ALRANZ Calls For More Vigilance Of Anti-Abortion Tactics

ABORTION LAW REFORM ASSOCIATION OF NEW ZEALAND

10 April 2013 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ALRANZ Calls For More Vigilance Of Anti-Abortion Tactics

The pro-choice organisation ALRANZ today called for increased vigilance by the authorities in the wake of an attack on an Auckland abortion clinic worker’s car.

Television New Zealand last night revealed that a nurse had called the police after she got into her car on March 13 and found it would not run. An examination of the car concluded that the fuel line had been cut.

“Abortion care providers are valued and supported in their communities,” ALRANZ spokeswoman Annabel Henderson Morrell said today. “It is outrageous and disappointing that some in the anti-choice community in New Zealand resort to intimidation and threats.”

The most recent attack follows a threat late last year directed toward ALRANZ and the new abortion service in Invercargill. The police investigated, but those behind the threat were never identified.

Ms. Henderson Morrell said abortion care providers and patients have the right to both be safe and to feel safe.

“It’s stressful enough for abortion patients, who have to jump through hoops to access abortion care because of our antiquated laws, without their having to fear physical harm from abortion opponents,” she said.

ALRANZ appreciates most anti-choice groups make clear they oppose this kind of behaviour. “We hope they will do their utmost within their own community to ensure New Zealand does not return to the bad old days of threats, attacks and physical intimidation,” she said.

For more information visit www.alranz.org

ENDS

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