PRESS RELEASE

12 October 1999

Graham Capill
Party Leader

CONGRATULATIONS CATHOLICS!

Party Leader Graham Capill has congratulated the Catholic Church in Scotland for using every means possible to financially assist a 12 year old child to keep her baby.

Mr Capill said today, “It is the height of hypocrisy for the pro-abortion lobby to criticise this. If pro-life people only protest against abortion, the pro-abortion lobby say they ought to help women and girls, not criticise them for the decision they have made. Good on the Catholics for practising what they preach!

“The pro-abortion lobby needs to realise it is not possible to have it both ways: argue that under 16 year olds can make an informed decision and then criticise this when they do. It is appalling,” Mr Capill said, “to think that in New Zealand we allowed 65 11 – 14 year olds to have an abortion last year. Some of these could have been carried out without their parents’ consent. At least the Catholic Church offers practical and emotional support, instead of potential complications and death.

“The idea that a child of 12 years is able to make such a decision in New Zealand is preposterous and that the parents should be left out, immoral,” Mr Capill continued.

Studies consistently show that abortions can not only be damaging for women in general but that they are extremely hazardous for younger women and children.

Based on reported figures, the minimum rate of immediate physical complications following legal abortions is 10% and long-term complications, usually afflicting the reproductive system, occur in 20 to 50% of all abortions. The risk of reproductive damage is highest for teenagers and for women who abort a first teenage pregnancy. No less than 90% of women experience moderate to severe emotional and psychiatric stress following an abortion. Up to 10% require hospitalisation for psychiatric disorders or other professional treatment.

“The Catholic Church should be praised for saving girls from going through such a barbaric practice. There is no such thing as a safe abortion. It is time New Zealand recognised that there are two individuals at risk: the woman or girl and her unborn baby. Both deserve to be treated with care and respect,” Mr Capill concluded.

The Christian Heritage Party has initiated a Members’ Bill, called the Guardianship (Parental Consent) Bill which will, if passed, amend the Guardianship Act 1968 by requiring parental consent to be obtained before an abortion can be performed on any child under the age of 16 years.

ENDS

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