Minister of Justice seeks review of abortion laws to make killing of unborn a health service
Media Release 28 February 2018

Abortion is violence against women and their unborn.

Right to Life, in defence of mothers and their unborn, deplores the decision of the Minister of Justice, Andrew Little, to refer the abortion laws to the Law Commission for review. The killing of the unborn is a crime, it is not a health issue. It has been in the Crimes Act since 1856. It is the Minister’s intention to legislate, that the killing of the unborn is no longer a crime but a health service; this is an appalling injustice to women and their precious unborn. It is also his intention to remove expectant mothers and their unborn from the protection of the Crimes Act.

This proposal will effectively mean that those unborn who are classified as unwanted will be deprived of the protection of the Crimes Act and allowed to be killed. However the unborn children who are classified as wanted will retain the protection of the Crimes Act and of the state. This is an abhorrent and unprecedented violation of human rights, it is discrimination against the most vulnerable members of our human family! Today the Minister moves the unborn from the protection of the Crimes Act, tomorrow perhaps those with dementia and Alzheimers.

Any review should be seeking increased legal protection for the health and welfare of women and the right to life of the unborn. It should also be enquiring into why more than 500,000 innocent and defenceless unborn children have been killed in their mother’s wombs since 1978 under a law which was intended to protect their right to life.

The government has no mandate for this ill-advised and unjust review. The review is being driven by the Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, who believes that the killing of the unborn should not be a crime. She also believes that abortion criminalises women. The Prime Minister, in response to a recent official Information Act request from Right to Life, disclosed that she had no evidence to support her claims. Why then is the Prime Minister directing the Minister of Justice to conduct a review that has no mandate and cannot be justified in law or by evidence?

The Prime Minister is being inconsistent in her passionate concern for child poverty, the ultimate child poverty is to be deprived of your life before birth. On one hand she is commendably concerned about reducing child poverty for the born child and on the other hand she is promoting the ultimate child poverty with the killing of the unborn.

Ken Orr

Spokesperson,

Right to Life

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