interests", according to Section 29 (1)(d) of the Privacy Act 1993.

In order for the changes to be made Borrows would have to get enough support from his caucus and the Minister responsible, Justice Minister Amy Adams, for an amendment to be made.

Ms Adams is making little comment at this stage, except to say the petition has gone to select committee.

Labour's spokesperson for Justice Jacinda Ardern said the law should remain the way it was.

"There is a minority of young people for whom there may be instances of sexual abuse or even incest or it may just be a dangerous thing to disclose to their family, and that's who the law is there to protect." she said.

Family Planning chief executive Jackie Edmond said any changes would be a sad day and a "very backwards step" for New Zealand.

"We've already got a very restrictive abortion law that's outdated and not fit for modern day," said Edmond.

Source

• Stuff.co.nz
• radionz.co.nz
• nzherald.co.nz
• Image: stuff.co.nz

The vigils are part of a worldwide Lenten campaign aimed at protecting mothers and babies from abortion.

They will continue till Palm Sunday.

40 Days of Life is not a political campaign, nor is it a protest says Michelle Kaufman, spokesperson for Family Life International NZ, the New Zealand sponsor of the vigils.

The prayer vigil is a powerful means of converting hearts and minds, and brings together all Christians who wish to see an end to abortion, she says.

A Statement of Peace, pledging peaceful conduct, must be signed by each participant.

Kaufman said a pleasing aspect of last year's vigils were the times people stopped to talk with those praying, wanting to know more and sharing their own stories of how abortion has impacted their lives.

She says many passers-by are impressed that, in addition to prayers, Family Life International NZ, through its John Paul II Centres for Life, offers practical help and support to mothers and families.

Dame Colleen Bayer, National Director of Family Life International NZ, is asking all people of good-will, who wish to see the end of abortion, to donate at least one hour of their time to pray publicly.

People can sign up online or call 09 629 4361 for more information.

Those who cannot make the public vigils because of age, infirmity or location are being asked to offer their Lenten fasts and sufferings for the success of this campaign.

Read Family Life International NZ Press release

Source

• Supplied: Family Life International NZ
• Image: acultureoflife.files.wordpress.com