Abortion Affects Two Lives, Current Law Reflects That

Media Release 5 September 2017
Family First NZ is rejecting Labour leader Jacinda Ardern’s call for the decriminalisation of abortion and says that the existing safeguards are there to protect both women and children.
“Jacinda Ardern says she supports the liberalising of abortion laws. But any changes would potentially pave the way for late term abortions, aborting children on the basis of their gender, aborting those with disabilities e.g. Down’s syndrome, and possibly even partial-birth abortions,” says Marina Young, spokesperson for Family First NZ.
“If Labour is really concerned about women, they should be calling for a law which protects informed consent, that requires honest information about abortion and abortion-related risks, and that provides women with independent pregnancy counselling so that women can make truly informed decisions from a place of certainty and knowledge.”
“Taking away these safeguards will simply place more pressure on women to access an abortion without the necessary safeguards for such a life-changing event. Coercion to have an abortion is a big issue for some women.”
“Any New Zealand woman who has an abortion under the current legislative guidelines and protections is not committing an illegal act, and is therefore not considered a criminal by our current laws. This claim is simply false scaremongering aimed at deceiving people into supporting the introduction of an extreme abortion law in New Zealand,” says Mrs Young.
“We agree that abortion is also a health issue – it’s a surgical procedure that has some serious risk factors associated with it. A sound law needs to reflect that reality, and not leave women exposed to harms, such as those recently witnessed in the criminal trial of Kermit Gosnell who was able to operate a dangerous legal abortion facility which resulted in female client death and other atrocities thanks to extreme abortion laws.”
“A recent poll found that New Zealanders agree that abortion can harm women – yet pro-abortion groups refuse to acknowledge this, seeing the right to abortion more paramount than the long-term health and welfare of the women,” says Mrs Young.
“Along with protecting the rights of the unborn child, we need to protect the rights of women and young girls to know the medical facts in order that they can make fully informed decisions. The current safeguards are a small step towards that.”
ENDS