Right to Life New Zealand Inc.

4 October 2008

Media Release

Royal College Betrays and Abandons Unborn Children

Right to Life New Zealand is disappointed that the Australian and New Zealand Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists support the Abortion Law Reform Bill that was passed by the Victorian Lower House in September by 48 to 28. The Bill now awaits debate in the Upper House in October. The support of the College for this intrinsically evil Bill is a threat to the lives of unborn children in Victoria. It promotes a culture of death. It also sets a dangerous precedent for other States and also for New Zealand.

The Bill provides for the decriminalisation of abortion in the State of Victoria. If passed, it would no longer be a crime to kill an unborn child. Abortion would become solely a health issue. A woman would be permitted to seek an abortion for any reason if a doctor agreed and her child was up to 24 weeks gestation. After 24 weeks the woman would require the consent of two doctors. The Bill also requires that doctors refer for abortion regardless of their religious or moral objections; this is material co operation in the killing of an unborn child.

This Bill raises serious human rights issues. Unborn children are the weakest and most defenceless members of the human family. The State has a duty and an interest in providing effective legal protection for the human rights of unborn children who are future citizens. Members of the Royal College have a special duty and privilege to be the protectors of mothers and their unborn. It is failing in this duty. Members, through their professional duties, have an intimate knowledge of the wonderful development of the unborn child; a unique and unrepeatable miracle of God’s loving creation, a creation that can only be looked at with awe. It is indeed sad that the College could betray this trust, deny the inalienable right to life of their tiny and helpless patient and deny the distressed mother the care and compassion that she needs to bring her child to birth.

It is critical for medicine and for humanity that the right of doctors to act in accordance with the dictates of an informed conscience is protected by law. An informed conscience directs us to do good and avoid evil. In 1948 in response to the atrocities committed by doctors in Nazi Germany, who said in defence, “we were only following orders,” the World Medical Association, meeting in Geneva passed the following Declaration; “I will maintain the utmost respect for human life from the moment of conception, even under threat, I will not use my medical knowledge contrary to the laws of humanity.”

Right to Life New Zealand calls upon the College to uphold this Declaration and its noble traditions of protecting mothers and their infants in the womb by withdrawing its support for this evil Bill.

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