New Zealand’s Labour Government Defeated After Implementing Abortions Up to Birth
New Zealand’s Labor Government, which in 2020 introduced a tough abortion law allowing de-facto abortion on demand for any reason up to birth, was voted into power.
The New Zealand General Election was held on Saturday 14 October 2023; Labor Party Leader Chris Hipkins has agreed that his party lost the election as it turned out described by one commentator as a “fruit of the nightmare” and a “bleed” for Labour.
Chris Hipkins take over leadership of the Labor Party after Jacinda Ardern resigns in January 2023.
The Extreme Abortion Law was introduced in March 2020
The Labor Government has been in power for six years, and in March 2020, under the leadership of Jacinda Ardern, it introduced the world’s toughest abortion laws.
The bill that introduced the law passed 68 votes to 51 on Third Reading – a narrower margin than on First and Second Reading.
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Prime Minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern, promised the law changes before being elected and has since committed himself to being responsible for the introduction of extreme laws, told reporters “Abortion law, I didn’t just take a position, I pursued it and changed the law in Parliament”. The law change is also strongly supported by his successor, Chris Hipkins, who vote for the bill in First, Second and Third Reading.
A 2020 law change resulted in New Zealand having the strictest abortion laws in the world, this together:
The New Zealanders didn’t care
The poll showed that the new law was strongly opposed by the New Zealand public and especially womenwith only 2% of women supporting abortion available on demand until birth, 93% of women who oppose sex-selective abortion being legal and 94% of women who support current legal standards for providers and abortion site.
With public support for the change so low and the gap between opposing and supporting MPs closing fast, Jacinda Ardern’s Government rushed the final stages of the Bill’s progress through Parliament as the MPs, media and the country are distracted in dealing with the coronavirus pandemic. This includes progress to the final sitting of the committee stage and the third and final reading of the Bill through Parliament on the same day.
The Bill has also seen massive backlash from the disability community beyond 1,200 people with Down’s syndrome and their families calling on the then Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, to keep a pre-election promise not to have abortions until birth for Down’s syndrome.
An amendment hopes of putting the issue to a public referendum failed in a conscience vote by 100 votes to 19 votes, denying the public the final say on the law.
Additionally, the Abortion Legislation Committee heard from only 139 people who wanted to provide oral feedback on the Bill, despite over 25,000 submissions.
By comparison, the Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Bill received only 10,000 written submissions, but the Environment Committee heard 1,500 oral submissions.
Significant amendments to the Bill were rejected
The then Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, was among 80 MPs responsible for defeating an attempt to require health care professionals to provide medical assistance to babies born alive after ‘failed’ abortions.
An attempt to protect babies from sex-selective abortion was defeated with 50 votes in favor and 70 against, despite serious concerns over the practice being highlighted in a submission to the Abortion Legislation Committee from Stop Gendercide – a campaign group that had MPs were urged to support the amendment.
Other defeated pro-life measures, aimed at softening the Bill’s scope, included pain relief for babies aborted between 20 weeks and birth, stronger protections against abortion due to conscience and requires the collection of abortion statistics.
Toughest abortion laws in the world
Canada is the only country in the world without abortion lawsbecause their law was struck down by a case brought to their Supreme Court in 1988.
Of the remaining jurisdictions in the world with abortion laws, Victoria, Australia, used to have the strictest laws.
The law in Victoria allows for abortion up to birth on physical, psychological and social grounds when approved by two doctors; this may be the abortion operating surgeon and anesthetist.
It has, in practice, allowed abortion on demand, for any reason, up to birth in Victoria, Australia.
Before the law was introduced in Victoria in 2008, abortion activists claimed that, although abortion would, in practice, be permitted for any reason, doctors would ensure that most abortions would only take place in rare circumstances, such as of when a baby has a condition where they will die in the womb or shortly after birth (a fatal fetal abnormality or life-limiting disability) – similar claims have been made about proposed abortion legislation of NZ of abortion campaigners and MPs in New Zealand.
Data from the 12 years the law has been in operation in Victoria shows this has not happened. Right To Life UK’s Public Affairs team carried out an extensive review of published abortion data on late-term abortions in Victoria from The Consultative Council on Obstetric and Pediatric Mortality.
This data shows that since the law changed in 2008, 1,418 late-term abortions (between 20 weeks of pregnancy and birth) have been performed, allowed by doctors for ‘psychosocial’ reasons – these are terminations if where the baby is not disabled and the abortion is performed on social grounds. In 2011, one of these abortions on social grounds occurred at 37 weeks.
Under New Zealand law previously, abortion was permitted after 20 weeks on very strict grounds (when the abortion was “necessary to save the life of the woman or woman or to prevent serious permanent damage to his or her physical or mental health”).
This strict law means that abortions after 20 weeks are rare – for example, 72 abortions took place after 20 weeks in New Zealand in 2017.
Victoria has a population only 32% larger than New Zealand, but the number of abortions that occurred after 20-weeks was higher, 323 or 348.61% higher than the number that occurred in New Zealand in same year.
Another side effect of the very high late-term abortion rate in Australia is that many babies are left to die after being born alive during some ‘botched’ terminations.
The Victorian Consultative Council on Obstetric and Pediatric Mortality and Morbidity reported that in 2012 there were 53 ‘terminations of pregnancy’ after 20 weeks that ‘resulted in live birth’.
In contrast, a 2008 report for England and Wales found that 66 babies was born alive after NHS terminations a year. Although these figures are numerically comparable, Victoria’s population of 6.36 million is only one-tenth the size of the population in England and Wales.
A Channel 7 news report, broadcast on 17 April 2010, reported that there had been a significant increase in late-term abortions being performed at the Royal Women’s Hospital since the introduction of the 2008 Abortion Law Reform. Presenter Jennifer Keyte revealed how “midwives and doctors feel traumatized” by having so many late-term abortions at the Royal Women’s Hospital. Journalist Louise Milligan said there had been some ‘alarming requests’ for late-term abortions, including one request for a termination at 32 weeks because the baby had a cleft lip.
New Zealand’s new abortion law is more extreme than the law in Victoria, Australia – making it the most extreme abortion law in the world.
It allows abortions between 20 weeks of pregnancy and delivery with continuity from only two health practitioners (this may include nurses and midwives) rather than the higher threshold of two doctors required in Victoria. In New Zealand law, the Abortion Legislation Committee broadened the already loose criteria to include “general well-being” – making it easier for abortions to occur between 20 weeks and birth in New Zealand. These are undefined terms and it is up to the health care practitioner involved how they interpret them.
LifeNews Note: Republished with permission from Right to Life UK.
